4 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Hire a Financial Planner
4 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Hire a Financial Planner
By Jason Silverberg, CFP®, CLU®, ChFC®
You’ve heard the message over and over again. Hire a financial planner to help you achieve your financial dreams and goals. While a financial planner can be an invaluable resource, there might be some instances where hiring a planner may not make sense.
- You’re a “do-it-yourselfer” who likes to learn about the financial markets and tracking your goals. There are typically two types of do-it-yourselfers – Those that value a plan, but want to work on the implementation themselves, and those that don’t value a plan at all.
If you’re someone who enjoys researching the financial markets and managing your own investment portfolio, you might want to consider hiring a planner to provide guidance and advice, essentially creating a strategy to help you work towards your goals. You might want some accountability and coaching to help put your investments into perspective.
On the other hand, you might be someone who doesn’t need that accountability and coaching. You probably wouldn’t value the advice that a planner would give anyway, since you like doing it all on your own and are disciplined to keep your emotions out of your investment plan.
- You could have fallen on hard times and drowning in debt. If the debt you have is unmanageable, your planner might be able to help create a debt payoff schedule. If it’s too much for you to handle, then instead you might want to turn toward an attorney for guidance and support as you navigate this difficult time.
- You and your spouse might be going through rough patch, where much of your quarrels are money related. Couples not aligned on their financial goals will find the financial planning process frustrating. Surely a planner can help you both come together on a joint path to financial success, but will not be a good mediator for your arguments. Consider hiring a planner, once you’re on the same page.
- You don’t have enough time to devote to the planning process. Financial planning isn’t just a financial commitment, it’s also a commitment of your time. If you’re too busy to sit down for a few meetings and a little bit of homework, then the process won’t work. Between gathering documents, in-person meetings, reviewing financial reports, sifting through monthly expenses, implementing the plan, and reviewing it each year, hiring a financial planner will not necessarily save you tons of time. Keep in mind that once you’ve built your plan and are in a groove, then the time commitment might subside a bit. Either way, be prepared to invest a good 10 hours over the span of the process to devote to bettering your financial situation.
In my book, The Financial Planning Puzzle, I discuss why hiring a Financial Planner might make sense. You’ll learn how to interview a planner and what value they might bring to your financial situation. You can get your copy of the book by clicking here! If you’d like to discuss your own personal finances, you can always email me directly at jason@finadvinc.com or call me at 301-610-0071.
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Jason Silverberg CFP®, CLU®, ChFC®, specializes in comprehensive financial planning. His practice aims at helping families and small business owners to fit their financial pieces together to create financial freedom. He uses a values-based process to connect with his clients on a deeper level than most other advisors, diving into the "why" behind the numbers. He focuses on helping clients achieve and protect their goals through methodical investment strategies and calculated risk management and insurance solutions. Separate from the financial plan and our role as a financial planner, we may recommend the purchase of specific investment or insurance products or accounts. These product recommendations are not part of the financial plan and you are under no obligation to follow them.
