by Stephen H

Created on: April 28, 2007   Last Updated: April 04, 2009

The world of financial products can be very complex and there are a range of issues that need to be considered when making your financial plans. In the current economic climate with the financial meltdown and high unemployment, it makes good sense to use the expertise of professional Financial Planners to help you navigate the complexities and establish a financial plan that is right for your needs. If you do some initial research, perhaps through professional bodies and/or financial regulators, you will be able to find a good Financial Planner upon whose advice you can rely. However, the Financial Planner is there to help you formulate a plan and to recommend the best options for you to consider. You are not bound to take his advice in part or in whole. Having gone to the trouble of employing a Planner, be sure to take proper consideration of their advice before discarding it.

The Financial Planner is best thought of as a guide, someone who is familiar with how financial needs can be accommodated. They are there to provide you with guidance and to recommend ways in which you can achieve financial stability and satisfy your financial ambitions, whether they are financial protection needs, such as life assurance and income protection or they are savings and investments needs, such as planning for future college fees or a round the world cruise. Financial planners will have come across these requirements before and will be able to offer you options and explain how you can reach your financial goals.

The three main reasons that clients don't follow the advice that they have been given is that the Financial Planner has
* not gained their confidence or
* has failed to properly understand their needs or
* has failed to properly explain how the plan fits the needs of the client.
In all of these circumstances it is right and proper that the client seeks further advice before committing themselves to a financial plan in which they have little confidence.

Good Financial Planners will not allow this to happen. They will do the following to ensure that they have your confidence and that their recommendations will meet your needs.

a) They will undertake a detailed fact find with the client. This involves discussing the client's current financial position, identifying the client's protection needs (usually insurance) and understanding the client's goals, both financial and personal as each affects the other. In this way the Financial Planner has a good basis for establishing a financial plan and the client can be sure that the Planner knows their requirements.

b) Once the Financial Planner has established a financial plan for the client, he should present it to the client with full information about risks involved, realistic returns, penalty clauses, needs that could not be met, costs involved and any other pertinent details.

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