How to Choose a Wealth Manager

Selecting a financial advisor or wealth manager can be a difficult task. Your financial situation is complex; a truly comprehensive financial advisor will analyze your current condition, make prudent recommendations and support you along the way. Ultimately, mutual trust is the key to a successful relationship between a financial advisor and a client. At Virtus Wealth Management, we only accept new clients willing to engage in a partnership, not simply receive a monthly statement.

Below are suggestions and questions to assist you in finding an advisor best-suited to your needs. As in most cases, there are some “red flags” to be aware of when speaking with a financial advisor.  These red flags do not necessarily mean that the financial advisor is unqualified or lacks integrity, but will help you determine if your goals are going to be the priority.

Red flags:

• The advisor tries to sell you an investment/or product in your first meeting. We believe your goals are the priority and a detailed financial plan is required in order to ensure we have a strategy that gives us the best chance at reaching those goals. I am not sure how recommending an investment prior to knowing what investment objective is needed to reach those goals is prudent wealth management.
   
• The advisor is primarily an insurance salesman pushing annuities. Annuities can be an effective means to reaching your goals; however, rarely is it in the client’s best interest to have a significant portion of their assets in annuities.
   
• The advisor pushes one investment or product as a must-have in your portfolio. 
   
• The advisor will not tell you how much commissions or fees they earn from an investment. Moreover, if they tell you “the insurance/product company pays me.”  Ultimately you pay the commission either by an upfront commission or less return because the company pays the broker. Being transparent is key to building a trusting relationship.

Before hiring a financial planning professional, complete this simple questionnaire. If the advisor’s answers do not follow prudent core values that parallel yours, you may not be engaging the right advisor for you.