How To Find A Financial Advisor
Finding a trustworthy financial advisor often feels daunting. Everywhere you look, from banks to online platforms, there seems to be someone offering financial advice. I'm Sean Kernan, and with over 20 years of experience in the industry, I've dedicated my career to navigating this complex landscape.
My podcast, "How To Find A Financial Advisor," aims to demystify the process and guide you toward making informed choices.
The financial industry is crowded with professionals from various backgrounds. These range from insurance agents and bankers to accountants and even family members, each offering their own perspective on your financial planning.
Through my podcast, I help you understand who you can trust and why. It's crucial to separate the good advice from the bad, and that's where I come in.
Having supervised other financial professionals for most of my career, I have seen the inner workings of the industry. This experience has given me a unique vantage point on what makes financial advice truly valuable.
On the podcast, I draw on these insights to clear up common misconceptions about financial advisors. We delve into everything from determining if you need one at all to spotting warning signs that should make you reconsider your choices.
Our discussions are straightforward and aim to cut through the noise. With every episode, you'll gain clearer insights into what a reliable financial advisor should offer. The goal is to empower you with the knowledge to choose wisely.
Each episode tackles a different aspect of finding a financial advisor. We explore how to evaluate their credentials, understand their strategies, and align their services with your financial goals. This is essential for anyone looking to secure their financial future.
"I love learning about the good, the bad, and the ugly of financial advice" is more than just a saying for me. It's a professional mantra that drives the content of this podcast. By sharing both positive experiences and cautionary tales, I help listeners navigate the complex world of financial planning.
Listening to "How To Find A Financial Advisor" is like having a seasoned expert guide you through a maze. My aim is not just to provide answers but to equip you with the right questions to ask. This ensures you engage with financial advisors from a position of strength and knowledge.
We also discuss the practical side of financial advising. This includes how to effectively communicate with your advisor and set realistic expectations. Understanding these dynamics can significantly enhance the advisor-client relationship.
Join me, Sean Kernan, on this journey through the financial advisory landscape. Whether you’re establishing a new financial plan or refining an existing one, this podcast is your guide to doing it right.
Tune in to transform your approach to choosing a financial advisor. With each episode, you'll move closer to finding someone who genuinely cares about your financial interests.
How To Find A Financial Advisor
When you should definitely NOT invest in an annuity!
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If you want to invest in an annuity, you need to have a solid reason to use this long-term financial vehicle. And you should definitely have a financial advisor helping you determine if the annuity is your best option, or if another type of investment might better suit your needs.
Hey, this is Sean Kernan with How to Find a Financial Advisor. First, real quick, if you're finding any value in these videos, please subscribe and like because that helps other people find the resource in their search to either find a new advisor, their first advisor, replace their current advisor, or decide if they can take on the responsibilities themselves. So today I'm going to talk about who should not buy an annuity. And I'm going to link to another video that a prominent YouTube annuity guy, Stan the Annuity Man, created. It's a great resource going over why even he who makes a living doing nothing but fixed annuities said these people should not invest in an annuity. And so I've used various kinds of annuities in my 22 year career. It's not the primary part of what I do, do more comprehensive planning, and sometimes that might involve an instrument with long-term lifetime income guarantees, and annuities are one of the few things that can do that. But Stan does a great job covering it. So I'm going to summarize it here and link to it in the description. So go watch his video if you'd like more detail or hear it directly from Stan the Man. It's pretty straightforward. If you're going to invest in an annuity, you need to have a very specific reason why you're getting that vehicle, and also hopefully have a professional that can tell you what other vehicles might do what you're trying to accomplish. So a lot of annuities, unfortunately, are sold rather than bought. In other words, someone is pushing the idea on the end investor. And that is probably one reason that financial advisors in general have a bit of a poor reputation in some circles, because people that are really no more than insurance agents or salespeople are sort of posing this advisory capacity, right? There's different licenses that address these that I will touch on in other videos. But the main thing is if you're going to make a commitment to an investment vehicle, especially if there's a tie-up period, make sure you're getting a second opinion. And ideally more than two opinions if you if you don't feel rock solid in your decision. So who should not invest in annuity? Number one, probably someone under the age of 50 does not need any kind of annuity. Again, there will always be very, very tail case exceptions. But if you're under 50, most people are not going to be ready to be planning for lifetime income. They're still in the accumulation mode. If they want to protect their principal, there's other vehicles that can do that: plain vanilla CDs, savings accounts, money market, different types of bonds potentially could do that. But you don't need an annuity, probably if you're under the age of 50. If you're looking for market growth somehow, an annuity is not going to give you that to the extent that most, many other vehicles will do. So unfortunately, one breed of investment, the fixed index annuities often sold or marketed as giving you all this market upside, but also it can protect your principal. It doesn't really do that. It can do the protect your principal part, at least nominally, not including inflation. But the upside, as Stan mentions in his video, it's just not there. So that is one of the most misleading things about annuities is the upside potential in fixed index annuities. It's you might make some money, but it's just not what a lot of the you're led to believe. And if you examine the illustrations, ask the hard questions, you might get to that answer. But unfortunately, a lot a lot of it is obfuscated, and what you get isn't close to what you thought you were going to get, which is obviously a recipe for disappointment. And then if you don't have any need for legacy or other death benefit, which an annuity can provide, then you probably don't need an annuity. So if you're over 50, you're looking for lifetime income and/or principal protection, that's all you care about, or you have a legacy need where you want to leave a specific amount of money behind, but you don't want to put it into a life insurance contract, then an annuity may be worth considering. But if you don't meet any or all those criteria, stay away and look for more straightforward investments. They're gonna have lower cost, more flexibility, easier to understand. And go watch Stan the Annuity Man's video on the topic if you'd like to hear it directly from him. And otherwise, like I said, if you're if you're finding value, subscribe andor like and tell other people that this might be helpful in their search for how to find a financial advisor. Thanks, and we'll see you in the next video.