It should focus on your goals and dreams; what you want to be; what you want to become; what money can help you do; your values around money; your current economic reality.
The first meeting should create a space for you and your spouse to think about your future together. To come to some conclusion about the general direction you want your family to take. To lay out some benchmarks and goal markers for what success looks like. This takes more than five minutes.
What should the meeting not be about?
The markets and economy; their thoughts on the current Presidential administrations policies; his or her opinion on bitcoin or gold; his or her firm’s capital market allocation or projection, whether you should own a Trust or not.
It may (or may not be) important for you to know these things by the end of the advice process with the advisor. This is probably several meetings into the relationship. But it is not important in the first meeting. It’s conversation fodder. It’s not relevant to the decision of whether you work together.
What do you need to know before you leave their office?
1. Determining if the person across the table from you is someone you can trust, work with to plan your long-term goals and help put your financial house in order.
2. How does the advisor charge to do that?
3. Does that seem worthwhile to you?
Are there other items that ought to be discussed? Yes.
Are any of the following important? Advisor background? Your expected inheritance in 20 years? The firm or company behind the advisor?
Yes, those are also important. Write those questions down and remind yourself to ask them.
But this meeting is about you. Everything else is just noise.
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Alex Bishop, CRPC®, MS, is a Private Wealth Advisor and Franchise Owner with Bishop Financial Partners, a private wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC in Huntersville, NC. He specializes in fee-based financial planning and asset management strategies and has been in practice for 23 years. To contact him, https://www.ameripriseadvisors.com/alex.h.bishop or alex.h.hishop@ampf.com.
Ameriprise Financial cannot guarantee future financial results.
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