If you go to a financial advisor or wealth management firm and their solution to all your money problems is found exclusively in an annuity or life insurance product, you may have found yourself a salesperson, but you have not found a financial advisor.
Don’t misunderstand. I’m not going all Ken Fisher on you. He says, in a rather startling and disturbing marketing pitch, that he’d rather die and go to hell than sell an annuity.
All insurance products aren’t bad. We’ve recommended annuities for clients and have seen them benefit from them. Furthermore, we too use the title, “wealth manager,” but if the primary aim of that “wealth manager” is to scare you away from the stock market and assure you that the answer to all your money problems is an annuity or whole life policy, you may have found yourself being sold a product, instead of receiving financial advice.
People don’t like to be sold to, as the saying goes; they like to buy. That’s fine and dandy. Just make sure you’re buying for the right reasons. You need advice, not a sales pitch. Annuities and life insurance can play a role in financial planning but watch out for scary headlines that pressure you into any kind of investment vehicle. That goes for stocks too.
Don’t just put your trust in a person’s title or marketing maneuvers. Make sure to ask questions like these to purported “wealth managers”:
- What else do you offer aside from insurance products?
- Do you have account services where you are a fiduciary?
- How do you get paid?
There are always going to be financial headlines about the economic equivalent of lions, tigers, and bears seeking to ravage your wealth. Sometimes the frightening financial beast isn’t the breaking news of STOCK MARKET CRASH, INFLATION HIGHEST IN DECADES, etc., but the product you’ve got yourself stuck into because of it. If you or someone you know is looking for a second opinion, we’d be happy to talk.
Don’t let fearful slogans and fancy titles drive your investment decisions or choice of a wealth manager.