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Retirement Planning > Retirement Investing

The Four Traits of the ‘Perfect Advisor’

By Andrew Rice

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All investors are looking for the ‘Perfect Advisor,’ but for some reason, many never find them. It’s no wonder, if even some of what I’ve heard investors want in their ‘perfect advisor’ is true! Allow me to elaborate.

To these investors, the perfect advisor is:

1)     Smart
They expect their perfect advisor to be highly educated, have years of experience and worlds of knowledge about the secret and unknowable world of the financial industry. They should have strategies for investing that are secretive and elusive, and far more sophisticated than the average investor could ever understand.

They should also be smart enough to help clients eliminate their income tax burden by advising them how to find tax loopholes that “the wealthy get away with all the time.” They should be able to further help clients retire whenever desired, regardless of their financial situation, retirement assets saved or retirement income needs for the future.  

2)     A Magician 
The perfect advisor should also be able to assess how clients are currently living and saving for retirement then and magically make it work so they can retire tomorrow! With the perfect advisor, the client would never have to save more money, downsize their house or mortgage, sell the BMW or Lexus, work a few years longe, or have to change their lifestyle in any way because the perfect advisor will just make it all work out. This perfect advisor would also be able to magically generate any returns they need to meet their goals immediately. Shazzam! 

3)     The Consummate Insider 
The perfect advisor should be able to get clients in on all the big investment deals before anyone else knows about them. He or she should have insider knowledge just like the wealthy have access to because, of course, that’s how they become wealthy. Right? 

Furthermore, as an insider, the perfect advisor should know how to keep clients’ 401(k)s or IRAs from ever dropping in value, even during recessions, because they know how to time the market. They should also know the perfect (silver bullet) investment to purchase, so that a client’s $100k or $200k will turn into $4M or $5M in less than five or six years.

4)     Inexpensive 
The perfect advisor should never charge fees for managing money until the client makes their investment returns. As advisors, they should know how to generate returns consistently, month after month, regardless of recessions or bull markets. However, if this advisor does charge a fee, he or she should be willing to do so on a consulting basis with the client—at a small hourly rate – while extensively teaching the client how to manage their own money and create millions.

While this may be a bit tongue in cheek, I’m sure you get my point that the average investors’ idea of the perfect advisor doesn’t exist! But I believe the perfect advisor really does exist; they’re just called ‘fiduciaries!’

They’re not perfect because of any of the above reasons, but because they’re willing to educate, help, invest and manage clients’ money in a very prudent manner, while always being honest about how the investment and wealth creation process really works.

So from one fiduciary advisor to another, I encourage all of us to help investors reach their full potential by striving to be the ‘true perfect advisor’ instead of what most investors think is the ‘perfect advisor.’   

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