Finding a good finance advisor online

Searching high and low for a financial advisor is something that many people find themselves doing at some stage in their lives. Perhaps you’ve just received an inheritance or other lump sum, and you’re looking for ways to transform that into a long-lasting investment. Or maybe you’re setting up a business, and you need advice on how to go about making it sustainable and profitable in the long term.

Whatever your intentions are, using the services of a financial advisor is a wise move. Not only can financial advisors take the strain of research off your shoulders and do the heavy lifting for you, they can also make sure that you stay on a rational and clear path towards your financial goals and prevent emotion from seeping into your investment decisions. But how can you find a good financial advisor to help you do that, and what can the Internet offer in this regard? This article will explain how the world of good quality financial advice is now just one or two clicks away.

Comparison tools

The first place to start when looking for financial advice is on a comparison website. By using a tool like that, advisors can be compared in a number of basic ways. First of all, they can be compared on practical grounds. If you want to speak to someone who is close to you in terms of location, for example, you may be able to filter out any advisors who are based more than a certain distance away from you.

But Internet comparison tools go much further than that. They can also be filtered on the basis of the specific investment vehicles you plan to trade. Say you want to invest in property: a comparison site can compare the best options, and then allow you to distil the results even further based on your other criteria – such as fees, location, years of experience and more. The same goes for other investment vehicles which don’t necessarily fall under the traditional vehicle umbrella of shares and property, such as contracts for difference (CFDs). No matter what you need an online broker comparison for, there’ll be an appropriate site for you.

Before you use a comparison site you should think carefully about what your aims are and what you want to get out of the search. Do you need a broker or advisor who takes commission, but doesn’t charge high one-off fees? Or do you require a broker with a speciality, such as property investment in retirement? By getting the goals clear in your mind from this point onwards, you won’t waste too much time when it comes to searching.

Reviews

Reading reviews is also a good idea. When other people use a financial advisor or broker, they’ll usually have either a positive or a negative experience. A smaller subset of them will then go on to leave a review, perhaps on a website such as TrustPilot. Of course, not all online reviews are trustworthy – but by reading several of them and applying common sense, you’ll be able to get a decent idea. In order to find relevant reviews for the financial advisor you plan to use, it’s worth searching their business name in Google and then adding the word “review” on afterwards.

Beware of scams

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that in every part of the financial world there’s an inevitable risk of scams and fraud. In theory, anyone can pose as a financial advisor online, and they can create swish websites and authentic-looking profiles in order to hook you in and encourage you to invest your hard-earned cash into a recommended product which is in fact a scam.

There’s no sure-fire way to defend against scams. Reading reviews as outlined above is a good idea, but that is not enough. You should ensure that your chosen advisor is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, too, and you should also ask them to explain their connections to certain products and what financial incentives they have to steer you in a certain direction.

There’s clearly a lot to be gained from searching online for a competent financial advisor. By using a comparison site, reading reviews and being savvy about the ever-present risk of scams, you’ll give yourself a good chance of finding the right advisor for you and keeping yourself and your financial goals on track.