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Find financial advisors specializing in serving newlyweds and ready to help with your financial planning needs as a married couple so you can enjoy your new life together with less money stress.
As a newlywed, you may be thinking about hiring a financial advisor who understands the unique financial planning challenges and opportunities facing couples who just tied the knot. Fortunately, an increasing number of financial advisors specialize in serving clients who recently exchanged their vows.
Before hiring a financial advisor, it’s important first to consider your unique financial planning priorities as a couple. In this guide, we’ll share a few quick tips to help you get started in your search and introduce you to financial advisors for newlyweds featured on Wealthtender you may want to add to your shortlist.
We’ll also review a few financial housekeeping tasks that are important for new couples to tackle sooner rather than later.
Table of contents
How Much Does a Financial Advisor Cost?
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Smart Tips for Finding a Financial Advisor
Before hiring a financial advisor, here are a few quick tips to help you find the best advisor for you.
1. Decide Which Services You Need
Before hiring an advisor, determine what services you need from them. Whether it’s full-service investment management or a plan focused on a specific area of your finances, put together a list of what you’d like help with before contacting an advisor.
Though most people use a financial planner simply to invest for retirement, this is only a small part of what many advisors offer. Here’s a quick rundown of potential services a financial advisor may offer you:
- Budgeting and money management
- Debt management
- Insurance planning
- Retirement planning
- Other investment planning
- Inheritance planning
- Estate planning
- Tax planning
As you can see, financial advisors can help you with your entire financial picture, not just investing. As you start to plan for life’s bigger milestones, you should consider finding a financial advisor that specializes in those areas.
Finding the right advisor can help you minimize risk, maximize gains and take advantage of tax breaks while investing for your future. They can also help you protect your assets with the right kinds of insurance and help you pass on your financial legacy with a proper estate plan.
2. Consider Your Budget and Payment Preferences
Once you have a list of services you would like, review the fee structures financial advisors offer. Finding a balance between the services you need and the cost of those services will help narrow down the field of advisors you may want to work with.
If you are looking for a full-service advisor to manage all of your investments, consider searching among fee-based financial advisors. If you want to manage your money yourself, consider the flat fee and monthly subscription advisors for ongoing support.
3. Interview Multiple Financial Advisors
Once you have chosen the services and fee structure you prefer, it’s time to contact a few advisors and interview them. Here are questions to ask financial advisors:
- What services do you provide?
- What are all the ways you get paid? (fee transparency)
- What is your investment strategy?
- How do you measure investment performance?
- How do we communicate about my plan?
Interview multiple advisors to get a feel for who you want to work with. A combination of fees, services, and customer service will help you determine the best fit for your financial advice.
4. Review Financial Advisor Credentials
Once you find an advisor (or two) you feel comfortable with, it’s always a good practice to check their credentials and the firm’s details. You can do this at the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) website.
You can check both the individual and the firm to view their background and experience details, as well as any disciplinary action taken against them or their firm.
As licensed financial professionals, there is oversight into how financial advisors conduct business, so running a quick (free) check on them is recommended.
For additional information about advisor credentials, read our article to learn the most popular designations held by financial advisors, as well as specialized credentials which may be important to consider if you have unique financial planning needs.
Get to Know Financial Advisors for Newlyweds
📍 Click on a pin in the map view below for a preview of financial advisors for newlyweds who can help you reach your money goals as a couple with a personalized plan. Or choose the grid view to search our directory of financial advisors with additional filtering options.
📍Double-click or pinch pins to view more.
🙋♀️ Have Questions About Financial Planning for Newlyweds?
Newly Married? Tackle These Unsexy Financial Housekeeping Tasks Next
Getting married is a huge step in your life and a very romantic one at that. From the wedding planning to the big day to the unforgettable honeymoon, everything you and your new spouse have been doing had a decidedly romantic twist.
Now that the honeymoon is over, however, it’s time to do something far less sexy. Dealing with money and finances may not be exciting, but monetary matters will have a huge impact on your life together. With that in mind, here are a few unsexy but very important financial housekeeping tasks for you and your new spouse.
Update Your Beneficiaries
It has probably been some time since you opened your bank account or invested money in the stock market, and that means your named beneficiaries could be dangerously out of date. Now that you are married, you want your new spouse to benefit from your smart saving, so make sure you update all the beneficiaries on those accounts.
Do not forget about the beneficiaries on your retirement accounts, including the information on your 401(k) plan and IRA. For many couples, these retirement accounts will be their biggest shared assets, and having the right beneficiaries is vitally important.
Create a Will and Estate Plan
There is nothing less sexy than thinking about death, but having a will and estate plan in place is important for yourself and your new spouse. This is absolutely vital if children are involved, but even married couples with no children should have this type of advance planning in place.
If you and your new spouse already have a will in place, the marriage will mean an update is in order. From whom you name as your heirs to who serves as the executor, these are critical decisions you and your spouse will need to make together.
Review Your Insurance Options
Talking about insurance is another decidedly unsexy task that also happens to be very important. If you and your new spouse both had health insurance in place, you will need to decide which coverage is the better value, and doing so could save you a ton of cash going forward. If you have purchased a new home for your life together, you will need to obtain homeowners coverage to protect your possessions and your pocketbook.
Reviewing insurance coverage is so important that it should be an annual exercise for you and your spouse. You might not want to conduct that review on your anniversary, of course, so pick a date that works for you and your beloved.
Check Your Tax Withholding
Getting hitched does have some financial advantages, including higher deductions on your taxes and the potential for tax savings. That means the withholding you had in place when you were single may be more than necessary, and now is a good time to review it.
It is a good idea to have your taxes reviewed by an accountant or financial advisor who can advise you on the best changes to make. At the very least, this review will give you peace of mind, so you can sleep soundly in your marital bed.
Change the Name on Your Social Security Record
Last but not least, you will need to deal with the Social Security Administration, which is definitely not a fun or sexy thing to do. If you took the name of your new spouse, you will want to update the name on your Social Security records, including the card in your wallet and the annual benefit statements you receive.
You can contact the Social Security Administration online or in person at one of their many local offices. Be sure to check with the agency to see what kind of documentation you need to update the records and take care of this final housekeeping duty.
There are few things more romantic than getting married, but marriage has an unsexy side as well. Now that you and your spouse are embarking on a life together, taking care of the financial updates above can help you rest easier and get you off to the best possible start.
Frequently Asked Questions & Additional Resources
How do I know if I’m ready to hire a financial advisor?
You should strongly consider hiring a financial advisor if you have a significant amount of money available for saving or investing. This could occur after years of making annual contributions to a retirement plan like a 401(k) through your employer or suddenly if you receive a large inheritance or sell your house for a large profit.
But even if you don’t have a lot of money saved, many financial advisors and planners provide reasonable pricing options and valuable services you should consider, especially if you’re facing a significant life event. For example, if you’re starting a new job, getting married, starting a family, getting divorced, lost your job, starting or selling a business, or approaching retirement age, working with a trusted financial advisor or planner may prove worthwhile.
Before I hire a new financial advisor, should I fire my current advisor?
You don’t need to fire your current advisor before beginning your search for a new financial advisor. In fact, your new advisor can help coordinate the transition of your assets from your previous financial advisor.
Where can I read reviews about financial advisors written by their clients to help me decide if I should hire them?
After 60 years of regulatory prohibition of financial advisor reviews in the US, a rule issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) became effective on May 4, 2021 that means both financial advisors and directory websites that help consumers search for a financial advisor can collect and display financial advisor reviews, an important factor worth considering when choosing who you’ll hire to manage your investments and life savings.
Wealthtender is the first independent advisor review platform designed to be fully compliant with the new SEC rule, and we look forward to helping you evaluate financial advisors based on reviews written by their clients.
I’m a financial advisor interested in being featured in this guide. How do I get started?
Thanks for your interest. We look forward to learning more about your practice and helping you attract your ideal clients where you may be a good fit based on their individual needs and circumstances. Please click here to learn how you can join local financial advisors featured on Wealthtender.
About the Author
About the Author
Brian Thorp
Brian is CEO and founder of Wealthtender and Editor-in-Chief. He and his wife live in Austin, Texas. With over 25 years in the financial services industry, Brian is applying his experience and passion at Wealthtender to help more people enjoy life with less money stress. Learn More about Brian
To make Wealthtender free for readers, we earn money from advertisers, including financial professionals and firms that pay to be featured. This creates a conflict of interest when we favor their promotion over others. Read our editorial policy and terms of service to learn more. Wealthtender is not a client of these financial services providers.
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