written by Kelly Campbell, CFP, ChFC, CMFC |  

Many investors are questioning their financial advisors value. As a matter of fact, many will seek a new advisor in the years to come. And while this may seem a daunting task, it may be the best time. New relationships often lead to new investment plans and significant portfolio changes potentially for the better.

But how do you choose the Best Wealth Management Firm? Here are the top 10 questions to ask about a new financial planner before you transfer your account .

1. How many clients does he personally serve and what kind of information does he need before working with you?

In other words, is the Advisor more concerned about your money and a new account than he is about you? Many brokers are more concerned with having another account versus who you are as a person. This is a very personal relationship and Advisors should be asking about your goals and dreams instead of about your account values. Ultimate success is not in a rate of return, it is in you being able to achieve your dreams. Choose the planner that asks both quantitative questions as well as qualitative questions…..hopefully more qualitative.

 The BEST financial advisor will be more interested in who you are and what you want out of life.

2. Is he a stock picker, trying to find next year’s stellar performer?

 Often a broker may be able to find a stock that goes up by 100%+. But this usually in conjunction with finding many others that go no where as well as those that lose all of their value making the overall portfolio return dismal. Choosing pooled investments is a better approach. These types of investments could be mutual funds (but make sure your broker is very selective as many funds do not beat their relative index returns and still further, many are very tax inefficient) or Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs can be more tax efficient and enhanced indexing techniques utilized by some ETF companies can out perform the index more often). Stock picking simply does not work. If your broker is a stock picker he has to make two correct decisions, when to buy (low) and when to sell (high). It is often difficult enough to make one of those decisions correctly. Stay away from stock pickers.

The BEST financial advisor will be the one that realizes that stock picking is better left to either the professional money manager or done with a systematic approach such as indexing.

3. Does he have a system for choosing investments/making portfolio decisions….and does he follow the system closely?

Most brokers think they are market analysts but reality will show that they spend a majority of their time marketing for new clients. It is OK that the broker needs to market, he has to keep his business in the black. But if he is making portfolio decisions without a system, he needs to watch the market continuously. How can he do that when he is making sales calls? If he must watch the market...