Financial Planner

[Grace]

Once you get past the emotional element of the divorce...the rest is simply a business transaction.

I'm at the stage where the Judge has ordered the assets divided. They have been frozen for 4 years. I'm very good at sticking to a tight budget and paying my bills on time. But I'm not confident enough with my limited knowledge on how to invest the money which is going to come from mutual funds that were divided. Also in my agreement, we agreed that my ex would pay less than tabled child support, but I got a bigger piece of one of the investment to compensate. Perhaps I should be taking out the dividends to top up the child support.

Anybody ever hired a Financial Planner? And if so, were you glad to did, or a waste of money?

[logicalvelocity]

Grace,

I found that most banks offer good sound financial planning especially if you are investing in their RSP savings plans. The banks also deal with mutual funds with various risk levels and will give the advice free where in respect to an independent financial planner they may charge you a significant fee.

[Jenny]

I have found the best financial planners to be independant ones. The banks want to sell only their products- not necessarily the best rates, where an independent one has access to all companies including the bank's products. Most planners are paid with commissions from the sales of the products and cost you nothing. Who ever you go make sure they take the time to go over your goals and plans. They should fill out a form to set your risk levels and only go for investments within that category. Ask around :-)

[gooddadgoingmad]

I agree with Jenny on this. My parents use an independant financial planner who actually invests his own money the same as he is investing theirs.

It is very important to use an independant planner who has been around for at least 10-15 years. This ensures that they have had experience with the market and probably have kept a close eye on the more stable investments.

I personally think it's great to use someone who is doing for you, what he is doing for himself. My parents started using this guy about 7 years ago, and they said that if they had been doing it for 20 they would be very wealthy! I'm talking about two people who trust no one!! Ha! Seriously, he has made a huge difference to their portfolio.

[applepie]

Whichever way you go don't be afraid to ask the person lots of questions. After all they are going to be handling your finances, you want to make sure not only that they are trustworthy but you are comfortable working with them.

Ask them their schooling and make sure they are signed up with the appropriate affiliations. (I believe in Canada it is the Canadian Association of Financial Planners.) See if they will give you the names of some of their current clients and give them a call to see how they like working with that financial planner.