Planning for your future is hard to do sometimes and that can make it somewhat scary to think about. Luckily, there are a lot of ways that you can plan for your retirement. One of the best says to prepare your future is to work with a retirement advisor.
But what do retirement advisors really do and how do they help you?
With the help of the retirement planning experts at WealthTrace, we break down some of the basics of what retirement advisors do so that you can understand what next steps you should take in the present to prepare for the future.
What is a retirement advisor?
Generally, a retirement advisor is a financial professional whose services focus primarily on helping their clients save and prepare for the future. A retirement advisor can hold a wide range of financial designations, such as:
• Certified financial planner
• Retirement income certified professional
• Chartered financial analyst
• Registered investment advisor
• Personal financial specialist
It is important to keep in mind that these titles are not simply mix and match. They require a different amount of training and certification and you should try to read up on them to make sure that they offer you what you need in order to plan for the future.
What do they do?
The number of tasks range quite widely, but there are some basic tasks that retirement advisors do in order to help their clients plan for what is to come. This includes the following:
• They will help you start to think about planning for healthcare expenses in the future and long-term care needs
• Guide you towards asset allocation that will balance risk and reward so that you can ideally have the most amount of money for your retirement without taking too much risk
• Help you figure out where Social Security benefits fit in your overall retirement plan and when you should begin taking Social Security payments
• Help you with managing tax implications of withdrawals
• Suggest solutions for managing your assets beyond retirement accounts, such as real estate, stock options, or other investments
• They help you identify your retirement saving goals and the action steps you’ll need to take in order to achieve them
• Pinpoint potential gaps in your retirement savings plan
• Offer advice on how you can maximize accounts that are tax-advantaged such as a 401(k) or an IRA (individual retirement account)
• They will help you create a strategy so that you can eliminate any debt that you are carrying on student loans, car loans, home loans or credit cards
How to choose the right financial advisor
If you think you are ready for a financial advisor, there are some great ways to make sure that you are picking the right one. Make sure to look for these factors when selecting a financial planner or advisor:
• Whether they are fiduciary, which means that they are ethically bound to act in your best interest at all time and they cannot take any commission for selling products
• How often they communicate with their clients and how they prefer to communicate with them
• Their overall investment strategy and style
• The advisor’s certification and professional background
• The range of the services that they offer their clients
• Their fee structure.
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