Choosing the Right Financial Advisor | Part 2: Which Professional Credentials are Most Important to You?

Not all financial advisors are created equally. Some have certified credentials, some charge their clients fees, and others may get paid on commission (if they offer investment products). In part two of this podcast episode, our own Tom Romano, Head of Strategic Relationships and Product Development, is joined by Symmetry’s Michael Storer, Senior Regional Director, and a financial advisor from our sister firm, Apella Wealth, Peter Leppones, CFP®, to discuss the important credentials of, and differences between, financial advisors. 

If you have any questions or would like more information, reach out to us at https://symmetrypartners.com/contact-us/

You can also find us on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn. As always, we remain invested in your goals.

Symmetry Partners, LLC, is an investment advisory firm registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm only transacts business in states where it is properly registered, excluded or exempted from registration requirements. Registration of an investment adviser does not imply any specific level of skill or training and does not constitute an endorsement of the firm by the Commission. No one should assume that future performance of any specific investment, investment strategy, product or non-investment related content made reference to directly or indirectly in this material will be profitable. As with any investment strategy, there is the possibility of profitability as well as loss. Due to various factors, including changing market conditions and/or applicable laws, the content may not be reflective of current opinions or positions.   Please note the material is provided for educational and background use only. Moreover, you should not assume that any discussion or information contained in this material serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice.

Transcript:

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Welcome back

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 to part 2 of choosing the right financial advisor. This

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 is Tom Romano with unfiltered finance and I'm back

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 here with my guests. Mike store senior Regional director at

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 symmetry partners and Peter laponis financial advisor

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 and cfp at Apollo wealth. Thank you for joining us

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 gentlemen, so go Peter certified financial

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 planner see FP Mike. I'm

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 asked this question to you because Peter is a cfp. What

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 are the credential what other credentials that investors should

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 be looking for as they're going through this process of choosing a

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 financial advisor. I mean cfp certainly is one of them sure. There's

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 you know, I mean I come across a wide variety

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 of different advisors and that have different different designations

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 and it and sometimes it

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 depends on it depends on you know, what type

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 of work they're doing for the client. It may not always be, you know

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 cfp, but most of the advisors that I'm working with their

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 certified financial planners, but there's

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there's SEMA, you know, which is a certified Investment

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 Management associate, I

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 believe and that I look

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 at CFA and see Sima as kind of two different

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 designations that

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Are are very strong. I mean these people are incredibly smart.

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 They pass a lot of tests to get where they are. But I

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 look at the see the SEMA and the

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 the CFA which is a chartered financial

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 analyst as more geared towards Investments to

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 a certain extent. So they're if you've

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 got an advisor that is more seamors or CFA oriented.

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 I think you're probably you could and Peter

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 you can correct me if I'm wrong lean more

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 towards them probably approaching it from an investment perspective.

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 Whereas I think a cfp is

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 going to approach the relationship from everything

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 that Peter just talked about in terms of how they

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 want to how they want to work with you moving

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 forward Investments are important no doubt, but I think from

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 the standpoint of the approach if

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 you're looking for a planner, you know a cfp is

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 where you want to be if you want someone that's more focused on. Okay, I'll construct

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 a portfolio for you, but I think Sima and

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 CFA tend to lose tend to

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Themselves more towards investment only to a certain

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 extent now that's not every single or CFA but I think from that

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 perspective those types of designations. Those are the ones that I come across

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 primarily obviously, there's other designations with

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 the insurance realm that you know, you like a

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 chfc that would be which I

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 I don't even remember that. It's a chartered leave its chartered Financial

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 consult consultant, right which is different than a chartered financial analyst

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 which is kind of interesting but you know, they'd be focused more on

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 and probably the insurance side of the investment process.

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 So I come across a lot but I would say

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 that I feel comfortable saying it that the

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 cfp is the designation where you know, mostly you're

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 going to be getting more of a planning approach. Whereas I

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 think the other designations might lean towards something else within

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 the whole scope of planning but more,

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 you know designated or specific on that

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 side sure. I think it's important, you know, individuals professionals

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 regardless of the industry having credentials after

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 their name shows that they're

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to the business. They're probably lifelong Learners,

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 which is something you probably want to look for in a financial advisor. And

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 I would agree with you a cfp

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 is probably the starting point. However, the

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 the SEMA the Cima in the CFA,

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 which I would agree are more investment driven.

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Um working with a firm who has a cfp has the point

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 of contact Peter, but that doesn't mean you don't have access to

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 cfa's and seamas as well. Right, correct. And

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 that's that's part of the teamwork approach here that you

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 know behind the scenes. I know that there's cfas working on our portfolios.

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 So so I think

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 you could see someone with another non-cfp designation

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 but is what's their firm like do they have a team behind

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 them is maybe they have a a young hire

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 a new hire coming out of college who's studying

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 for his or her cfp and that's their parent plan

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 who works on the financial plan. So I mean to I think

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 you might be doing a disservice just because

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 someone doesn't have cfp understand more about what's

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 what's going on at the firm and not just

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 the designation. But I do agree having a designation and you

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 made you reminded me. My continuing

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 ed is coming up and it's it's comprehensive. I've

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 got I've got a lot to do several hours to to

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 keep

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Cfp designation current I've

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 got to do some continuing education requirements online. Yeah, me

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 too. Thanks for the reminder. I would say I didn't

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 mean to say that, you know, the cfp is definitely starting point. But Peter

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 brings up a great point that you when you visit with these cfps. They

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 do have those other.

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People in their organizations that cover those parts

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 of the planning process for them from that standpoint

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 So and I've met many cfps that have their SEMA or have their CFA as

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 well. So depends on who I'm speaking with, but there's there's a

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 wide variety of different designations and some have won

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 some have many or some have, you know, more than one right? So something

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 that you would recommend investors look for as they're gonna

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 go through absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah Mike we

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 for all the cfps out there yet. We're definitely the top

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 designation. No doubt about no doubt about it. We can

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 leave it at that. Very good very good. So I

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 have a few more questions and this has been great gentlemen, but

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What are some of the resources online resources

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 right, you know, I don't think people use phone books

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 anymore to find Financial professionals. What are

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 some of the things my gear you're working

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 with thousands of advisors. Like how do you how do you

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 go about and find an advisor that that you would want to work with

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 a professional level but not only professional of

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 us person maybe from even personal standpoint where can

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 investors go? Well they can they can you

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 know go online and you know, there's a couple of different organizations that

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 are out there that you could look at like the Financial Planning Association is

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 a great place to start that's that's a

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 big one National Association of

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 personal financial advisors is another great site

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 as well the certified financial planner

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 board. You can go that route as well. I mean,

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 that's probably the best place to start you can find someone in your general area

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 that could help you there. There's another firm out there

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 XY Planning Network which is which

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 is a pretty good tool for to search for fee only.

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Financial advisors you mentioned, you know

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 word of mouth or referrals from from your friends

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 or family that may be working with a financial advisor. So all of

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 them are great great ways to to identify some of

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 that you might want to work with at least get the opportunity to interview them to see

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 if they would be a good fit for you. Yeah. I think there's a lot of great resources online,

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 you know, one of the things that Peter and

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 I talk about quite a bit is you know working with someone

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 who understands you someone who's working with

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 other investors like me.

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Right in a lot of times if someone has a very specific need or

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 specific sort of outcome. They're

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 looking for they can identify the right Financial professional

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 by not only looking at those websites, but

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LinkedIn Facebook. Look, who are these?

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 Look who at the who these advisors are look at

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 the circles that they're in right? You know it a funny story my parents

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 who are not great investors. They were

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 both School teachers had a pension but when they were looking for

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 financial advisor, they didn't look any

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 further than you know, the Connecticut Teachers Retirement Financial

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 advisory. It was a really long name like

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 that. I know I'm butchering it and talking it right but they will

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 work Connecticut Teachers that must be the guy that we work with without even

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 thinking twice about it, but they knew they felt comfortable and

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 they trusted that the this particular individuals working

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 with other, Connecticut Teachers.

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Here to add to any of that Peter. I mean, I think that

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 you know, I've had done. Oh my

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 second cap. We have pulled that one back.

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I won't ask that question better.

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All right.

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so Peter

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You know, I've talked about this it it's a mutual

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 interview between an advisor and an investor the investors making

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 a choice, but the advisors making a choice as well. So talk

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 a little bit about that process if you will.

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Yeah, I think that's that's a great question. And I definitely

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 encourage people to come up with a

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 list of questions and interview multiple

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 advisors definitely. But yeah, when when

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 I'm meeting with with a New Prospect, I'm interviewing

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 them as well. And there's things I'm I'm looking

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 for I want to make sure that number

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 one there. They're gonna be happy working with us. I've

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 told people who I refer to

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 them as Gunslingers. They want to pick stocks. They want to

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 be in and out of the market they want they want action and I've told

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 people I go I don't think we're gonna be a good fit. I'm a

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 nice person. You seem like a nice person you seem to get along but

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we're going to have different philosophies and and I want

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 you to be happy and I don't want to waste your time and I

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 don't want to have my time wasted and so I've had to tell people I just don't think

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 that this is necessarily going to work. Um, also there's

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 when I start to hear people talk and I say this

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 to clients

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and Prospects I start to get a gut feeling about what's

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 going on. And when I start to hear about things like

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 well a lot of debt, you know, you've got

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 and not good. You don't have good financial habits.

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 You're spending all your money. You've got

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 a lot of debt a lot of bad debt. It's one thing to have a mortgage your car

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 payments. Those are those are necessary. We'll call those

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 good debt necessary debt. We start talking about large student

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 loans. We start talking about large credit

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 card balances.

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I may not be able to work with you. I you may be better off going

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 and having credit counseling done first because I

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 can maybe give you some pointers but I've

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 had to unfortunately tell people that we may

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 not be a good fit. There wasn't a whole lot I could do because they

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 just they just didn't have the assets. They needed to get really the

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 basics of their budgeting or spending plan

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 down and start to work on that debt. And that's not something we're

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 necessarily.

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Working on it'd be more of sort of a credit agency

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 helping them to kind of get that square away. Absolutely. You

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 mentioned working with, you know, other sort of

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 financial professionals that you you work with

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 other.

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Financial professionals as well. I mean maybe not direct financial

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 advisors, but tax advisors and things like that. Oh, definitely.

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 I like to say that the analogy is I'm

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 I'm sort of the quarterback or I'm your

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 your primary care physician if we need to bring in a specialist,

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 you know cardiologists so forth

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 weekologists.

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So but I'm working with.

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I'll work with the client's attorney to talk about their state plan

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 work with a client's accountant or CPA to

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 talk about if we need to do some rebalancing in the portfolio before

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 I do any of that.

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And start triggering capital gains. I want to make sure that the accountant is

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 on board with it and we understand what the

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 ramifications are of those actions or in

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 actions because the last thing a client wants is a

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 surprise attack time. There's something psychological about

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 a big tax bill staring you in the face and it's

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 one thing to not know about it and have to

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 pay it. It's another thing. All right, you know what we knew about this, but we know why we

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 did it. So I'm constantly working with

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 with other Professionals in helping clients

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00:11:30.900 --> 00:11:32.800
 with taxes and in legal issues.

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00:11:33.700 --> 00:11:36.300
That's fantastic. Yeah, so that's another thing that investors should

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00:11:36.300 --> 00:11:39.100
 be looking for. Is there a true team approach? Maybe not even under the

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00:11:39.100 --> 00:11:42.700
 same roof under the same corporate umbrella if you will but making

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 sure that the advisors acting in that quarterback capacity

235
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 and has the right Specialists for

236
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 those needs that might be outside of the scope of

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 what the advisors doing on a day-to-day and that could be another point

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 of reference for a client. If you have an accountant who

239
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 you've been working with for a long time and you happen to like him

240
00:12:00.400 --> 00:12:03.800
 or her in the way that they work maybe they could be a place

241
00:12:03.800 --> 00:12:05.100
 where you could go to get a referral.

242
00:12:05.900 --> 00:12:08.800
Because I'm in all likelihood that that CPA

243
00:12:08.800 --> 00:12:11.600
 or that attorney is has some

244
00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:14.400
 type of relationship with a financial advisor and could give

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 you a couple of places to go. Yeah, I think that's a great

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00:12:17.100 --> 00:12:20.200
 great piece of advice there. All right.

247
00:12:20.200 --> 00:12:23.300
 I want one more topic here because this comes up a

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 lot and it's the notion of compensation for financial advisors.

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 I've heard individuals say

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00:12:29.700 --> 00:12:32.200
 that I don't pay my financial advisor or anything. He does

251
00:12:32.200 --> 00:12:35.100
 it for free sure right there is

252
00:12:35.100 --> 00:12:38.200
 there's a problem this industry, I think with transparency at times and

253
00:12:38.200 --> 00:12:41.500
 there's a number of different ways financial advisors are

254
00:12:41.500 --> 00:12:44.100
 being compensated. I didn't like frankly I think advisors should

255
00:12:44.100 --> 00:12:47.300
 be fairly compensated. They're doing really good work, right?

256
00:12:49.100 --> 00:12:52.300
Depending on the advisor. Of course, Mike tell us

257
00:12:52.300 --> 00:12:54.500
 a little bit about the couple of different.

258
00:12:55.300 --> 00:12:59.000
Fee structures or compensation structures there are for financial advisors.

259
00:12:58.600 --> 00:13:01.800
 And if there's one that you would recommend over

260
00:13:01.800 --> 00:13:04.300
 another I'll rattle them off because it's a

261
00:13:04.300 --> 00:13:07.100
 lot of different ones. There's feel only which we've talked a little

262
00:13:07.100 --> 00:13:09.400
 bit about there's fee-based. There's Commission

263
00:13:10.100 --> 00:13:10.900
There's retainer.

264
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There's subscription. There's

265
00:13:14.900 --> 00:13:17.400
 another one I've heard that I know is out there not as

266
00:13:17.400 --> 00:13:20.600
 popular but it's there and there's flat fee.

267
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 So there's a number of different ways that advisors are

268
00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:26.700
 compensated and the one

269
00:13:26.700 --> 00:13:29.300
 of course in my line of work and in terms

270
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 of what I do on a daily basis working with us, I come across primarily

271
00:13:32.400 --> 00:13:35.100
 not always I would say fee only

272
00:13:35.100 --> 00:13:38.100
 in fee based or the two that that primarily I work with

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 although there are there are others that are

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00:13:41.300 --> 00:13:44.100
 less. So like a retainer I've seen I've come across that

275
00:13:44.100 --> 00:13:47.400
 but I say primarily it's fee only and fee-based that

276
00:13:47.400 --> 00:13:50.000
 I typically work with advisors and you know,

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 I'll let Peter elaborate but I'll just say generally that fee only would be

278
00:13:53.100 --> 00:13:56.100
 just be be charging, you know,

279
00:13:56.100 --> 00:13:59.300
 a fee for services. It could

280
00:13:59.300 --> 00:14:02.100
 be it could be a flat fee or could be a fee based

281
00:14:02.100 --> 00:14:05.400
 on assets under management that the investor might have with that advisor

282
00:14:05.400 --> 00:14:08.000
 fee base is is kind of

283
00:14:08.300 --> 00:14:11.600
 a combination of the only and commission if you will it has

284
00:14:12.100 --> 00:14:16.600
The concept of building on assets but also the advisor

285
00:14:15.600 --> 00:14:19.300
 has the ability to offer commission-based

286
00:14:18.300 --> 00:14:22.300
 products that would follow outside of the fiduciary scope.

287
00:14:21.300 --> 00:14:24.800
 I believe Peter and so those are the two that primarily

288
00:14:24.800 --> 00:14:27.500
 I see in my kind of interactions with

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00:14:27.500 --> 00:14:30.400
 advisors around the country. Yeah, I think most of our listeners are

290
00:14:30.400 --> 00:14:33.800
 probably falling into the fee only fee-based camp

291
00:14:33.800 --> 00:14:36.500
 or the commission side right there. There

292
00:14:36.500 --> 00:14:39.600
 are a number of different fee models out there in compensation models

293
00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:42.800
 and I think they all have their pros and cons but you

294
00:14:42.800 --> 00:14:45.100
 just said something that I'm gonna ask Peter O'Brien on

295
00:14:45.100 --> 00:14:45.300
 right?

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We talked about fiduciary.

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If you are paying a commission.

298
00:14:51.900 --> 00:14:55.200
Is your advisor acting as a fiduciary necessarily? Yeah,

299
00:14:54.200 --> 00:14:57.500
 if you've your your fee only your

300
00:14:57.500 --> 00:15:00.200
 being charged in a fee for your advice and

301
00:15:00.200 --> 00:15:04.700
 and whatever the the Investments would be. Where's fee-based

302
00:15:03.700 --> 00:15:06.400
 you could be receiving commissions.

303
00:15:07.400 --> 00:15:10.100
On investment products. It's sort of

304
00:15:10.100 --> 00:15:15.800
 I guess I'll use the term hybrid approach. So it's

305
00:15:14.800 --> 00:15:17.800
 a gray area. They I don't

306
00:15:17.800 --> 00:15:20.100
 know if because we don't do that here, you know,

307
00:15:20.100 --> 00:15:23.600
 we don't have commission based investment products. It's strictly

308
00:15:23.600 --> 00:15:26.300
 putting people into no load low cost

309
00:15:26.300 --> 00:15:29.100
 mutual funds and ETFs and we are being

310
00:15:29.100 --> 00:15:32.300
 paid a fee based upon those assets under management. We don't

311
00:15:32.300 --> 00:15:35.500
 have commissionable investment products to sell and if

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00:15:35.500 --> 00:15:38.100
 you're if an advisor is doing that.

313
00:15:39.300 --> 00:15:42.200
I don't think they can put themselves out there as

314
00:15:42.200 --> 00:15:43.700
 as a fiduciary necessarily.

315
00:15:44.500 --> 00:15:47.800
Yeah, I think that the commission side I'm not

316
00:15:47.800 --> 00:15:50.500
 knocking it. Just calling it

317
00:15:50.500 --> 00:15:53.100
 what it is. It's it's rot with conflicts of interest and

318
00:15:53.100 --> 00:15:56.500
 you just said something that I think would would mean

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00:15:56.500 --> 00:15:57.500
 a lot to our listeners, right?

320
00:15:58.500 --> 00:15:58.800
these

321
00:16:00.600 --> 00:16:03.600
percentage of assets fees paying fees you're paying

322
00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:06.200
 for advice in that fee stays the

323
00:16:06.200 --> 00:16:09.900
 same regardless of the investment product. It's a

324
00:16:09.900 --> 00:16:12.500
 with your charging 1% regardless of

325
00:16:12.500 --> 00:16:15.400
 the advice you give you earn five you earn that one percent rather.

326
00:16:16.100 --> 00:16:16.900
commissions

327
00:16:17.800 --> 00:16:20.700
Is in compensation for advice it's compensation

328
00:16:20.700 --> 00:16:23.300
 for selling a product and that product

329
00:16:23.300 --> 00:16:26.100
 has to be suitable not necessarily best interest.

330
00:16:27.700 --> 00:16:30.500
Okay, so that I think that's something that people

331
00:16:30.500 --> 00:16:34.000
 don't understand outside of this industry. You

332
00:16:33.400 --> 00:16:36.300
 know, there's two ways two major ways

333
00:16:36.300 --> 00:16:39.200
 that advisers get compensated fees versus commissions and

334
00:16:39.200 --> 00:16:42.500
 one other point that I'll make about fees and correct

335
00:16:42.500 --> 00:16:45.400
 me if I'm wrong gentlemen if you're charging fees on assets.

336
00:16:46.300 --> 00:16:49.600
If the asset level goes up the advisor

337
00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:52.900
 gets paid more the asset level goes down. I

338
00:16:52.900 --> 00:16:55.800
 mean the percentage stays the same but the actual dollars change, so

339
00:16:55.800 --> 00:16:58.500
 I think that it actually aligns the interests.

340
00:16:59.400 --> 00:17:02.500
Of the investor and the advisor using a fee model

341
00:17:02.500 --> 00:17:05.400
 for Susan commission model where someone might

342
00:17:05.400 --> 00:17:08.600
 be asking you to buy a product that you may not necessarily

343
00:17:08.600 --> 00:17:08.900
 need.

344
00:17:10.500 --> 00:17:13.800
Correct. And that's that's the thing. We you

345
00:17:13.800 --> 00:17:14.800
 start talking about different.

346
00:17:16.100 --> 00:17:19.700
Whether it's Insurance products investment products that have commissions on

347
00:17:19.700 --> 00:17:20.000
 them.

348
00:17:20.700 --> 00:17:23.500
Now all of a sudden it could be suitable. But if product

349
00:17:23.500 --> 00:17:24.600
 a May pay

350
00:17:25.300 --> 00:17:28.900
X percentage products B may pay X

351
00:17:28.900 --> 00:17:31.100
 percentage plus something on top of

352
00:17:31.100 --> 00:17:31.300
 it.

353
00:17:32.700 --> 00:17:35.400
A non-fiduciary advisor is probably

354
00:17:35.400 --> 00:17:38.400
 going to go to product B because it's going to pay him

355
00:17:38.400 --> 00:17:41.000
 or her more and it's a perceived conflict of

356
00:17:41.400 --> 00:17:44.300
 interest. I'm not saying that every person out there who's earning a commission is

357
00:17:45.100 --> 00:17:48.500
Is not acting in good faith, but there

358
00:17:48.500 --> 00:17:51.600
 is there's a potential for that conflict to be there. Sure. It's

359
00:17:51.600 --> 00:17:54.900
 it's all things being equal right? It's they're gonna pick if it's

360
00:17:54.900 --> 00:17:57.500
 if it doesn't necessarily hurt the

361
00:17:57.500 --> 00:18:00.500
 client and all and the Investments are relatively the

362
00:18:00.500 --> 00:18:04.100
 same they're going to gravitate probably towards the higher commission product.

363
00:18:03.100 --> 00:18:06.400
 Not that it's a bad thing. But that's the conflict of

364
00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:09.000
 interest that we talk about right isn't necessarily in the best

365
00:18:09.300 --> 00:18:12.600
 interest of the client. Yeah, and I think investors don't need products as

366
00:18:12.600 --> 00:18:15.600
 much as they need advice. Yeah agreed. I totally agree.

367
00:18:15.600 --> 00:18:18.700
 We were talking the the other

368
00:18:18.700 --> 00:18:21.800
 day just that the the meetings we were we were at and

369
00:18:21.800 --> 00:18:24.300
 and the model the way it was is you

370
00:18:24.300 --> 00:18:27.700
 had insurance companies or investment firms sort of

371
00:18:27.700 --> 00:18:30.900
 sitting at the top designing product and starting

372
00:18:30.900 --> 00:18:33.400
 to push that product down to advisors who would

373
00:18:33.400 --> 00:18:36.300
 then push it to clients down at the bottom and really our

374
00:18:36.300 --> 00:18:37.800
 model is where we flip the script.

375
00:18:38.600 --> 00:18:41.600
The client is at the top and the client comes to the advisor.

376
00:18:42.200 --> 00:18:45.400
And we then go out to the product manufacturers to

377
00:18:45.400 --> 00:18:48.400
 find the the best product the best solution for

378
00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:51.000
 for the client to make as part of

379
00:18:51.500 --> 00:18:54.300
 their financial plan. So I think that's that's a big difference there.

380
00:18:54.300 --> 00:18:57.600
 We have nothing proprietary and we are acting in the best interests

381
00:18:57.600 --> 00:19:00.500
 of the client looking for a best of breed approach. And

382
00:19:00.500 --> 00:19:03.600
 again, usually it comes down to well, what

383
00:19:03.600 --> 00:19:06.100
 are the fees associated with that and that's another great piece of

384
00:19:06.100 --> 00:19:07.000
 advice for clients.

385
00:19:08.400 --> 00:19:11.300
Understand who you're paying and what you're paying

386
00:19:11.300 --> 00:19:12.100
 them and what for?

387
00:19:12.900 --> 00:19:16.000
Whether it's mutual funds inside your 401k or

388
00:19:15.400 --> 00:19:18.800
 something inside if you have an IRA through your bank

389
00:19:18.800 --> 00:19:21.500
 understand what it what it is and and

390
00:19:21.500 --> 00:19:24.500
 how it works. You're the one paying it and and understand how

391
00:19:24.500 --> 00:19:27.400
 all of that works and a lot of times people don't realize

392
00:19:27.400 --> 00:19:30.500
 that because a lot of times things are are not

393
00:19:30.500 --> 00:19:33.300
 apparent you got to do a got to do a little bit of digging to understand

394
00:19:33.300 --> 00:19:36.500
 what those those fees are inside of certain products.

395
00:19:36.500 --> 00:19:39.300
 Yeah. Absolutely. No, no what you're paying and I think

396
00:19:39.300 --> 00:19:42.200
 that there are some compensation models for

397
00:19:42.200 --> 00:19:45.700
 advisor out that they're a little bit opaque if

398
00:19:45.700 --> 00:19:48.600
 you will but as an investor

399
00:19:48.600 --> 00:19:51.600
 working with the financial professional transparency matters,

400
00:19:51.600 --> 00:19:54.200
 and if someone's not being transparent, then there's

401
00:19:54.200 --> 00:19:57.000
 probably not a lot of trust there in this business is built on trust.

402
00:19:58.100 --> 00:20:01.300
So yeah, I have to disclose everything to everybody up

403
00:20:01.300 --> 00:20:01.700
 front because

404
00:20:03.300 --> 00:20:06.300
It's coming out. It's coming out of the account and they'll see it right on the statement as

405
00:20:06.300 --> 00:20:09.600
 a line item to the penny. Yeah, exactly, except a

406
00:20:09.600 --> 00:20:09.700
 penny.

407
00:20:10.200 --> 00:20:13.700
Absolutely. Well gentlemen, thank you so much for your time. So I

408
00:20:13.700 --> 00:20:16.400
 just want to kind of recap because there was so much great information

409
00:20:16.400 --> 00:20:19.500
 that the two of you shared if you're an investor

410
00:20:19.500 --> 00:20:22.300
 out there if you're one of our listeners and you're looking to work with a financial

411
00:20:22.300 --> 00:20:25.500
 professional or if you're looking for maybe a second opinion a couple

412
00:20:25.500 --> 00:20:28.100
 of things that that Peter and Michael had talked to us

413
00:20:28.100 --> 00:20:31.400
 about today. Make sure you ask the question. Are you acting

414
00:20:31.400 --> 00:20:34.600
 in a fiduciary capacity? Probably the most important question to

415
00:20:34.600 --> 00:20:35.700
 ask a financial professional.

416
00:20:36.300 --> 00:20:40.100
Number two. What is your financial planning process? Right

417
00:20:39.100 --> 00:20:42.200
 the value proposition of a

418
00:20:42.200 --> 00:20:46.200
 financial advisor should be based on that planning process. And

419
00:20:45.200 --> 00:20:48.500
 since you are paying for advice, I think a great

420
00:20:48.500 --> 00:20:51.300
 question is what is your investment philosophy? How do you see the

421
00:20:51.300 --> 00:20:54.400
 world work? How are you going to advise me based on that investment

422
00:20:54.400 --> 00:20:55.200
 philosophy

423
00:20:55.900 --> 00:20:58.300
When it comes to credentials, I think looking for any credential

424
00:20:58.300 --> 00:21:01.100
 makes a lot of sense after a person's name. But if you're

425
00:21:01.100 --> 00:21:04.100
 looking for a true financial planner, the cfp designation is the

426
00:21:04.100 --> 00:21:05.900
 one that that our guests recommend.

427
00:21:06.600 --> 00:21:09.400
Look for people that work with people like

428
00:21:09.400 --> 00:21:12.600
 you look for advisors that are working with people like yourself

429
00:21:12.600 --> 00:21:15.900
 and there's a lot of resources out there. Mike mentioned

430
00:21:15.900 --> 00:21:18.600
 Napa. There's the advisor's website. Of

431
00:21:18.600 --> 00:21:21.300
 course Facebook LinkedIn are great ways to look at how

432
00:21:21.300 --> 00:21:24.200
 these advisors are working with

433
00:21:24.200 --> 00:21:28.200
 people that may or may not be like you and let me throw another resource

434
00:21:27.200 --> 00:21:31.200
 out there. A lot of investors don't realize that you

435
00:21:30.200 --> 00:21:34.300
 can Google broker check broker check

436
00:21:34.300 --> 00:21:38.000
 is a government website where tracks the history

437
00:21:37.100 --> 00:21:41.000
 of every single Financial professional whether they're SEC

438
00:21:40.600 --> 00:21:43.900
 registered or member of finra and you'll

439
00:21:43.900 --> 00:21:46.400
 see if there's any disclosures or anything like that

440
00:21:46.400 --> 00:21:49.400
 so broker checks are great way to see if

441
00:21:49.400 --> 00:21:52.200
 if there's any dings on the record of

442
00:21:52.200 --> 00:21:55.100
 the person that you're speaking to and then in terms

443
00:21:55.100 --> 00:21:58.700
 of compensation look for fees versus commissions not

444
00:21:58.700 --> 00:22:01.200
 to say that commissions are necessarily bad, but they

445
00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:04.100
 there could be some conflicts of

446
00:22:04.100 --> 00:22:06.500
 interest in there and a fee-based advisor.

447
00:22:06.600 --> 00:22:09.200
Even a fee only advisor is going to sit in the same side of

448
00:22:09.200 --> 00:22:12.700
 the table as you the investor. So Michael, thank

449
00:22:12.700 --> 00:22:15.200
 you so much for your time. Thanks Tom Peter. So thank you

450
00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:19.100
 for joining us here today. This has been a great conversation and so

451
00:22:18.100 --> 00:22:21.300
 for our listeners out there. Thank you for joining us.

452
00:22:21.300 --> 00:22:24.200
 We'll get you on the next one. And if you

453
00:22:24.200 --> 00:22:28.400
 want to look at any of our previous unfiltered Finance podcasts, they're

454
00:22:27.400 --> 00:22:30.600
 available wherever you might be getting your podcast today.

455
00:22:30.600 --> 00:22:34.200
 So thank you till next time. Bye Cemetery Partners.

456
00:22:33.200 --> 00:22:36.600
 LLC is an investment advisor

457
00:22:36.600 --> 00:22:39.300
 firm registered with the Security and Exchange Commission

458
00:22:39.300 --> 00:22:42.500
 The Firm only transacts business in states where

459
00:22:42.500 --> 00:22:45.600
 it is properly registered or excluded or

460
00:22:45.600 --> 00:22:49.200
 Exempted from registration requirements registration of

461
00:22:48.200 --> 00:22:51.400
 an investment advisor does not imply

462
00:22:51.400 --> 00:22:54.500
 any specific level of skill or training and does

463
00:22:54.500 --> 00:22:57.300
 not constitute an endorsement of the firm by the

464
00:22:57.300 --> 00:23:00.300
 commission. No one should assume that future performance of any

465
00:23:00.300 --> 00:23:04.400
 specific investment investment strategy product or

466
00:23:03.400 --> 00:23:06.100
 non-investment related content.

467
00:23:06.600 --> 00:23:10.000
Reference to directly or indirectly in this material will be

468
00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:10.500
 profitable.

469
00:23:11.400 --> 00:23:14.300
As with any investment strategy there is the possibility

470
00:23:14.300 --> 00:23:17.500
 of profitability as well as loss due

471
00:23:17.500 --> 00:23:20.200
 to various factors including changing market

472
00:23:20.200 --> 00:23:22.600
 conditions and/or applicable laws.

473
00:23:23.400 --> 00:23:27.000
Content may not be reflective of current opinions or

474
00:23:26.600 --> 00:23:29.600
 positions. Please note the material

475
00:23:29.600 --> 00:23:32.300
 is provided for educational and background use only

476
00:23:32.300 --> 00:23:36.000
 moreover. You should not assume that any discussion or information

477
00:23:35.700 --> 00:23:38.600
 contained in this material serves as

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 the receipt of or as a substitute for personalized

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 investment advice.