not all financial advisors are alike
choose the right advisor for your wealth journey
The world of financial advice can be confusing, and not all advisors operate under the same principles. Learn what questions to ask to find the right advisor for you.
How to assess whether someone is a good financial advisor
Not all financial advisors work the same way: some work directly for you, while some get paid through the investments they recommend, and others have the equivalent of sales targets. Figuring out who is the best financial advisor for you can be a complex task.
However, by asking some basic questions, you can gain an understanding of the key differences between advisors and firms.
These questions are:
- Who do you work for?
- What kind of services do you provide?
- What kind of educational background and professional credentials do you have?
- How do you get paid?
- What’s the value?
"Who do you work for?"
At Griffin Black, we work directly for our clients.
As a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) firm, we have an open-ended, fiduciary responsibility toward our clients. We must disclose any potential conflicts of interest to our clients so they can evaluate the context of the advice they are being given. When recommending products, our advisors must recommend what they consider to be the best product for that individual client’s situation.
What’s the alternative?
Most people who call themselves “financial advisors” owe their primary allegiance to the company they work for or the product vendor they represent. This means that the customers they serve aren’t their first priority. Legally speaking, these individuals are sales professionals, even if their business card says something else. This includes insurance agents and stockbrokers. The legal obligations that they have toward their customers are specific and limited, and they aren’t required by law to disclose potential conflicts of interest. They are also free to recommend any “suitable” product, not necessarily the best fit for that specific individual.
“What kind of services do you provide?”
Griffin Black offers holistic wealth management.
We divide our services into three main offerings:
- Financial Planning
- Investment Management
- Retirement Planning
What's the alternative?
Different firms offer various combinations of services. The firm you choose must offer services suitable to your needs and goals.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with having different kinds and combinations of financial services available to consumers. The issue arises when it’s difficult for a given consumer to determine what they’re going to get when they go looking for financial advice. Asking the right follow-up questions can go a long way in figuring out if an advisor you’re considering can deliver what you need.
Do you provide general financial advisory services, investment management services, or both?
Griffin Black offers both financial planning and investment management services. While you can engage us for investment management alone, our holistic wealth management includes both and looks at the entirety of your financial well-being.
Not all firms offer both services, so if you’re looking for someone to help you plan in that big-picture way, you’ll want to seek out an advisor who can do both.
If you provide both services, do you largely outsource one of them?
Generally, all the strategic elements of Griffin Black’s services are handled in-house. However, specialists, experts, and technology are leveraged routinely to enhance services and improve performance.
Some examples include: consulting tax professionals for specific situations or recommendations, using technology for cash flow and risk analysis, or working with providers of highly technical investment services such as SMAs (separately managed accounts).
How do you present financial advice to clients?
Since we engage with our clients on a long-term basis, our advice takes the form of a flexible and adaptable personal finance framework. This customized approach is meant to evolve with your life and career. Ongoing advice is given based on life transitions and personal goals and objectives.
Not all firms engage on in an ongoing relationship; they may offer their advice in a single written document. Others may work in an ongoing way and give a series of modular recommendations over time.
Do you address a broad range of client situations in your financial planning, or do you specialize in one specific area?
Griffin Black specializes in working with high-achieving individuals, especially those living in the Bay Area (or similar contexts like Austin, TX, or Atlanta, GA). Among those high-achieving individuals, we work in a broad range of situations, such as early wealth, major life changes (e.g. job transition, divorce, moving abroad), and retirement. We also service the Indian American community, as well as Americans living in India.
Depending on the complexity of your situation, you may want an advisor with knowledge to help you determine the best course of action for your personal situation. Advisors who work in a broad range of situations may be better equipped to help you in the future, when unexpected life changes arise.
Do you advise clients on an ongoing basis?
Yes, we advise clients on an ongoing basis. We believe that financial planning is not a one-time event, but rather an ongoing process that requires regular review and adjustments.
While one-time advice has its place, it rarely produces the best results. Good wealth management requires continued attention.
Do you charge an extra fee for financial planning, or is it part of what your clients are already paying for?
Our fees are intended to be simple and straightforward. Griffin Black charges an annual fee for long-term holistic wealth management, which includes financial planning.
Be wary of those who don’t include financial planning in their service fees, as this can become costly very quickly, especially when your situation shifts or when you have a big project.
Do you help clients implement recommendations, and do you receive compensation for recommending or providing products to clients?
Yes, we help our clients implement recommendations. Strategy without action has no value, but implementation tends to be the more difficult task.
As for compensation for recommending products, no, we never receive compensation for just recommending products or external services to clients. If a client needs a particular product or service, we assist them in finding the most appropriate options by weighing the benefits and cost. We may recommend a specific option, but the client always makes the final decision.
“What kind of educational background and professional credentials do you have?”
Advisors at Griffin Black have respected professional qualifications.
Generally speaking, smaller, boutique firms tend to have advisors with more experience, which is the case with Griffin Black as well. If you’re curious about the specific background or credentials of any of our advisors, you can see these details in the team bios.
What’s the alternative?
Many of the large, national firms employ a large number of advisors, many of which are recent graduates who don’t yet have a lot of experience. While it can feel comforting to work with a nationally branded firm, this is a significant drawback.
Do you have a college degree? What did you study?
Financial advisors don’t have to have a specific bachelor’s degree, but there are some programs of study that prepare someone to be a financial advisor much better than others. Some common relevant degrees are finance, economics, accounting, business administration, or personal financial planning. In the end, developing skills in finance, analysis, communication, and problem-solving are the most important aspects of a financial planner’s study.
Do you have a graduate degree in economics, business, or finance?
While not strictly necessary for an advisor, a graduate degree in a related field can aid an advisor in their journey to offer the best guidance to their clients. With deeper technical knowledge and stronger analytical thinking, this kind of advanced study can expand the types of clients that an advisor can confidently serve.
What kind of professional credentials do you have?
To be a Certified Financial Planner® (CFP®), an individual must meet rigorous standards, including a bachelor’s degree, completion of a board-registered program, passing a comprehensive exam, and committing to a fiduciary duty to always act in a client’s best interest. This is a certification that distinguishes them from general financial advisors, some of whom are actually sales professionals.
How much experience do you have with business generally and as a financial advisor?
Experience is crucial in taking individuals in any discipline beyond textbook knowledge and into real expertise. General business knowledge helps advisors make strategic decisions and anticipate problems. And the more years they have under their belt as an advisor adds to their ability to advise clients well.
Griffin Black advisors create productive relationships through hard and soft skills.
We understand that working with an financial advisor is always going to have a personal aspect. The attitudes and personal approach an advisor takes is bound to impact the relationship and its outcomes, so we put a lot of emphasis on being respectful, thoughtful, and thorough in every client interaction.
What’s the alternative?
Advisors are people, and their unique personalities will impact the way they do their jobs. Some advisors can be opinionated to a fault or fail to be able to understand their clients’ perspectives and unique goals.
Will this advisor listen to me and try to understand my perspective?
When looking at soft skills in an advisor, you want to choose someone who knows how to actively listen and can appreciate experiences that vary from their own. Your own personal goals, values, history, and beliefs have a big impact on how you manage your finances. Even if an advisor would personally do something differently, they should be able to understand your perspective and give guidance that is optimized for your unique life.
Has this advisor had experience working with people like me?
The world is full of different kinds of people, and people with similar jobs, cultures, or geographic locations can have similarities in how they manage money. If your advisor has worked with people similar to you, they will likely prove to be more adept at navigating the opportunities and challenges you face simply because they’ve done it before.
Does this advisor haver personal life experience that will be helpful to me?
Just like other areas of life, it’s often easiest to form a relationship with a financial advisor when we have a lot in common with them. For example, if you want to work with a financial planner because you are preparing to move abroad for your job, someone who has also relocated for work may prove to be more helpful than someone who has not.
Do I trust this advisor to be respectful, honest, and fair?
This is a non-negotiable when choosing a financial advisor. When choosing someone to help you manage your hard-earned wealth, you absolutely need to be able to trust that this individual will be respectful of you and the choices you make. Honesty is crucial, or you’ll feel like you’re gambling with their advice instead of making strategic choices. To know that someone will deal fairly with you is at the core of a trustworthy financial advising relationship.
"How do you get paid?"
Griffin Black charges a straightforward annual fee for long-term holistic wealth management.
When you boil it down, our advisors are paid for providing financial advice. Our fees are determined by a combination of client age and assets under management (AUM).
What’s the alternative?
There are basically only two different ways for a financial advisor to be paid: (1) being paid directly for advice or (2) being paid for selling a product. Even when individuals make money primarily by selling products, they may still offer financial advice and refer to themselves as “financial advisors.” However, because they are being paid for the sale of the product and not for the advice, there’s the possibility that they will focus on that aspect of what they do instead of focusing on what is best for you as their client.
“What's the value?”
Griffin Black’s holistic wealth management seeks to create clarity in the present and security in the future.
In our long-term work with our clients, we seek to create value from the guidance we offer them. It isn’t simply about “beating the market”; it’s about helping you be more efficient with your money, reducing your financial risk, lowering your tax bill, and generally saving and making more money.
What's the alternative?
When focused on the cost of services or products, an advisor can sometimes end up only really breaking even, creating value that is hardly equal to what the advisor earns in fees. At the end of the day, that’s not worth the investment for the client.
What may be the cost if I make the wrong decisions?
Looking just at the benefits of working with a financial advisor is missing half of the picture; you should also consider the cost of what not working with an advisor might be.
Nothing is certain, but experience shows us that there are a lot of pitfalls for people to fall into without a professional to guide them: Social Security planning, saving for college, retirement planning, portfolio management, and more. Making mistakes in any of these areas can prove to be costly down the line.
What opportunities might I be missing?
Something we consistently find when we begin working with a new client is that they’re unaware of some of the opportunities that are available to them. There are limits to what any one person can know, and that’s why financial advisors are so valuable: our expertise is in identifying and weighing all the opportunities for our clients. In short, we know about the options so you don’t have to.
What is the value of all the time and effort I expend trying to do this myself?
We can’t answer this question for you, but it’s an important one to consider. Some people enjoy dabbling in financial planning, but for most, it’s just another set of high-stakes decisions that take up time and brain power.
In the long run, professional financial help can free up your time and energy to do more of what you enjoy or excel at.
at griffin black we answer your questions and more
Our team is committed to building a productive advising relationship with you
An advisor who works for you
Since Griffin Black is an RIA firm, you can trust that your advisor is recommending what they believe to be the best path for you.
Holistic wealth management
When it comes to wealth, you need to look at the big picture. Your Griffin Black advisor can help manage all your assets and build a robust plan.
Experience you can trust
Our advisors are qualified and experienced, giving them the kind of insight and wisdom you need to make good decisions for your future.
Ongoing, long-term value
When we work with clients, we do so with the long game in mind. Making wise financial decisions often bears fruit steadily, over time.