What Can a Financial Advisor Do for You?

What does investing mean to you? If you think of buying or selling stocks and bonds, that’s just part of it. To work toward all your goals, such as a comfortable retirement, you need a comprehensive financial strategy. And for that, you might need to work with a personal financial advisor. But what, specifically, can this type of professional do for you?

Here are some key services a financial advisor can provide:

• Help you invest for your retirement. An experienced financial advisor can look at all the relevant factors — your current and projected income, age at which you’d like to retire, desired retirement lifestyle — to help determine how much you need to invest and which investment vehicles can help you reach your retirement goals. As an example, a financial advisor can help you determine how to best utilize your employer-sponsored retirement plan. 
• Help you save for college. Higher education is expensive, and costs are rising every year. If you’d like to help your children or grandchildren go to college some day, you need to save and invest early and often. A financial advisor can suggest appropriate college savings vehicles and strategies. 
• Help make sure you’re well-protected. If something were to happen to you, could your family maintain its standard of living? Or if you some day needed long-term care such as an extended stay in a nursing home, would you be able to maintain your financial independence, or would you be forced to rely on your adult children for help? A financial advisor can recommend and possibly provide suitable protection products and services for your needs. 
• Help you adjust your financial strategy. Not much stays constant in life, and that includes your financial strategy. Any number of events — new child, new job, new retirement destination — can cause you to adjust your investment moves, as will some of the factors influencing the financial markets — economic downturns, changing interest rates, new tax laws, and more. A financial advisor can help you change course as needed and sometimes encourage you not to change course.

While a financial advisor can help in many ways, you’ll need, above all, to feel comfortable with whomever you choose. Ultimately, you’ll want to pick someone who understands what’s important to you and who will follow an established process to create personalized strategies and recommend specific actions needed to help achieve your goals. And you’ll want someone who will be with you in the long run — someone who will revisit your objectives and risk tolerance and who can adjust your strategies in response to changes in your life.

A financial advisor can make a big difference. So, work diligently to find the right one, and take full advantage of the help you’ll receive as you move toward your goals.

Kevin Chancellor is a licensed financial advisor who specializes in helping individuals, families, and business owners in the areas of retirement planning, tax savings, estate considerations, and education savings. He has served as board chair for the Greater Palm Bay Chamber of Commerce and works with various charities throughout the county. 

Kevin Chancellor
www.blacklabfs.com
kevin@blacklabfs.com

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