"Failing to plan is planning to fail."

Financial Advisors are also commonly known as financial planners, retirement planners or even wealth managers. However, there are differences in the type of services each provide.

Financial Advisors, a term derived from brokerage houses, refer to sales persons at brokerage house, who advise their clients on what mutual funds to buy. Their main objective is to sell their mutual funds and generate commissions. And for this same reason financial advisors from brokerage house are alleged to be conflicted. Today the term is also used by many independent fee-only financial planners and investment managers.

Financial Planners are generally fee-only planners, who provide retirement planning services on a fee only basis. They typically use a variety of software for doing retirement planning and constructing a document that details necessary return & risk objectives, tax situation, unique circumstances etc. Financial Planners may not provide investment management services and you may have to go to someone else to invest for you. They may also provide 401k plan advice or even early retirement planning advice and recommend an asset allocation strategy.

Wealth Managers typically manage wealth of high net worth clients in order to generate a positive market-overperforming return. The key here is high net worth clients. Investment Managers, on the other hand may be holding small investment account but in large quantities and apply a common investment philosophy to all accounts.

Registered Investment Advisors are people who are registered with SEC or the state regulatory authority to provide Investment Advisors. In general, every profession in this business must be registered with SEC, if they advise on investments or manage money. They also have to report annual account performances. The SEC regulatory agency may inspect advisors for implementation of fair business practices and adhering to the ADV form that they file annually. You must make sure your advisor is registered by checking the SEC database at SEC's website.

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To find a financial advisor in New York and set up an appointment, contact us with the type of services your are interested in and we will provide you best and most flexible options. Fill in the form and we'll get in touch with you. We'll also present a free seminar on retirement planning and investments and tell you the steps you can take right now to secure your financial future. Items without asterisk are optional. For more information on our service click here.