AI chatbots reportedly are coming after the role of financial adviser but good luck, advisers say.
Financial advisers aren't just dispensing help on investments and padding a nest egg anymore. Financial advisers now also act as friend, confidant and sometimes daily assistant to help clients manage their lives and reduce their stress. They work so clients can live their best lives now and in the future.
Different services to meet clients' various needs include: ideas to minimize taxes during and after your lifetime; referrals to, and work with, estate planning attorneys to create wills and trusts for kids and grandkids; suggesting trust companies that can offer childless people and couples medical and financial powers of attorney; the ability to act as executor and trustee of the estate; and sometimes, even offering caregiving guidance as well as budgeting and spending tips.
"Going back 25 years, the business was transactional — mainly investments or insurance transactions, " said Brian Leitner, managing director of wealth solutions at national financial services firm Mariner, which offers help to clients coping with the pressures of caring for aging parents, disabled kids and other complex health-related issues. "Now, it's holistic."
Financial advisers are uniquely positioned to help clients address major life changes, they say. Advisers know their clients' fears, dreams and hopes for themselves and the people around them, their relationships and what's most important to them because they're the ones helping them fund and realize their goals.
It's a very different role from decades ago when Mike McCracken, president and founder of Wealth Guide Financial, was 14 years old and learning to invest. "I used my dad's broker and would buy stock" he said. "He never once asked what are you saving for and why? So, he'd put me in the stock I was interested in, but if wanted to buy a bike next week, that would have been a terrible thing to do" because McCracken's money would have been tied up in stocks.
"As I became more involved in my practice, I began to wear dual hats," McCracken, said. "As a fiduciary, I'm doing what's best for my client, not just what's suitable so, I need to know is it the best? If I offer advice, it affects the rest of their lives."
Nowadays, financials advisers ask the tough questions, digging deeper to make sure your needs and wants are appropriately met.
"Financial planning often sits at the intersection of health, family relationships, and major life decisions," Leitner said.
Source: Yahoo Finance Top News — This article was automatically imported from the source. Read full article at original source →
