Christine Benz is the director of personal finance and retirement planning for Morningstar, one of the premier companies in the in the investment industry. The many things they do include rating mutual funds, collecting and distributing market data, and offering countless investor education materials. They are a go-to company not just for finance and investment professionals, but for individuals as well. Christine has worked for the company since 1993. With more than 30 years of experience in the business, she understands financial planning and investments inside and out.
In a recent article, she explained why she–with all her experience and all her knowledge–has a financial advisor.
Here are her five reasons she and her husband hired an advisor.
1) They wanted a second opinion on a few important decisions. Even though they are knowledgeable, some financial decisions can be especially intricate and tricky. Having a good advisor helps them be confident in their decisions. After all, an advisor can only advise–we can’t actually implement anything. Clients have to implement the plan.
2) They found a business model that makes sense for their situation. They had specific needs to address and we able to find an advisor who helps them in the way they want to be helped. Advisor/client fit is incredibly important. When you work with an advisor, you are going to be sharing important, private information over a long period of time. Both clients and advisors should be careful when they choose each other.
3) It gave them an impetus to get, and stay, organized. For an advisor to help you with a plan, you have to provide a lot of detailed information. The saying, “Garbage In, Garbage Out” applies to financial planning. A good advisor can help you get organized and stay that way so that they can create a meaningful financial plan for you and then update that plan over time as your life evolves.
4) They love having a succession plan. Their planner keeps their financial information up to date. They like that, if something happened to one or both of them, their loved ones would have a one-stop resource to help them sort things out.
5) A third party can help give them “permission to spend.” Having someone who knows you and knows your goals, priorities, and constraints–while at the same time having an objective view–can help to assure you as you move forward. This is especially important as you near retirement, when you’ll be spending without an income to back you up.
Notice that she doesn’t say anything about investments or money management. At Dominion Financial Advisors, financial planning is the core of what we do. We prioritize planning before investing, ensuring that we begin with the end in mind. We consider all aspects of your complex life. Simply put, we can’t advise you on investments until we understand your concerns, needs, and goals.
If you think our values align with your values, then schedule a consultation or contact us to find out how we can help you with financial planning and wealth management.