3 Types of Financial Advisors

There's basically three categories of people who call themselves financial advisors. The first one is what I call reps representatives. Right? These are people who sell loaded mutual funds or commissioned mutual funds. They sell insurance, etc. They're representatives of a company and they charge commissions. They are paid via the commissions on the products they sell you. They are product salespeople masquerading as financial advisors. The next category is kind of a blend category. They typically call themselves fee based advisors. And lots of people make the mistake. They think fee based is the same as fee only. It is not. A fee based advisor wears two hats. They are a representative and they charge you fees. And so you're paying through commissions and you're paying fees. The third major category is fee only. You're just paying them fees for their service and their advice.