3 Ways Your Financial Planner Can Help You Win

When you have questions about how to manage your money, you ask your financial planner. If you’re concerned about whether you have enough to retire comfortably, your planner’s the first one you call. You hire a financial planner to help you develop and secure a financial future for yourself.

But, did you know a financial planner does far more to confidently address those questions?  Keep reading to learn three ways your financial planner can help you win financially.

Be Your Financial Advocate

Financial planners can operate as your financial advocate in a number of situations.  Here are a few that are generally beneficial.

• When you lose a spouse or partner we can provide a listening ear and a guide to support you through the next steps.
• We support you by contacting financial institutions on your behalf to gain information about processes that can be confusing, such as insurance claims, pension distribution changes and 401(k) disbursements. After obtaining the necessary information, we can explain it to you in a way that’s easy to digest.
• We help walk you through changing ownership on financial accounts to reflect family updates after the death of a partner or spouse.
• We contact other financial institutions on your behalf and ensure you have all the documentation needed and assist you with accurately completing them.
• We host or attend meetings with you and your estate planning attorney to ensure that you have what is needed to update legal documents and make changes to your beneficiary forms.

Be Your Financial Analyst

Helping you grow your wealth is what most people think of first when they seek out a financial planner.  But do you truly know what we do in this role as investment managers?

• We ensure something that’s essential to creating an investment portfolio.  That is selecting a diverse group of investments that allow your money to grow over time.
• We build portfolios by choosing a variety of investments that include, but are not limited to, stocks and bonds. For example, with stocks, they may represent approximately 11 different industries, varying in size from large to small, and countries from around the world with economies that range from developed to emerging.
• We research fund managers based on experience and past performance that align with your goals and values.
• As your personal analyst, we save you money by performing analysis.  We compare investments which may reveal hidden internal costs within the mutual funds, annuities and insurance products you own or plan to purchase.
• Or determine that you possess too large a holding in your employer’s stock. Then develop a strategy that helps you reduce your exposure.
• Finally, detecting if your funds have a lot of duplication resulting in too high a concentration in the same companies. This becomes important because you don’t want too much of a good thing.  That’s a risk if a particular industry suffers a downturn, like the real estate and banking industries did during the 2008 great recession.

Be Your Investment Tax Advisor

You want to implement the right strategies to take advantage of tax deductions and reduce your tax obligation.

• Therefore, as a financial planner, we can advise you against making mistakes that can cost you thousands in unnecessary tax payments. For example, if you want to withdraw money from your 401(k), you would be penalized for making an untimely distribution.
• We help you prevent costly mistakes before they’re made because we have a plan around what you should do and when.
• We evaluate if you have too large of a holding in your employer’s stock.  Then, we guide you on how to diversify out of the stock while factoring in your current tax status?

How Can a Financial Planner Support You?

There’s no doubt that working with a financial planner can help you get your finances in order. From serving as your financial advocate to being a financial analyst or providing tax-related support, you want a financial planner on your team or personal advisory board to ensure you’re making the right money moves.

Are you ready to add a financial planner to your team? Click here to start the conversation with Harris & Harris Wealth Management.

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Zaneilia Harris, CFP®, is the President of Harris & Harris Wealth Management Group in Washington, DC. Follow her on Twitter at @hhwealth.