Investment Advice
Investment Advice – The Best Way To Stay In Control
When you have a decision to make about
investments or other
financial issues, you basically have three choices. You can plan
your investments without any help. You let someone sell products
to you. Or you can find a professional to give you
investment
advice.
You may be a very independent person and be happy to make your
own decisions. In this case you may prefer to
plan your own
investments. The problem with this is that, unless you have a
comprehensive knowledge of the entire financial market, you
really can’t be sure of ending up with the best choice. In
addition, you may be surprised to find how time-consuming and
stressful it can be to trawl through hundreds of products to
find the right investment – and then, of course, to keep an eye
on them to make sure they perform as you hoped.
Another way to find investment products is to ask at your bank.
What will basically happen in this case is that, rather than
choosing, you will be “sold” the products that the bank wants to
sell you. This is because the people at the bank who are called
Financial Advisers are actually members of the bank’s sales
staff with targets to meet. They are only paid to sell you the
bank’s own products, so there is no guarantee that the product
will be the most appropriate one for you. They will of course
tell you that the product is “suitable” for you. This is true,
in the sense that the products are designed to be suitable for a
large range of people, so nobody will do spectacularly well from
them.
So if you have tried these methods, you may have decided that
you would prefer to have professional investment advice, in
order to keep your investment portfolio on track.
So how can a provider of
investment advice ensure that you make
the most of your money?
To find the type of investment that meets your needs, an adviser
needs to consider a large range of factors, including:
- your wishes and expectations for the future;
- when you want to retire;
- how much risk you are prepared to take;
- whether you want emphasis on income or capital growth, and how much;
- when you need your money back; and
- how much tax you pay.
Only by gaining an understanding of all these factors and
building up a complete profile will the investment adviser be able to make
a judgement on the type of investment product that exactly meets
your needs. An independent
investment adviser will be able to scan the
entire market to find the right product, and will then put the
reasons in writing why he/she considers this the best product
for you.
So, even if you like to be in control of your affairs, there’s
no need to be afraid of taking
investment advice! You
are actually in control at every stage – and it’s your best way
of ensuring that you make the most of your money.
EB May 2008