10 Important Questions to ask a Financial Adviser

When searching for a financial adviser, there are key questions you might consider to select the best fit for you.

The following 10 questions and our company’s answers should help you determine whether we are that partner for you.

1. How do we work together?

We strive to foster long-term relationships with and provide great value to our clients.  We feel it is best to meet regularly, at least annually, but often 2 or more times per year. However, we are always accessible should the need arise. We are available to meet either in-person in our office, or virtually via Zoom or telephone.

Our clients see us as a resource to provide counsel and advice and help manage their personal finances, which is why we consider ourselves your personal CFO, or Chief Financial Officer. From investment management to retirement planning, our clients prefer to have us do the heavy lifting so they can focus on what they do best, whether it be family, career, or hobbies.

2. What services do you provide?

At Demars Financial Group we take a comprehensive financial planning approach, evaluating and addressing all facets of our client’s finances. The services we most commonly provide include:

• Retirement strategies
• Trust and estate consideration
• Tax mitigation opportunities
• Tax planning and preparation services
• Education savings
• Insurance protection
• Cash flow strategies
• Charitable giving
• Business succession options

 3. What professional experience do you have?

Our team brings a wealth of experience, in addition to gold-standard industry certifications and higher education. Our advisors have a combined tenure of over 85 years of financial planning, along with our operations staff who have a combined 40 years in the industry.

Our advisors’ backgrounds can be reviewed on BrokerCheck at www.FINRA.org

4. What's your investment philosophy?

We want our clients to benefit from long-term ownership in some of the best businesses in the world.  Our objective is generally to earn the greatest amount for clients with the least amount of risk possible. We have different strategies to match the amount of risk each client wants to take and what investment objectives they want to accomplish.

We monitor the markets and other economic data daily, and we review our investment strategies often and make adjustments throughout the year as we feel the need—to either seize on new opportunities or to manage risk more appropriately.

5. How are you paid?

Because we value transparency, and strive to create the best win-win relationships with our clients, we are primarily a fee-based practice. We charge a fee for our services which is a percentage of the assets we manage.  In this way, we also operate as fiduciaries, so our obligation to our clients is to do what is in their best interest:

6. How will you track my investment performance?

We use a variety of cutting-edge and robust software tools to monitor and track investment performance, including Morningstar Office, eMoney, Fidelity, etc. We invest in some of the best software solutions to allow us to keep current with market trends and opportunities. We also provide quarterly statements for our clients that provide investment performance and management fee information. 

7. How will you communicate with me, and how often?

We are always just a phone call or email away.

We like to meet with our clients at least annually, and more frequently if possible. We also want to be aware of any life changes and how we can assist to help our clients reach their goals. We also provide a portal for clients to log into and track their individual investment performance, as well as aggregate their net worth and cash flow if they would like. We also provide weekly market commentary and regular educational videos about current financial topics.

8. How will you take into account my assets you aren't directly managing?

Clients often own assets that we are unable to directly manage, such as a 401k, rental properties, or other income-generating assets. We incorporate these accounts in our planning, and provide advice and recommendations as we see relevant to best meet your goals.

9. Do you work with CPAs or Attorneys?

We have spent many years building and maintaining relationships with other competent and trustworthy professionals in the legal, accounting, and mortgage lending fields.  We look forward to growing our network and welcome the opportunity to coordinate with our clients’ attorneys and CPAs to achieve their estate and tax planning goals. For those clients for whom it might be a good fit, we also offer tax preparation services in-house performed by our accountants, creating an even greater synergistic relationship for the benefit of our clients.

10. What resources will I have when working with you?

We are confident that in addition to the resources listed above, our clients receive the best care and attention possible when working with our team. We work hard to earn our clients’ business every day, and consider it a privilege and a great responsibility to manage their hard-earned investments, and help them work to accomplish their financial goals and objectives.

Choosing the right financial adviser for your needs and values

We strive to provide transparency and clarity when setting expectations with new clients, and we may not the best fit for everyone. We would love the opportunity to introduce ourselves to you and explore how we can provide value. Our objective is to assist you in making an educated and informed decision when selecting an adviser to partner with for the long-term.

To get started, please schedule a time to connect to meet with a financial adviser: https://calendly.com/tdemars/connectwithus