4 Ways On How To Become A Successful Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship is no less than an art. The main principle behind it is to establish a business organization with a certain objective. In order to be a successful entrepreneur, you should take the time and ought to learn the ethics of business. Most entrepreneurs are highly idolized by their leadership qualities. If you have been looking for guidance about how to become an entrepreneur and succeeding in your business, then keep on reading below.

 

Though inspiration is what an entrepreneur would require the most when starting their own business, there are a couple of guidelines which should be carefully followed in order to become successful.

 

But first thing’s first,  If you have asked yourself “how do I start my business?”, you have already taken that first leap of faith. The first thing you need to have before you start a company is desire. You have to want to do it. If you don’t, you won’t stick with it and you certainly won’t keep going in the face of all the anticipated challenges you’re going to face.

 

However, with that desire in place, neither creating a business plan nor raising money is the next step you’re going to take. The next best thing you should be doing is building a formula to nAct. Learn. Build. Repeat.

Without further ado, here are some other things you must take into consideration when you want to pursue a life of being a successful entrepreneur.

Bringing a Unique Business Concept With a Competitive Approach

It’s always a known fact that when you decide to start your own business, you have to come up with a unique idea through your start-up days. Surely clients will be attracted to check out what you have to offer them. However, on the contrary, it’s obvious that if you simply try to revisit the business model of existing enterprises, then, the chances of attracting lesser masses are relatively high. Hence, it’s advisable to set up new and lucrative business objectives to help draw in the attention of the masses to a much larger extent.

Don’t Just Think of Competing, Ideate Brand New Approaches to Gain Better Responses

Every single budding entrepreneur should understand that rather than just thinking how to beat the competition, they should instead bring forth brand new approaches of business to receive a positive response from targeted clients. For example, if you’re setting up a start-up in apparels, then your idea should only focus on modern business concepts. Also, remember this, you should refrain from remodeling your business plan with your competitors.

 

Learn How to Enjoy the Process of Success

If you want to become a successful entrepreneur, you also need to learn how you can enjoy the process of being successful. If you only concentrate on the external rewards from all of your efforts, you will always be in a rat’s race. Don’t be a slave to your own external environment. Even when you start making a certain amount of money and become financially free, it will never be enough. You’re always on the lookout for the next best thing.

The chase will never make you feel truly happy, which is why you need to be less attached to the final outcome and just go with the flow and enjoy the process. That’s where the real growth lies.

If you have experienced failure in the past, that’s great! Failure is always a normal part of the learning process of life. Learning to thank your failures for the lessons and let them go is a great practice. Accept and learn from your past, but don’t trap yourself in it, because it doesn’t dictate your future in any way unless you want it to. If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.

JT Foxx Reviews — Being the Next Manny Pacquiao in the Business Scene

The likes of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak; actors Al Pacino, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone; Donald Trump’s son, Eric, and other known personalities all have glowing testimonies about JT Foxx, who’s known to be one of the world’s best wealth coaches.

Foxx has admitted that some people find him a bit too brash and shocking — based on all the JT Foxx reviews he keeps getting from both legit and illegitimate reviews. However, he further adds: “I’ve created more ‘Entrepreneurs of the Year’ than any other [wealth coach] all over the world. I will make you the ‘Manny Pacquiao of Business.'”

So, what does it take to be the ‘Manny Pacquiao of Business’?

 

Stay Focused and Being Fearless

Foxx, who’s known to own over 50 companies and brands spanning all over the world, said he made his first US million when he was still 24; his second when he was 25. Afterward, he made 10 million US dollars by the time he turned 28, and 100 million US dollars when he turned 30.

Foxx stated further that he can tell, just by looking at a person what goes on in their mind. He would select a few members of the audience and stated that one is scared to venture out into business. Another one was told he was too young and is still bothered that he won’t be taken seriously.

“90% of the decisions you’ll make in the next 5 seconds — your gut feel — will be right. [And] in order to succeed, you need the right strategy, the right system, the right information and the right coach as well,” Foxx adds.

Foxx stresses that people must get over their fear and start being entrepreneurs themselves. “And you know what’s your competitive edge today?” he asked. “I am here for you. I’m asking you to jump off the plane, and I’ll be your parachute,” he emphasized.

Foxx also believes that more women should start exploring more business opportunities. “If you can raise children, then raising a business is easier for you,” Foxx said.

 

Being Successful, Getting Branded

Foxx, who promotes branding by association states that his work goes beyond solo and business branding needs. “I brand countries,” he added further.

As a brand himself, Foxx is also a media personality who also hosts a radio program, and soon, his own TV show. His book, the Millionaire Underdog is currently available, while he continues to regularly contribute to magazines such as Forbes, Live Out Loud and Prestige Magazine.

He also engages in philanthropy, especially in supporting children battling cancer and the organizations and hospitals who takes care of them.

“[Your] network is [your] net worth. Who you are with is who you become,” Foxx added.

The JT Foxx Organization is indeed an avenue that can help you to be the next “Manny Pacquiao” in the field of business. Just remember to apply everything that Foxx has told you, and should you ever need more guidance, you can always get a business coach trained in the ways of JT Foxx.

JT Foxx on How He Started Out On His Coaching Career

JT Foxx is widely known as the world’s number 1 wealth coach all over the world. He believes that coaching is the key to success, and explains on how it took him from being broke to building an empire. His website features great testimonies  from people such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Steve Wozniak.

 

The Journey to Success

When JT Foxx wealth coach started coaching, it was all on accident – he was doing well in real estate back in Chicago and a lot of people are starting to take notice of his accomplishments.

Foxx also had a radio show that was starting to gain fame with a dedicated audience. So, people started to approach Foxx and ask questions about how he gained his start, how to market to buyers and how to find investors.

Before Foxx had his own coaching experience and in a session he had with George Ross, he was discussing with him how he was starting to feel that he didn’t have enough time to do everything that he wanted to do, so Ross would often ask Foxx him where his time was going on on a daily basis. Foxx pointed out how much time he was spending giving away “free” advice and how it was taking up all his time.

Biggest Challenge As A Coach

The biggest challenge Foxx had  was when he became too high level for some clients. Some of Foxx’s clients would come to him with no business idea or not knowing where to start, and Foxx was at the level of launching international business with multiple partners all across the globe.  So, it would sometimes feel like Foxx was taking a step backward.

Another struggle was when he would feel like he’s repeating the same information over and over again. So, Foxx did two things to help with this and in turn grow the business to new levels. He got his start by getting more coaches to help coach people on different topics on different levels, and then also start recording programs that covered the material that a ton of people would ask about endlessly.

Revenue Streams as a Coach

Foxx has a lot of other businesses aside from coaching, some of which have come as a result of someone Foxx met from coaching. The coaching industry gives one great opportunities to further expand into multiple other businesses.

Speaking is just another natural fit for a coach, and anyone who’s a coach needs to also become a better speaker. It helps establish the coaching brand and gives more credibility. From there on, the possibilities are endless.

If Given a Chance to Start Over, What Would JT Foxx Do Differently?

Foxx expresses that he would try coaching at an earlier stage of his life, rather than just giving out free advice to so many people. Foxx would have sought out people such as George Ross and Hugh Hilton sooner to become Foxx’s coach – as they have been game changers in every business Foxx owns, not just in coaching.
For more JT Foxx success stories on being a top wealth coach, visit his website by clicking right here. Be inspired today with a man who started with nothing and now has millions.

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Learning to Grow Your Business with Millionaire Underdog by JT Foxx

You’re excited to start your own business. Maybe you have an idea how, or you’re just fascinated with the idea of launching and growing your very own enterprise. You’re willing to take some risks, such as leaving your current job or going without personal revenue for a while. But there’s one logistical hurdle stopping you: not having enough money.

On the surface, this seems like a huge problem; however, a lack of personal capital shouldn’t stop you from pursuing your dreams of owning a stable enterprise. As a matter of fact, it’s entirely possible to start and grow a business with almost no personal financial investment whatsoever — provided you know what you are doing.

 

Why A Business Needs Money

First, let’s look at why a business would need money when there’s no uniform startup fee for any sort of business. The truth of the matter is, different businesses will need different things, and these will usually cost something. Before anything else, it’s important to estimate how much you need, before you find alternative methods to fund your company.

You’ll want to consider the following:

• Licenses and permits
• Equipment and supplies
• Office space
• Associations, subscriptions and memberships
• Operating expenses
• Legal fees
• Employees, freelancers and contractors

 

Millionaire Underdog: The Motivation You Need to Get Started

First and foremost, let’s see who JT Foxx is.

JT Foxx has been deemed as the World’s #1 Wealth Coach by different media outlets all over the world. After he started his real estate business from zero and then used that success to start what has now become over 50 different businesses and brands, JT Foxx knows something about starting and establishing an empire from nothing.

Millionaire Underdog is about how to establish your business. It’s not just the motivational nor inspirational book that will give you that boost in encouragement. Instead, it’s an actual manual of sorts that aims to guide you in building your business and going from nothing to something.

You’ll know exactly what it’s like to start from nothing, but still have the vision of what you want to accomplish. This book will then walk you through marketing, sales, growth, creating a business and not just a job, time management and everything any entrepreneur needs to know in order for them to succeed.

It’s safe to say that this is then one crash course you’re going to need as a business owner.

As hinted at earlier, through this book, JT Foxx will guide you in starting a business without having to need a big amount of money. You can expect to see the following:

 

Lowering Your Needs

The first thing you need to change is your business model so that it has fewer needs. For instance, if you’re planning to start an enterprise as a consultant or a freelancer, you could lower your “employee” expenses by being the sole employee from the start. Unless you need office space, you may opt to work from home.

You can also do some research to find cheaper sources of supplies, or else cut out entire product lines if they’re too expensive to have at the start.

 

Bootstrap

Your second option should invoke the idea of a “warmup” period of your business. Instead of going into it head-on and and going full time right from the start, you’ll start with just the basics.

For example, start a blog and one niche service, lower your scope, audience, and target profit. As counterintuitive as it seems, this will help you get a head start.

You can expect to see more advice from JT Foxx himself in his book, Millionaire Underdog. Just remember that no matter how low your finances are, when you learn how to make your money grow while starting your business, your nothingness will soon evolve into something that will make a huge mark in the business world.

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4 Reasons Why You Should Try Executive Business Coaching

Executive coaching works so well that there was an approximate 1.5 billion dollars was spent on it just last 2017. Most of the big companies all over the world employ coaches for upper management. So, what makes this concept so attractive to CEOs? What are they hoping to gain from it?

In one study, business coaching professionals were asked what was the main subject area for which they coached CEO’s, the overwhelming answer was “self-awareness.” The second one being “interpersonal skills, listening skills and empathy.” Upon closer inspection of these skills – a portrait of emotional intelligence emerges. An increase in the former results in an increase in the latter, which is extremely crucial for the leadership positions of managers and CEOs.

So, how can executive coaching help out CEOs and managers? Here are some of the reasons as to why:

It Helps Heighten Self-Awareness

As mentioned, self-awareness is one of the main areas in which coaches target – and for good reason; as it’s the catalyst by which growth starts to happen. Without that first step of realization, people blindly continue doing things in the same way as usual.

Improves Self-Regulation

Sometimes, awareness of one’s emotions brings about discipline to control such. At the very least, the task of self-regulation is made more attainable. For instance, picture out a scenario at work where you have to oversee a brand new employee and you face feelings of inferiority; however, you don’t recognize what your feelings are (you’re not aware of yourself). All you know is that you feel uncomfortable, edgy or uneasy when dealing with someone.

Self-awareness is the first step in regulating your emotions and handling situations with ease and comfort. People with high emotional intelligence tend to possess better self-regulation skills.

Promotes High Level of Empathy

Empathy is that special something that allows people to feel how another person is feeling. Chances are if someone empathizes with a problem you may have, you start to feel it. Empathy is a powerful tonic that can soothe the soul of the receiver. Plus, it leads to understanding other people’s emotions and enhanced interactions with business colleagues and subordinates follows.

Improves Your Social Skills

Social skills make up the fabric of a successful relationship, whether it’s in the workplace or anywhere else. Teams with high emotional intelligence, have an abundance of advanced social skills. They have great communication skills, meaning that they can lead without coming across dominating; they negotiate effectively so that all parties feel like it was a win-win situation; they start to work well in teams, fusing together leadership and negotiation skills to help achieve a goal.
As your executive coach, who also is your top wealth coach at the same time, help boost your emotional intelligence quotient, you start to see a positive impact on the workplace environment. Securing an executive coach can reap a ton of good benefits; however, improving self-awareness, and hence, increasing emotional intelligence should always be your top-most priority in your success.

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Learning from the Best – JT Foxx Success

Business coaching is the practice of hiring a person or even a team to come into your enterprise and help you work towards achieving your goals. You meet with your coach and define what objectives your company needs to aim for. You then create an action plan that enables you to attain these objectives, and the business coach exits once you have everything under control.

 

How Can JT Foxx be of Assistance?

Mainstream media has dubbed JT Foxx the world’s top wealth coach, as he started his real estate business from nothing and used it to start building what has now become over 50 different brands and businesses.

JT knows about starting and establishing an empire from scratch, and he’s ready to pass on the knowledge for you to succeed in your own business as well.

With such great credentials and an impressive track record, you’ll be sure to get only the best Foxx has to offer.

 

Success Stories from People Foxx has Helped

If you still need convincing as to why you should hire this guy for coaching, here are some of the testimonies from people he has helped through the years.

 

An Authentic Person

Foxx is very authentic! He talks straight from his experience and he is very thoughtful. What’s more is that Foxx will keep on coming back and teaching more so that the levels of success will continue to increase. Not a lot of coaches do that, and that sets him apart.

 

A Shortcut to Your Success

Events hosted by Foxx gave me advice that helped me to take my business up to the next level. Only with him can you meet other millionaires and billionaires. He’s not only empowered by the success we’ve been gaining, but he can also be the shortcut to your success if you let him!

 

Helps You to Become More Productive

Foxx is filled with depth, passion and creativity. If you’re keen on your time, you’ll be surprised at how Foxx can effectively and productively manage his. As both coach and author, his tips will surely change your life and how you run your business.

 

Will Motivate You to Act Without Making Excuses

As an author and coach, Foxx will motivate you to take action, and you don’t have to find excuses not to succeed. His style of teaching is very straightforward and easy to relate to.

In his book Business Lessons from JT Foxx, he presents several steps you can take to change the outcome of your life and future. This book is effective when it comes to succeeding in your business.
Success in the field of business would usually take a ton of time and effort for you to achieve, unless you equip yourself with the right tips and advice from the JT Foxx Organization of business coaches. Just remember that you can never do anything on your own, and success often takes two or more people to attain. So, throw that pride away and hire a business coach today!

What Are the Qualities of a Good Coach? – Learn 6 of Them Now

Today, coaching has become a sought-after skill as well as an essential part of leadership. More and more industry leaders are recognizing that they can gain better results personally and professionally through life coaching.

When the qualities of an effective life coach are applied in the workplace, it helps create an atmosphere of greater productivity, creativity and synergy. But what are the qualities of a good coach? Wouldn’t you like to incorporate these qualities into your business or practice?

What we’re going to show you below are just some of the essential qualities of a good coach that effective leaders excel in. As you read through the list, think about which ones you’d most like to work on next.

Be a Good Listener

Listening is known to be one of the most important skills you’ll be needing if you want to be an effective coach. You need to learn to focus and not be distracted by your own thoughts, not to mention external influences.

It’s important for you to remain curious, show genuine interest, and suspend all judgments so you can hear what the person is saying, both verbally and non-verbally. Don’t forget to practice keeping interruptions to a minimum.

Skillful Use of Questions

Well-worded questions are short and are straight to the point. Good questions are open-ended, thus letting others express their thoughts and feelings, rather than closed — yes or no — answers. They help deepen the understanding of the person being coached.

You don’t provide them the answers, but instead, you help them find the answers. This helps reinforce the idea that you believe in them, thus it empowers their own self-worth. If they’re struggling to come up with an answer, you may use leading questions that progressively move the person toward the desired goal.

Challenges Constructively

People are only motivated when they have a full understanding of the situation, and you can help your clients see any contradictions between what they say and what they’re doing. They may be held back by some limiting beliefs, so help them challenge these, because everyone is always capable of doing and achieving more.

Remember: what they’ve done in the past is no indication of their future.

Provides Feedback, Never Criticism

You never want to assert your expertise at the cost of your client feeling inadequate. Remember, strive hard to make your feedback specific, relevant, helpful, and, most of all, positive.

Focuses on the Client

As a coach, you should always consider your client’s agenda over your own. This means you need to help them identify their core values, so that your leadership keeps them on track with their goals.

Helps Create Accountability

Get a commitment from your client that they will finish a certain task by a specific deadline. Achieving goals and results that are measurable helps to build self-confidence and helps motivates your clients to accomplish more in the future.

“How to be a good coach?” you may ask? Well, if you have the above qualities, then you’re on the right track to being an effective coach. If not, you can always receive more training when necessary

If you would like to become a coach, enhance your current coaching skills, develop your brand, attract clients, learn how to coach the JT Foxx Way and/ or get a piece of your clients business as well as fees, contact us now! You can learn how to coach part-time or build a world-wide organization.

Time to review your investment strategy for the year

As the year draws to a close, it’s a good time to review your progress toward your financial goals. But on what areas should you focus your attention?

Of course, you may immediately think about whether your investments have done well. When evaluating the performance of their investments for a given year, many people mistakenly think their portfolios should have done just as well as a common market index, such as the Standard & Poor’s 500. But the S&P 500 is essentially a measure of large-company, domestic stocks, and your portfolio probably doesn’t look like that – nor should it, because it’s important to own an investment mix that aligns with your goals, risk tolerance and return objectives. It’s this return objective that you should evaluate over time – not the return of an arbitrary benchmark that isn’t personalized to your goals and risk tolerance.

Your return objective will likely evolve. If you are starting out in your career, you may need your portfolio to be oriented primarily toward growth, which means it may need to be more heavily weighted toward stocks. But if you are retiring in a few years, you may need a more balanced allocation between stocks and bonds, which can address your needs for growth and income.

So, assuming you have created a long-term investment strategy that has a target rate of return for each year, you can review your progress accordingly. If you matched or exceeded that rate this past year, you’re staying on track, but if your return fell short of your desired target, you may need to make some changes. Before doing so, though, you need to understand just why your return was lower than anticipated.

For example, if you owned some stocks that underperformed due to unusual circumstances – and even events such as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma can affect the stock prices of some companies – you may not need to be overly concerned, especially if the fundamentals of the stocks are still sound. On the other hand, if you own some investments that have underperformed for several years, you may need to consider selling them and using the proceeds to explore new investment opportunities.

Investment performance isn’t the only thing you should consider when looking at your financial picture over this past year. What changed in your life? Did you welcome a new child to your family? If so, you may need to respond by increasing your life insurance coverage or opening a college savings account. Did you or your spouse change jobs? You may now have access to a new employer-sponsored retirement account, such as a 401(k), so you’ll need to decide how much money to put into the various investments within this plan. And one change certainly happened this past year: You moved one year closer to retirement. By itself, this may cause you to re-evaluate how much risk you’re willing to tolerate in your investment portfolio, especially if you are within a few years of your planned retirement.

Whether it is the performance of your portfolio or changes in your life, you will find that you always have some reasons to look back at your investment and financial strategies for one year – and to look ahead at moves you can make for the next.

This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor.

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Chris Budd: The difference between coaching and lifestyle financial planning

There is a potential conflict between coaching and the burgeoning area of behavioural finance

By Chris Budd 11^th December 2017 10:24 am

Financial planners can, and should, use coaching skills to help clients work out their objectives. The approach provides real clarity and context to planning, and often leads to clients making meaningful discoveries about themselves.

That said, there is a potential conflict with the burgeoning area of behavioural finance.

The role of the coach is to facilitate thinking. The more you think you are doing something clever, the worse a coach you are likely to be. In this way, a good coach is rather like a good referee. If you do a really good job, people do not notice you.

This shows itself in many ways. Take paraphrasing, for example. The very act of taking what someone says and changing the words into your own is a process of turning the coachee’s comment into one based upon your values, not theirs.

It is notoriously difficult to truly take oneself out of a conversation. Social conventions mean smiling and nodding when someone is talking to us, yet even this provides a kind of casual confirmation which a coach must be careful to avoid.

Learning to be an effective coach is all about this neutrality.

In contrast to this, behavioural finance is all about helping people to realise they are almost pre-programmed to make bad decisions when it comes to money. Advisers are becoming more knowledgeable and able to help steer clients to making good decisions. They intervene.

One could argue that lifestyle financial planning is where behavioural finance and coaching skills meet.

However, if the life planner is not suitably trained in coaching skills and not fully aware they must be as neutral as possible in the discussion, then it is possible they will guide the client to conclusions which may be based on their own values, not those of the client.

When helping a client to understand their own objectives and motivations, we must leave our expertise and knowledge outside the room.

Being an effective financial planner means not using our expertise until late in the process (be that technical knowledge or behavioural finance issues). This does not come naturally to most people. It requires training and practice.

Coaching is a technique that needs to be learned. There is no shortcut. It took me two years to get my diploma in business coaching and I continue to learn constantly.

Real financial planning is the key to complete the transition from an industry to a profession. But that change will only work if we realise that clients are not under our spell.

We are there to help them plot a path to clearly identifiable objectives, and to do so takes skill. And skills require training.

Chris Budd is founder of Ovation Finance

Five tips for advisers using coaching skills:

• Silence is golden
• Your technical knowledge will get in the way. Leave it until later
• Spend time reflecting. Record meetings and listen back. If there was a moment of realisation, what did you say or do just before it arrived?
• Do not start a question with “why?”
• Knowing when to coach is almost as important as knowing how to coach

By Chris Budd 11^th December 2017 10:24 am

Source: https://www.moneymarketing.co.uk

Looking to Hire a Financial Advisor?

Are you thinking of hiring a financial advisor to help you with your money? Full disclosure, I’m not, obviously, because I am one.

 

I’ll tell you this, though… Coming from someone who’s been in this industry for over a decade, if I was looking to hire a financial advisor there are a few questions I would need to have answered in order to feel comfortable about trusting one with my hard earned money especially since there can be risk involved in investing.

Any way you slice it, the idea of moving your life savings from one financial advisor to another, or the idea of trusting someone and working with someone to help you build your nest egg is a major decision that should not be taken lightly.

Taking the wrong type of advice to heart or making certain types of mistakes could end up costing you a lot of money over the course of your saving and investing career.

I want to help you avoid doing that.

Let’s pretend (just for a few minutes) that I’m looking to hire a financial advisor, I’ll tell you exactly what I’d be looking for if I was…

First things first, only work with someone you feel good about being connected with and working with.

I always say this is kind of a no-brainer. If you’re looking to feel good about the direction your money is moving and what choices you make, it’s important that you have a solid working relationship with your advisor.

The connection I’m referring to is made up of a few elements…

Trust: I think it’s important to most people to feel like your advisor is working in your best interests and being honest with you. You want to know that if you ask a question it’ll get answered and that if you have a concern it’ll be resolved.
After all, you’re trusting your future with someone and you should make sure you feel like they’re worthy of that kind of responsibility.

Communication: Whoever you decide to hire to work with your money, I would definitely make sure you feel comfortable communicating with them.
I always say it’s a good idea to discuss your expectations with a potential advisor up front. If you want to speak to them weekly, tell them. If you only want to hear from them once a year, tell them.
If you normally get nervous and feel offended when you don’t get a voicemail or email returned by your advisor within 24 hours, let them know up front. If you can come to an understanding about the best way to communicate up-front, it could save you a lot of frustration over the long-term.

Respect: This one kind of goes hand in hand with trust, but you have to respect the ideology of your financial advisor.
On the same token, your advisor better be in a position where they respect your ideas and the expectations you have for your money.

It’s not a REQUIREMENT that you love your advisor (I hope you do), but if you can’t stand sitting in the same room with them or you feel like you have to second-guess their knowledge (or lack thereof) this could turn into a bigger issue later than it is now.

Working with a financial professionalthat you don’t have a mutual understanding of respect with is a slippery slope that can breed resentment and a lack of communication when it comes to your money.

Ask Them if They’re a Fiduciary

Fiduciary: Being legally and ethically bound to act in another’s best interests.

You may not know this, but not all financial advisors are legally required to work in your best interests when it comes to managing your money, offering you financial products, or creating financial plans for you.

One would think that when it comes to working with your money all advisors would do what’s best for their clients 100% of the time but that’s simply not the case with all financial advisors. In fact, you may be surprised to know that there are a lot fewer advisors truly acting as a fiduciary for their clients that those who actually ARE acting in this capacity for their clients.

Recently, the Department of Labor has passed (and is in the process of passing) the Fiduciary Rule into effect. This is a piece of legislation meant to keep consumers in the know when it comes to who’s really working with their money and to disclose and highlight the different conflicts of interest that may be taking place with some types of financial professionals.

Now, any financial professional who works with your IRAs, 401(k)s or any other qualified retirement account is considered to be a fiduciary. Unfortunately, this same level of care is not required for money other than these qualified retirement accounts, unless you’re working with an advisor who maintains the fiduciary standard of care at all times.

Not to get into TOO much detail here, but I think this is BIG for the industry.

Prior to the passing of the rule, a lot of financial professionals have worked for their clients on what we call a “suitability standard”. This means they are only held by the standard to what is “suitable” for their client’s financial situation.

This means that they can offer you products and recommendations that may be “suitable” for you. This is OK, but things like commissions paid to brokers, fees charged by financial institutions for managing money and also incentives that certain companies provide to brokers and advisors may not need to be spelled out and compared across products in plain English for you so you can truly decide what makes the most sense for you.

Transparency: Clear, easy to see through, not containing anything that would obstruct your view.

I believe advisors should have a transparent and open platform for their clients. This means that they should disclose all fees, commissions, and conflicts of interest with their clients up front prior to doing business with them, collections fees from them, and receiving commissions from them as well.

I also believe advisors should ALWAYS be held to the Fiduciary standard, not just when dealing with qualified retirement accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s.

If I were looking to hire a financial advisor, knowing what I know now (and what I’ve seen in the 10+ years I’ve been helping people plan with their money), I would seek one out that’s been acting as a fiduciary for their clients for the majority or all of their career, not someone who is scrambling to adjust to the changes in the industry as they happen. I would be looking for an advisor with a track record of doing what’s best for clients because of who they are, not because of new rules that force them to change.

Are you thinking of interviewing a potential advisor? Ask them what they think about the new law, and ask them how long they’ve been officially acting as a fiduciary for their clients.

If your prospective financial advisor seems confused by any of those types of questions, just ask to see their form ADV 2 brochure– that’s a document that investment advisors are required to give to their clients if they solicit business from them, get your hands on that document and read for yourself.

If your advisor doesn’t have an ADV 2 brochure then they most likely work for an insurance company or a broker-dealer and may not even be a real financial advisor (they could be what’s called a Registered Representative or just a life insurance agent). I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but I would personally feel safer working with someone that was required to tell me everything about their business in writing before we did business.

Figure out if you’re potentially working with a broker-type advisor or a planning-type advisor

There are a few different types of financial advisors out there.

A broker-type advisor is mostly focused on selling and managing investments or other financial products for their clients for their clients.

A planning-type advisor focuses on putting together financial plans for their clients by running the numbers and doing the math to achieve specific financial goals like having a certain amount of income in retirement or helping you prioritize when to make certain financial decisions.

If you can find an advisor that offers brokerage services and also financial planning, you may get a more holistic approach to your money by doing that if it’s important to you.

It pays to have a plan (about getting a plan)

This is a big decision. Take your time when you interview an advisor, make sure you feel comfortable with who you’re working with. Understand that there is no “perfect” advisor out there, but taking the time to find and work with a financial professional that you feel good about working with can definitely pay you dividends in peace of mind throughout your lifetime.

 

 

SOURCE: http://www.theartofaplan.com/hiring-a-financial-advisor/