4 Things To Consider During Your Financial Review With Your Adviser

This article first appeared on fundMyLife, the platform that connects financial planning questions to the right advisers.

To ensure that you’re in the pink of health, you pay a visit to the doctor for a body checkup. The doctor makes a few notes, asks a few questions, and makes recommendations based on his/her observation. Analogously, a financial health checkup involves going to your financial adviser for a financial review. Financial reviews often get a bad rep for being an opportunity for financial advisers to sell more products. How would you know if you’re in the pink of financial health if you don’t do a checkup? In this article, fundMyLife proposes things to consider when you are doing your financial review with your financial adviser. Having these things in mind will help you maximize your session with your financial adviser.

#1 Updating Your Financial Adviser On Life Changes

As cliched as it sounds, your financial needs do change over time. Typically, entering new life stages require a financial review because of cash-flow changes. For example, if you got into a relationship and are considering marriage, you will need to work with your adviser to come up with a plan for it. Another example is that you might want to start a business, which means your personal cash-flow will change. In short, as you proceed in life your goals will change as well. You are not the you from the year before – you’re wiser, smarter, and have more perspective than before.

It’s better to inform your financial adviser early, than to wait until it’s too late before informing him/her that you’re in financial trouble.

#3 How Are My Investments Coming Along?

If you’re a hands-off kind of person, it is all the more important that you ask about your investments when you are doing your financial review. Doing a regular financial review helps you keep a bird’s-eye view on whether your money is doing what it is supposed to be doing. If your returns are unsatisfactory, it’s a good time to get advice on where to allocate your money to next.

Note: for those who purchased investment-linked products, it is useful to look at your current sub-fund returns. If it’s performing well, all is good. However, if it isn’t, it might be time to choose another sub-fund. Another thing is to balance out your investment and protection components, since the protection component increases in cost over time. The worst thing about ILP is that sometimes you notice the signs too late and your returns have already disappeared.

#4 Am I On Track To Retirement?

In our previous article on retirement planning, we mentioned that the journey to retirement is fraught with many roadblocks. As such, it is important to identify existing roadblocks and anticipate future ones early. During your financial review, you should ask your financial adviser if you’re on track to retirement. You will probably need to review your current debts, e.g., credit card debts, loans, mortgage, etc, to identify any possible signs of danger.

#2 Is There Anything I Should Do Better?

Experienced financial advisers typically have clients who may experience the same life stage as you. As such, they are in the best position to prescribe not just financial advice, but life advice in general.

If you find yourself in want of more cash, a financial adviser can also sit down with you and examine how you’ve been spending. Furthermore, an outsider’s pair of eyes into your finances provides fresh perspective on how you’re spending your money. It’s hard to figure out where your money went, if you did not track it properly. You might also want to see if you’re on track to saving your emergency fund, for rainy days.

Connect With fundMyLife Advisers Today!

We hope this article helped in setting a level of expectation when it comes to reviewing your finances with your financial adviser. And if all goes well, congratulations! Time to carry on for another year, and maintain your financial discipline.

What’s this? You don’t have a financial adviser yet?

Gosh, it’s time to connect with one! Worry not – fundMyLife has your back. You can connect with our panel of experienced and awesome financial advisers, curated by us. If you want to engage more financial advisers, or if you haven’t found the right one, why not consider advisers of fundMyLife? You can head on over to fundMyLife and ask our awesome financial advisers questions. Alternatively, you can check out our curated pool of individual advisers and ask them questions directly.

fundMyLife is a platform that aims to empower Singaporeans to make financial decisions confidently. We also connect you to the right financial planners in a private and anonymous manner, based on your financial planning questions.

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