Financial Advisor

A financial advisor is an expert who provides investment recommendations and general financial planning to personal and business clients. The role of the financial advisor is to allocate their clients' portfolios in such a way, that will help them achieve their financial goals, while taking in consideration the clients' risk aversion. Simply stated the goal of the financial advisor is to increase the net worth of their clients.

Financial advisors use a variety of financial assets to structure their clients' portfolios. They use stocks, stock options, warrants, mutual funds, bonds, precious metal certificates, precious metals, ETFs, insurance products, and more.

There are two main ways financial advisors earn money. The first one is fee-based when the financial advisor receives commissions for the financial products they recommend and broker. Many people see a conflict of interest in recommending such commission based financial products by financial advisors. The second type of financial advisors is purely fee based and they do not receive commissions for the financial vehicles they recommend. These financial advisors are paid only by their clients, and there is no any conflict of financial interests in this case.

Financial advisors offer financial planning, and two of the most popular services they offer are investment advice and retirement planning. Financial advisors usually work for banks and other financial institutions, but there are also independent advisors.

It is very important to choose your financial advisor right, and be able to determine if a financial advisor has sufficient financial and economic knowledge to be able to help you achieve your financial goals. Always beware of clerks with big financial institutions, because most of the time they have no idea of proper financial planning and economy and simply push their own company's products. Even if you use financial advisor services, it's always a good idea to do your own independent research before investing your hard earned money.