How Your Finances Can Benefit from a Team of Advisors

Getting holistic financial advice is like building a home. It often takes a whole team of professionals to do the plumbing, set up electricity, and do the roofing. In order to get your financial house in order, it is important to work with a team of financial professionals who can identify your financial goals, save you money on taxes and draft legal paperwork. 

What is a Team of Advisors?  

A team of advisors is a group of professionals who work together to guide you in making financial decisions and provide you with financial input and advice. These professionals should be people who you feel comfortable establishing a relationship with and trust to give you advice. 

Depending on the complexity of your current financial decision, you may contact your team on a weekly, monthly, or as-needed basis. As you and your team work together, it is important to have regular and ongoing contact to share changes, developments, achievements, and difficulties. It is important that these professionals are engaged and want to help you become successful. 

Why is a Team of Advisors Better than a Single Advisor?

A team of advisors helps build innovation and strategy. A collaborative team will be able to analyze all possible solutions and determine the best path for you. A great financial team will look beyond your financial data by discovering your values and life plan. Any financial professional can make recommendations for you, but a team who truly understands you will keep you in mind while strategizing effective ways to help you. 

A team of advisors checks barriers that could affect you now and in the future. A great finance team will be able to calculate your current financial situation, but also prepare for possible risks that might be headed your way. A financial team should be able to make recommendations from cash flow to tax implications to insurance evaluations. It is important for your financial team to understand how your financial situation relates to your success or failure to reach your financial goals.

A team of advisors can set the course of your financial future. In addition to equipping you with financial guidance and support, having a valuable team can provide you with the financial structure you need to reach your financial goals. When it comes to using money wisely, many people become victims to overspending and not budgeting wisely. The knowledge that the financial professionals can give you will help you stay on the path, overcome challenges and make smart decisions to efficiently use your money. 

A team of advisors gives you up-to-date information at your fingertips. A well-educated financial team will be able to help you adjust your financial decisions to be in line with current tax, federal, and state laws. With the help of your financial team, you will be able to refocus your time on the people and things that mean the most to you.  

Who Should be on Your Team?

These are the suggested advisors that every person should be able to have in their network. Depending on your financial goals, you may want to also include an advisor who may be able to help you in a more individualistic way. For example, if you are someone who owns several homes, you may want to consider having a real estate agent in addition to the professionals below. 

Tax Advisors  

Tax Advisors can navigate your current tax filing, but also can develop a strategic plan to help you reduce the amount of taxes you will need to pay in the future. Tax laws change frequently, therefore it is important to hire a tax advisor who has experience in researching tax codes and court cases. When hiring a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), look for one who has experience with working with people who have similar income and assets as you. 

Issues they solve: estimated tax payments, income deferment, the best structure for your business, or creating tax planning strategies for minimizing tax liability.

Attorneys

An attorney is not often thought of as a financial professional, however, there are many situations in which an attorney can be useful in your financial life. Since most financial advisors do not draft legal documents, attorneys and advisors can work effectively together to help create your estate documents. As your life transitions, having an attorney can help you make changes to your beneficiaries or add assets into your trust. 

Issues they solve: negotiate a divorce settlement, sell or restructure your business, write or update a will, or develop an estate plan.

Financial Planners

Financial Planners are professionals who are certified to give investment advice. A financial planner may help by being able to analyze your employee benefits, evaluate your insurance needs, and develop a spending plan. Hiring a fee-only financial planner can reduce the disclosures and biases involved with selling insurance and investment products. 

Issues they solve: whether to buy a home or rent, when to exercise your equity compensation, investment allocation, help you pay off debt, or save for college. 

What to look out for when building your team:

• Find professionals that work well with others. In any team relationship, collaboration is key to being the most valuable team possible. You want professionals who are able to work together with the main goal of helping you. 
• Make sure you’re working with fiduciaries, not a salesman. Your advisors should be focusing on your best interests, not their wallets. 
• Create a team that is able to help you long-term. You want professionals that will be able to help you every step of the financial process. Look for firms that have a reputation for being proactive with their clients. 
• Focus on specialization. Find financial professionals who have expertise in the things that mean the most to you. If you are a business owner, you should have professionals who help clients who have similar businesses. It is also key to find professionals who share similar values to you. For example, if you want to retire early, you should look for professionals who specialize in working with FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) clients.

Start Assembling Your Financial Team

Creating a team can help you develop a better retirement plan and tax plan and feel more confident in your financial situation. While there’s a lot to consider when creating a financial team, reaching out to your financial team is often a better choice than managing everything on your own. Taking the extra effort to find these experts will free up more time to enjoy the people and things that mean the most to you. 

To start you off on the right foot here are some steps to start:

1. Have a clear understanding of what you want from a group of financial professionals. 
2. Gather information on advisors in your network or through online resources.
3. Set up a consultation meeting to discover if they are a good fit for you. Explain what kind of support you need and educate them about what a financial team relationship will look like.  

Bottom Line

A valuable financial team is one where each professional complements the other. Similar to a soccer team, each player must act as a single body in pursuit of your success. Your team will help you guide the ball along the field but don’t forget that you are the one responsible for making the shots.