The average fee is 1% of assets for money management. You can find online brokerage houses that will do it for .5% or less and some money managers will charge 2-3% of assets under management, plus 10% of profits. These are usually referred to as hedge fund managers. If you using a local financial advisor, you should expect to pay between 1-2%.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, but there are versions of it. If you are with an online brokerage firm, you can often talk to a licensed advisor for free. However, many will find their advice to be general and lacking any individuality. If you’re looking for personal advice on your unique situation, it’s a good idea to look for a financial advisor who sees clients one on one.

First, you can find online reviews of local financial advisors by doing a simple Google search. After you found that one that looks best to you, we recommend going in to see them for an interview. You and the advisor are both interviewing each other to see if it’s a good fit. If an advisor starts talking about investments and returns out of the gate, we suggest looking elsewhere. Investments are a side-effect of a sound financial strategy. As a rule, you shouldn’t talk about investments until the advisor has taken the time to get to know you and your goals. You may want to also check with brokercheck.org to make sure they are in good standing.

The fees that financial advisors charger are usually based on complicated financial planning and advising. If this is not the case for you and you are just getting started out, you may not want to employ a financial advisor at this time. Most financial advisors have a minimum requirement of net worth.

Almost all financial advisors will meet and talk with you about your financial goals for free. This is a great opportunity to get to know the advisor and see if they are right for you. If you are with a robo-advisor or an online brokerage firm, you can usually talk to someone at the 1-800 number for free. However, most people with high net worth have complicated financial planning, which could cost them thousands of dollars over time without good advice.

Although there are many book sellers out there that say they are not worth it, we would give an emphatic yes. Vanguard, the king of no-cost, self-service management agrees that advisors are worth every penny. While most advisors charge around 1% of assets under management, Vanguard found that “advisors can add value, or alpha, by providing relationship-oriented services - such as cogent wealth management via financial planning, behavioral coaching, and guidance - as a primary objective of the value proposition.” In their famous study called Advisor’s Alpha, they found that, on average, an investor would get an additional 3% annual return when using an active advisor.

Just like all industries, financial management has no shortage of scams and theft. However, there are great ways to avoid those types of instances. For one, working with an advisor that is under supervision by a large company. Some independent advisors work alone and only have a bare minimum of supervision. Larger firms have extensive supervision and protocols in place to ensure that nothing outside of predetermined guidelines happens. With local advisors, it’s always great to check their online reviews.

Although not impossible, financial advisors can rarely take your money. As long as the accounts are opened in your name only, the assets will be independent of your advisor. In other words, never open a Joint account with both your name and your advisor’s name on it. A good rule of thumb is to never make out checks to the advisor or invest in his own brand of investment club. As with all things, going with a larger company can nearly eliminate all of these potential problems with a fair amount of supervision.

Not everyone needs a financial advisor. Here is a good list of people that could use some professional advice:

* If you are nearing retirement and want to make sure you are on the right track.

• You have recently inherited some money and you would like advice on how to best maximize it’s effect on your life.
• If you have recently gotten married and you want to arrange your finances and strategies as a couple.
• You are recently divorced and you need to rearrange your finances for a single retirement with the assets that you kept.
• Your mom and/or dad are getting older and they may need help managing their finances, monetary needs, estate planning, etc.
• If you know that you need to save for retirement, but hate the stock market and investing and you need a partner to guide you.
• I’m in retirement and I have an advisor, but I never hear from him/her and I’m not sure if my investments are important to them. You have recently been awarded a large settlement, but don’t want it to be structured (annuitized).

Someone meeting with a financial advisor would get more out of their meeting if they knew ahead of time what their goals are. You may have both short term and long term goals and you may want to talk about multiple goals. You should have an idea on what those are before you arrive. When it comes to retirement, here are some questions you can ask yourself to become better prepared for your meeting: At what age do you want to retire? How much money would you spend in retirement each month to live comfortably? How much have you saved so far (provide statements and documents)? Do you have a pension and/or social security? If so, what are those numbers at different points in time (provide statements and documents)? What is your current budget for necessities, as well as your fun-money budget? How much are you investing now and how much could you invest at this time?

Reasons you would need or want a financial advisor can be many. If you have complicated issues with tax planning, investments, businesses, estate planning, charitable contributions, etc., then you would probably want to employ a financial advisor. If you are looking for a partner to work with you throughout the years, you may also want to employ a financial advisor. If you’re just starting out and have minimal complications or investments, you may want to decided to go it alone. If you do go it alone, we ask th