When choosing a financial planner it is important to know why you’re seeking advice.  Ask yourself an important question. What are you seeking to achieve or learn? Are you only hiring the services of a planner to gain market information (on various options available like different mutual fund schemes)or are you seeking , advice for managing large sums of money, looking for capital appreciation, tax saving and interest earning methods of investments? Here are some ways that will help you take a smart decision.....

1. When you meet a planner, it is important to know his/her communication style and personality. Studies suggest it’s not only knowledge that qualifies the planner as suitable, but also the way she/she communicates. For eg. If you are comfortable with being given a number of useful choices and alternatives and then making your own informed decision, but your planner is more comfortable with directing his clients towards one beneficial option rather than giving them a host as of choices and letting them choose, there is a difference in your personalities.

2. It is important to know the area of expertise of the planner. Is he/she an expert in retirement planning, general planning, or does he/she specialise in any other specific area? In that case, does this areas match your needs?

3. Another point to keep in mind when choosing a financial planner to help you with a life transition process is, the planner doesn’t get driven by your emotions (as this would be detrimental to the process ). Your planner must maintain an objective, sensitive and practical stance from beginning to end, to strengthen the positive aspects of the planning process.

Under no circumstances must your planner add and element of further vulnerability to the plan. He must play the part of an objective informant, a third –person party to the plan.