Your first meeting with a financial advisor can certainly be nerve-wracking. After all, you’re going to be talking about the numbers that will play a huge role in defining your financial future. These meetings must be worth both of your time, and for a consumer, that means learning what their financial advisors need from them. There are always certain things that financial advisors want to hear from their clients, and knowing about them can help you have a more productive business relationship.
One thing that every financial advisor loves to hear is that you have specific plans. They might not necessarily be the right plans or even good plans, but knowing that you want to look into specific products means that you’ve been doing your research and that you have goals. You might not be the right fit to invest in a product like BitCoin, for example, but the fact that you’ve done your research means that you have a certain level of financial literacy with which your advisor can work.
Your advisor also loves to hear that you’re transparently going into this planning process. Not only are you not hiding anything about your financial situation from your advisor – a move that’s quite counterproductive at best – but you’re also making sure that you bring in your spouse to the meetings. The more transparent you are, the easier your advisor will be able to work with you.
Finally, your advisor loves to hear that you’re nervous about a potential monetary issue. This means that you’re paying attention and that you are looking for ways to make changes to your financial situation. Financial advisors absolutely need to know the things that scare you so that they can figure out ways to shore up your sense of financial security.
The key to working with a financial advisor is always honesty. Talking about what you know, what you don’t know, and how changes to your finances might impact your life. Doing so is the best way to ensure that you and your financial advisor can work together to ensure that you get exactly what you need from your business relationship and that you can plan for the future of your dreams.