Wealth Managers: How To Find The Good Ones

Many people make the mistake of thinking they have to be rich before they consider hiring wealth managers for their money. This is far from the truth and in fact, many rich people would not be where they are today if they hadn’t hired a competent private banker to handle their money when they only had a fraction of what they have now. Besides, the concept of being “rich” is all relative, anyway. To a homeless person, someone making $30,000 a year is rich. To Bill Gates, someone making $300,000 a year might not qualify. The point is to make sure you are doing the things with your money that will set you up for comfort down the line.

When it comes to looking through wealth managers, you want to find someone who has a long history of handling the accounts of people like yourself. You want a track record of success and someone who understand the vagrancies of the stock market. What you do not want is someone who is going to tell you to invest in a stock just because he gets a special bonus for putting people in that particular fund. You want someone who must look after your financial interests first. 

If comparing performances, you don’t need to be concerned with wealth managers who have had a banner year. Or even a banner couple of years. The stock market is like that. Over the short term period, anyone can get lucky. In that respect, good money investors are somewhat like great poker players. Anyone who knows the rules of the game can go out one night and make a ton of money at the poker tables. But it takes a seasoned professional to go out night after night and show a steady return of profit. The same rules apply to the stock market. You want someone who has been successful over the long term.

Finally, remember that wealth managers come in all different stripes. You want someone who is going to match your personality profile. If you are somewhat conservative and adverse to risk, you want to find someone who will mirror those qualities and treat your money with the kind of conservatism that you would practice yourself. If, on the other hand, you have a higher tolerance for risk and you justify that with the potential for greater reward, you’ll want to find someone who has a similar outlook on life and money.