Good To Know – Financial Life Planning Tips from Betty-Anne Howard, Athena Wealth and Legacy Planning
What kind of designations or licenses should you look for when you’re choosing a Financial Advisor?
Certified Financial Planner, Registered Financial Planner, Financial Advisor, and the list goes on! While designations are important, it’s more important to understand what your advisor CAN and CAN’T help you with. For example, if you are working with a broker at a bank, they are licensed only to talk about investments. They aren’t licensed to talk about annuities, which are an insurance product and they’re not licensed to talk about insurance in general. So there’s a whole other part of people’s planning that can get missed.
Especially if you’re working on an Estate Plan (talking about where your assets and money will go when you pass away), it’s extremely important to run that plan past a Financial Planner who can look at it with an Estate Planning lens and include insurance solutions into the mix.
What we’ve found is that insurance is often a much more viable solution, however, unfortunately, many Financial Advisors either aren’t aware of the advantages or aren’t licensed to provide them. Insurance solutions as a part of an overall Estate Plan can be less expensive and more tax efficient, but there is a real gap in knowledge – and therefore advice – depending on who you talk to.
As with most things when it comes to your financial situation, make sure you understand exactly what kind of advice you are being given, and ask LOTS of questions!
Till next time
Betty-Anne Howard / Athena Wealth and Legacy Solutions
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