Why do I need a financial advisor?!

As you and your investments roll through endless waves of economic upswings and recessions, bull and bear markets, inflation and deflation, and other fluctuations, you may start to wonder if you need a financial advisor to help steady your ship. Financial advisor and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Colin Day sat down with Correct Capital’s founder and CEO Brian Pultman to discuss what to look for in a financial advisor.

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Below is the transcript of our most recent Capital Conversation podcast episode, “Why Do I Need a Financial Advisor?!”


Why Do I Need a Financial Advisor?!

Colin Day: Welcome everybody. Colin Day here with founder and CEO of Correct Capital Wealth Management, Brian Pultman. Brian, thanks for joining me today.

Brian Pultman: Thanks for having me, Colin.

Colin Day: It's like a regular old radio show, right? So depending on how you're consuming this, whether it's video format or podcast format, welcome again to another Capital Conversation. Today, the topic du jour and the reason Brian's here is to talk about why people hire financial advisors. Because, Brian, I have access to the internet. It's on my phone. It's on my computer. All the answers are on the internet, right? So why do people actually work with a financial advisor? Why do they feel like they can't use the information that's regularly available to do whatever it is they're trying to accomplish in their life?

Brian Pultman: Colin, I think that's a great question. I will tell you that I never take for granted the trust, friendship, and commitment that our clients extend to us every single day. Number two, when I first started out in the business 30 years ago, information was very limited. You had to go to a financial advisor to get information, understand what's going on with the companies, the stocks, the earnings information, such as making big decisions today, information's all over the place. And in St. Louis, we have so many options, so many great options of financial institutions. As a matter of fact, St. Louis has the second largest concentration of financial advisors in the country, outside of New York–

Colin Day: Oh wow.

Brian Pultman: –so we know that we have to be good. We have to be very good at what we do in the type of advice that we offer. And I believe that today, there's so much information out there. The key reason why people need an advisor is to take all that information, bring it down, organize it and try to figure out what is most important to that one unique situation for that family or individual to help them succeed.

Colin Day: Very succinct. And I didn't know that fact – that you can't really swing a dead cat in St. Louis without hitting another financial advisor, which is interesting.

Brian Pultman: That is true.

Colin Day: I have recently just moved, as you know, and it turns out the guy right across the street from me is also a financial advisor. And I thought that was very interesting. And I told him, you can take that side of the street and I'll take this side of the street–

Brian Pultman: Works well.

Colin Day: It was interesting because then it made me think more about “why would people work with one particular financial advisor over another?” And if I was to describe our wheelhouse to listeners or viewers, I would say that the majority of the folks that come to us are currently working with an advisor. I think that’s fair to say. And they're either approaching a retirement event or are already in retirement. So based on those three things, and maybe we start with the first one – Why do people, when we think about who we work with, why do people maybe navigate away from one advisor to another?

So I have an advisor, I feel like he or she is working in my best interest, but I'm interested in looking elsewhere just to see if there are greener pastures. Why do we think people do that? Or, what brings somebody to the realization that maybe they need to look for another advisor?

Brian Pultman: It's all about trust.

Colin Day: Okay.

Brian Pultman: When it comes down to it, the majority of our clients that have come to us over the years had a previously risky financial advisor, number one. Number two, they have some means, some wealth. And they're either not getting calls returned; they're not getting their needs met; the advisor's not listening to what their unique situation is. So I feel that number one, it's making sure there’s a higher level of trust. Number two: transparency. And, three, I think the key thing is the majority of people that would come to us and take a look at us online, or look for another advisor is through referrals. Through other satisfied clients. And we've been very fortunate – a lot of our clients have referred family, friends, and business associates to help us continue to grow at the level we are growing.

Colin Day: Yeah. And this actually brings up… Yesterday when I was at a location to talk with a prospective couple, they were working with a financial advisor for several years, in fact. And the reason they came in was specifically because of the customer service that they were getting from their advisor. They felt like they were probably one of the smaller asset clients to that particular advisor. And every advisor, of course, works with different levels of assets from the mom and pop that have worked their entire lives, blue-collar work, maybe making a good middle-class wage and being able to save as they can. All the way up to those with multiple millions of dollars that they've saved over the course of their working career. This particular couple felt like they were much the former than the latter, and they felt like they were being mistreated. And so that's why they came in yesterday. We had a conversation about just the service level that they were getting – that sometimes it took up to three weeks to get a response from their advisor. And that's, of course, not how we operate. So I do think that that's interesting because this particular couple had been in retirement, and they're living a successful retirement regardless of what's happening in their investment accounts. But, for whatever reason, again, the service level was what brought them to us yesterday.

Now speaking specifically to pre-retirees. So, let's put an age bracket to it. Let's say maybe you're between 55 and 65 years old. What is that particular group going to get from a financial advisor? Specifically, as opposed to—again—using Google, going on Investopedia, or Fidelity, or whatever there is that they get their information from. What are they going to get from a financial advisor that maybe they can't do on their own or understand on their own?

Brian Pultman: Peace of mind and confidence. Having a written plan. Most people have a vision but, unless it's written down, it’s just a dream. So from our firm, one of the key things that we want to offer is a written type of comprehensive plan. We tie that into a solution that's called Money Guide Pro. It's a financial planning tool, which is one of the number one, top financial planning tools in the industry. And we are more of a goal-based organization. We are going to listen to our clients, and prospects, understand what they want to do, when they want to retire, how much income they'll need, and what they want to spend their money on in the future. And then by putting that together and showing them a probability of their level of success, gives them more confidence and peace of mind in their journey going forward.

Colin Day: Great. I think from those individuals… I mean, with Money Guide formulating the formal program that kind of peace of mind is appropriate, and the reason we particularly like this program is that it's goal based. Right? There are plenty of different financial planning programs that are out there in the marketplace for advisors to use. Each of them has to do with particular client segments. So, some might be more cash flow based and use a particular program for that. Or maybe it's more esoteric in regards to, hey, they are a social security optimization financial software, and so that's the particular use for that.

But we like to use a goal-based program because we find it's a little bit easier to explain to a client – here's how we're actually using our money. So if you want to make sure that you have a travel budget, or if you want to make sure that the grandkids get X amount of dollars for college savings in the future, we have that. I've worked with people that said, “Hey Colin, I want to make sure that I have X amount of dollars per month for my hobby.” Just making sure that they had the money to be able to buy the supplies and do the things that they wanted to do, specific to that particular goal. And so I think that Money Guide is a really good resource for our clients and for our prospects, just because of that fact. And, specifically for pre-retirees, it happens to be just a better resource than most. Because you have some experience working with other planning software, I think you feel the same about Money Guide?

Brian Pultman: Absolutely. And the key thing is, people just want to know: “Am I gonna be okay? If the market doesn't continue to perform, if the market pulls back, like we've had the last six months, is my family gonna be okay? Am I gonna be okay to retire on the terms that I want to retire?” So our number one goal is to empower our clients to retire on their terms, when they want to, and live the best possible life.

Colin Day: Right. Exactly. Okay. Well, thanks so much, Brian, for joining me today. I appreciate it. I'm sure we're gonna be hearing from you in the future.

Brian Pultman: Thank you, Colin. Thanks for having me.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this program are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or on any specific security. It is only intended to provide education about the financial industry. To determine which investments may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing. As always, please remember investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital.

Please seek advice from a licensed professional. Correct Capital Wealth Management is a registered investment advisor. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Correct Capital Wealth Management and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. No advice may be rendered by Correct Capital Wealth Management unless a client service agreement is in place.


Capital Conversation by Correct Capital Wealth Management

Correct Capital’s team of financial advisors and retirement planners will help bring you peace of mind and confidence about where your hard-earned money is and how it's growing. In addition to a friendly and knowledgeable staff, as fiduciary advisors, we offer you our simple I.O.U. promise: all of our advice is independent, objective, and unbiased. Call us at 314-500-401k or contact us online to discuss your financial needs, objectives, and dreams with a financial advisor today.