FinancialAdvisors.com offers the consumer a very efficient and easy way to locate a qualified financial advisor that meets your needs.
Investment Advisors
Most investment advisors these days will provide both financial planning and investment advice. Competent financial planning advice includes matters such as investment strategies, savings options, mortgages, retirement planning, and for some, life insurance. Like financial planners, investment advisors must understand your primary financial goals to determine your money’s best present and future uses. They gather your personal and financial data, establish your risk tolerance, and, most importantly, calculate your expected rate of return. They gain a solid understanding of your portfolio needs before making a recommendation.
Investment advice can be either narrowly tailored, such as whether to invest in stocks, bonds, ETFs, or mutual funds, or more broadly based, which includes precious metals, art, real estate, and much more. Some topics to cover with an Investment Advisor would be:
- Where should I start, and what should I invest in?
- Risks associated with each investment.
- What is the expected rate of return on my portfolio?
- Should I diversify my portfolio, and if so, how?
- The types of taxable income your investment will generate.
- What investment should be owned inside/outside of a retirement account?
- What is a reverse mortgage, and would it be good for me?
Many Investment Advisors specialize in certain investment types, so it’s helpful to understand your portfolio needs which caused you to seek assistance in the first place. With your issue in focus, search our registry for an advisor that works specifically with those types of investments.
Tax Advisors
Most Tax Advisors have a solid understanding of the IRS and state codes to assist individuals and businesses to reduce their tax burden to the lowest possible amount. Judge Learned Hand, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, was famously quoted, “Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes.”
Most Tax Advisors are Enrolled Agents (EA) or Certified Public Accountants (CPA).
An EA is licensed by the federal government and is approved to represent clients before the IRS. They mainly provide general consumer and business tax services like income tax preparation and specialized tax planning advice. A CPA, while not licensed by the federal government, is licensed through the state and is authorized to conduct tax audits for individuals and businesses.
Professionally credentialed tax advisors can run their own offices, work for tax-preparation chains, and some even become a Personal Financial Specialist (PFS), which is very similar to a CFP credential. A competent tax advisor is usually worth more than the fees they charge for their services. First, they must understand the cumbersome and complex 2,600-page U.S. tax code to find beneficial tax breaks, and second, they act as a guardian in preventing unscrupulous promoters from taking advantage of their clients.
Many Tax Advisors also direct their clients to consider the tax ramifications when considering retirement planning, investment management, and small business planning. They need to understand your portfolio needs just as much as an advisor does. Discussing your tax issues with an experienced Tax Advisor makes great practical and financial sense. So, feel free to find a capable and skilled Tax Advisor and take Judge Hand’s advice!