Three speakers break down how to identify financial advisors who charge excessive fees or push unsuitable products. They explain when to fire a bad advisor and how to find someone trustworthy instead.
We're going to talk about financial advisors today. And the problem with the term financial advisor is it doesn't actually mean anything, right? Just about anybody can call themselves a financial advisor, but you got to get into the details, figure out how they're being paid, how much they're being paid, what kind of advice they're giving before you say, well, this is somebody I want to trust for financial advice. I have interactions with financial advisors all the time. Some of the most fiery ones come as comments on the blog. In this case, this was a comment on the show Notes for a podcast we ran not all that long ago. We ran it at the end of May, and I got a comment on there from someone who considers herself a financial advisor. And she wasn't very happy with me.
She said, maybe you should learn more about annuities before you spout off about them. No annuity pays a 10% commission. The average is a little over 5%.
He goes on and on and on and on. Tells me how I don't know anything about a little bit about you.
So I did.
Somebody that's been in the financial services industry for about.
They charge an AUM fee of as much as 3%. They routinely start it and actually feel like you're doing people a favor.
You're not. So I told this lady I wasn't particularly kind in my replying comment, right?
I said, you're a sales agent masquerading as an advisor. I looked up your history and it's not pretty.
And I kind of went through the history that I mentioned to you and.
I said, clearly you are not the target audience for this blog. You are its subject. So I really don't care what you think about what I write. Quit selling people crap they don't need and certainly don't want once they understand how it works and pretending to just some sort of unbiased financial advice. If I had my way, your firm would have zero clients. I hope you go out of business asap.
So anyway, if you have an advisor that is doing that sort of a thing, you need to get a new advisor, right?
You know, the people on our recommended.
Advisor list, they didn't like it when we came out with an online course in 2018 titled Fire your financial advisor. But they got over it because they realized I wasn't talking about advisors like them when I'm talking about firing your advisor. Yeah, some of you are hardcore do it yourselfers and you'll fire advisors, even like the good ones on our list. And that's fine, perfectly fine. I'm talking about advisors that need to be fired. I'm talking about people like this lady. This person should have no clients, charging 2.5% AUM fees and selling you crappy loaded mutual funds and crappy annuities and pretending they're helping you. They're not helping you, they're just ripping you off. So if you have an advisor like that, fire them. If you need an advisor, get a good advisor. We got a whole list of them. If you don't need an advisor, learn.
How to do it yourself. Need a little help with that?
Our fire your financial advisor course can help you. But you know, these sorts of people need to be run out of business. They either need to change their business practices and become real financial advisors or they need to be run out of business. And that's just the way the financial services industry is. And I make no apologies about that.
The hosts of the White Coat Investor are not licensed accountants, attorneys or financial advisors. This podcast is for your entertainment and information only. It should not be considered professional or personalized financial advice. You should consult the appropriate professional for specific advice relating to your situation.
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