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What is a Financial Advisor |
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Monday, 06 August 2007 |
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You probably see endless commercials for Merrill-Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and TD Waterhouse where they interview regular people or actual financial advisors and if you hear them talk about the work you’re getting some idea of what financial advisor is. This is someone who is hired or put in charge of helping someone to invest their money into appropriate investment portfolios for long and short-term goals. Their job is to inform their clients of the risk and tolerances that come with investing and to help them reap the benefits of their investments.
Some of the things a financial advisor does are also assist in investing money into stocks, bonds, mutual funds that will generate money through interest and maturity. The advisor’s job is to assist a client in financial management through short and long term goals and they also set up trust funds if the client is planning to pass money down to someone most likely a child so it builds up until such a time when the child is of age to take possession of the money. Financial advisors also take on the task of helping people set up their retirement portfolio by investing the client’s 401k money into interest bearing accounts and manage the contributions that clients make towards the account and managing it.Financial advisors are also skilled in protecting a client from capital loss by informing them of any changes that take place in the market and helping the client to make the most of their investment through vast changes in the market. Financial advisors also explore the time goals of their clients and if the client has shorter-term goals they suggest less risky investments like cash, CDs (Certificate of Deposits), and bonds. Unfortunately, these types of investments also have a lower return rate, but a reduced chance of losing the amount invested. Other responsibilities financial advisors have are dealing with are business and educational funding, and employee benefits. Financial advisors can also assist clients in preparing business proposals when they’re seeking out additional funding for business or other types of financial needs. Some of the rich and famous use financial advisors to also manage their fortunes for short and long term goals and helping them to invest money into long term financial options and plans. Most financial advisors are pretty knowledgeable in the area of banking and economics and are pretty good at knowing what is considered a good or poor investment and all the risks that accompany the choices a client makes and are ones to make sound professional judgments when it comes to how their client’s money is invested. A financial advisor may have to undergo certification and even licensure depending on the state they come from because they’re going to be handling money and in some cases they have to be given a background check to ensure that they don’t have any questionable issues surrounding money and honesty because the biggest concern is security and in the job as a financial advisor you are also being entrusted to maintain security when dealing with other people’s money and access to their personal information since you are handling their financial business and affairs. For someone considering this field you want to make sure that you are of sound ethics and character to do a job like this. |
