Personal Finance For Dummies, 7th Edition

Chapter 18

Working with Financial Planners

In This Chapter

Checking out your choices for managing your finances

Determining whether you need help from a financial planner

Searching for a stellar financial advisor

Interviewing financial planners before you hire them

Hiring a competent and ethical financial planner or advisor to help you make and implement financial decisions can be money well spent. But if you pick a poor advisor or someone who really isn’t a financial planner but a salesperson in disguise, your financial situation can get worse instead of better. So before I talk about the different types of help for hire, I discuss the options you have for directing the management of your personal finances.

Surveying Your Financial Management Options

Everyone has three basic choices for managing money: You can do nothing, you can do it yourself, or you can hire someone to help you. This section lays out these three options in more detail.

Doing nothing

The do-nothing approach has a large following (and you thought you were alone!). People who fall into this category may be leading ...