Amar Pandit, Founder & Chief Happiness Officer, HappynessFactory.in
All of us have lots of friends. Those from college, school, at the workplace, and elsewhere. Sometimes friends are even closer than family. We feel at ease confiding in them things we wouldn’t share with the family. There are jokes only they can laugh at. The close ones correct us when we are going off track. They add much value to our lives.
There is more one kind of friendship that is highly beneficial. It is with the professionals who advise us on many different things like finances, health, spirituality, etc., helping us live our lives better. Of these, friendship with your financial planner is very important.
What does a healthy professional friendship with a financial planner look like? A financial planner who is a professional friend is someone who you can confide your money matters in. He is someone who looks out for your welfare and success.
Friendship, like all other relationships after all, is a two-way lane. But the moment a financial advisor who is a professional friend enters your finances, he puts your interest before his. When you win, he wins.
Such a financial planner will put in the effort to understand you, your family, your aspirations, goals, income, expenses, cashflows, assets, liabilities, insurances, investments and other information that might be relevant. He would help you define your goals in monetary terms and prepare a strategy to achieve them, taking into account your financial liabilities. He would also take information about your behavior towards risks and want to know how you react in upmarket and down-market situations.
An advisor who is a professional friend would assume the role of a coach who helps you identify your financial strengths and weaknesses.
If there is any area of finance relevant to you that he doesn’t deal in directly, he would connect you with others competent to help you after doing the necessary due diligence on them. He would take care of your finances just as he would took care of his own family’s money.
He would be honest with you at all times, make no promises of stellar returns. He would ensure that your expectation of returns is realistic.
When you are tempted to make an adverse move, he would warn you, stop you. He would use tough love when required, making sure that nothing comes in between your goals and you, not even you!
In fact, as you end up having honest conversations about your dreams, aspirations, financial capacities and plan together how you would achieve those goals, it wouldn’t be surprising to have automatically developed a friendship with your financial planner.
Have you found such a financial planner who can be a professional friend to trust your finances with? Don’t stop the search until you do.