Questions to Ask Your Retirement Financial Advisor

Retirement is a significant transition in life. A successful transition from earning, saving, and growing your assets to withdrawing assets can make or break your retirement. A retirement financial advisor will make this journey for you, but you must know the right questions to ask them before you settle on the right advisor. These questions help you understand the capability, philosophy, and experience of a financial advisor.

1.   What should be your retirement philosophy?

A financial advisor should answer this question without hesitation and give you their discipline behind investment strategies. They will also tell you how these strategies will help achieve an annual return that designed specifically for you and to reach your investment goals. A financial advisor should tell you all this in a language you can understand.

2.   What should your retirement to look like?

When you find a financial advisor in Chicago you would like to interview, they should paint a picture of how your ideal retirement will look like. As you discuss this question, the financial advisor will also get a glimpse of what you have in mind, and marry your idea of retirement with their investment plans. You might discuss how you will get a sense of purpose, creative stimulation, among other things. Helping you prepare for your emotional retirement is as important as helping you prepare financially for this transition.

3.   How much experience should your retirement financial advisor have?

Experience comes with expertise. As a rule of thumb, psychologist Anders Ericsson says that you should work with someone who has at least 10,000 hours of work. These are the hours required to develop expertise in any field. Ten thousand hours will translate to about ten years of practice in mind. While this does not disqualify new entries in the market, it is paramount that their experience and portfolio reflect expertise and success in handling investments geared towards retirement.

4.   How much shall you pay to your financial advisor?

When you find a financial advisor in Chicago, it is good to know how you will compensate them. Will you pay per transaction, annually, based on the asset value, or commission? The financial advisor should be rewarded for their expertise and service, but it is essential that you get the value that exceeds what you pay. There are different methods in reducing taxes on your earnings, build retirement assets, and help you create lifetime income you can rely on during retirement. Good advice should make up for the fee.

5.   How often should you contact a financial advisor?

As a minimum, a retirement financial advisor should contact you quarterly and if they can contact you monthly the better. During communication, the advisor should explain every transaction and give you period reviews of the health of your portfolio. They should offer educational resources when you ask for them.

In conclusion, retirement financial advisor will tell you how much money you need, to have a comfortable retirement after looking at your lifestyle, hobbies, travel, education, and social life.