5 Reasons Why you Need a Financial Advisor

Do it yourself investing platforms may be all the rage these days, but it’s a fact that the critical role played by a trusted, conflict-free Financial Advisor cannot be overstated. Here are five reasons why you need a good Financial Advisor to keep your financial life in order.

To Save you From Behavioural Traps

Even the smartest people fall prey to behavioural traps that impair their investment decisions by clouding their judgment. An experienced Financial Advisor will have dealt with hundreds of clients in various market situations, and will be privy to the classic behavioural biases that investors haplessly succumb to. The support and guidance of such an individual can prove to be invaluable in the long run. For instance, an experienced Financial Advisor can ensure that you don’t foolishly chase dangerous and speculative trends and that you do not book losses in a promising asset class merely out of fear.

To Keep Things Operationally Efficient

A Financial Advisor can save you the tremendous hassle of organizing and managing your investment records. In fact, investors who are operationally disorganized tend to fare worse than their more organized counterparts in the long run, as they’ll likely have cleaner, more concentrated investment portfolios – compared to the scattered, haphazard portfolios that many self-managing investors have.

To Stay Aligned to Current Trends – So you Don’t Need to

Bond Yields rising or falling? Midcap valuations nearing dangerous levels? Banking sector NPA’s looking dangerous? Upgrade to Downgrade ratios going up or down? There are numerous little things that influence equity and debt markets on a daily basis, and successful investing is all about staying on top of – and to some extent predicting – trends. A qualified Financial Advisor will be clued on to what’s happening where, and will be in a position to tailor make and align your investments to that knowledge. You can focus on doing your job, while leaving your Financial Advisor to do his or hers!

To Safeguard you From Making Poor Investment Decisions

Each year, thousands of self-managing investors suffer from ‘buyers regret’ soon after making investments. Examples could be – locking your moneys into a low yielding insurance plan who’s opaquely represented benefit illustration falsely convinced you that it’s a good investment. Or investing into a high risk close ended mid cap fund at a time when valuations had already skyrocketed. A trusted Financial Advisor is an individual who becomes your joint investment-decision maker, preventing you from many a harmful misstep.

To Keep you Aligned to your Goals

Last but not the least, a Financial Advisor can help you stay aligned to your important Financial Goals. The next time you’re tempted to dip into your retirement fund to buy that flashy new iPhone, your Financial Advisor can counsel you and help you take a pause to reconsider the long-term ramifications of succumbing to your temptation! Just as a personal trainer keeps you in shape by guiding and motivating you, your Financial Advisor keeps you ‘fiscally fit’ by keeping you on track to responsibly plan for and meet your future Financial Goals.