Dallas County Living Well Magazine November/December 2016 | Page 45

SELECT A FINANCIAL ADVISOR WHO ACTS IN YOUR BEST INTEREST Financial advisors can be held to different standards when it comes to your money. Be sure to ask and understand whether an advisor is operating under a fiduciary standard, and therefore must make financial and investment decisions in your best interest. A Registered Investment Advisor (registered and regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) is required to conduct themselves in this manner. Other types of advisors, such as brokers, are often only intermediaries between buyers and sellers of investments. As such, their financial recommendations may be biased toward their own profit motives and less toward yours. Select an advisor you feel comfortable with, but one who legally must act in your best interest. Disclosure on this point is mandatory and should be transparent, so don’t be afraid to ask if the relationship is unclear before committing to work with a financial advisor. Sure, financial advisors charge for their services. But the services and advantages they provide can translate into quantifiable benefits for your portfolio and other aspects of your personal financial situation. A knowledgeable and experienced financial advisor, acting in your best interest, can save you time, prevent costly emotional reactions to short-term market conditions, and keep you on track toward achieving your long-term financial goals. That’s true value! At Portfolio Solutions®, we provide the full spectrum of wealth planning services so that our clients can work confidently toward their long-term financial goals. And our low-cost, index investment strategies allow our clients to keep more of what the global markets offer, letting them focus on what matters most to them. DALLAS COUNTY Living Well Magazine | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016 43