What to look for when you outgrow your current financial adviser

When it comes to financial advisers, age really could matter.

Advisers have different specialties, which is something worth looking into, said Sean Lee, president of SPL Financial Inc. Some focus on pre-retirement finances, others look at your money in terms of retirement choices.

These advising types specialize in either accumulating wealth or transitioning wealth into income.

“The closer you get to retirement, you basically graduate from an accumulation adviser to an income planning adviser,” Lee sad.

An accumulation adviser’s goal is to do just that: accumulate money. His or her job is to grow the money, often by taking risks.

But when it comes to an income planning adviser, the job suddenly focuses on transitioning the money from working years into retirement.

Lee is a fiduciary adviser. In contrast to a broker, fiduciary advisers work without an umbrella company. This means that they represent an individual person’s finances as opposed to representing a company or a specific product.

In choosing an adviser he also suggested making sure they have the right designations behind their name (such as CFP, MSFS or MBA), seeing how they are paid and who they manage money for.

A good retirement planner needs to be experienced with helping people decide which retirement income generator, or RIG, will work best, according to an article by CBS.

In addition to the right designations, they should have supplemented training with different methods of creating retirement income, according to the article. This can include being a certified retirement counselor (CRC), retirement management analyst (RMA) or retirement income certified professional (RICP).

EMAIL: alovell@deseretnews.com