How Often Should You Meet with Your Financial Advisor?

When people have a financial advisor to help them manage their money and help with financial planning, many wonder how often you should meet with your financial advisor. It’s a valid question to ask your wealth manager or financial advisor.

You want to make sure you are meeting often enough to discuss everything from investment management to life insurance and retirement. It’s all about planning and you want to be sure you and your financial adviser are making the right moves so you can meet your financial goals.

We’re going to take a closer look at more reasons why you should meet with your financial advisor as well as how often those meetings should be happening.

Why Do You Need to Meet with a Financial Advisor?

Meeting with a traditional financial advisor or planner is a good idea because he or she can help answer questions and make sure you are making the right decisions when it comes to planning and money management. A financial planner typically will help when it comes to other money-related issues and asset allocation.

Here are some of the reasons why you may want to meet with your financial advisor:

Estate planning and financial decisions

If you are creating or making a change to your estate plan, meeting with a financial advisor or wealth manager is a good idea. You want to make sure that the changes still fit in with your goals and financial plan.

Significant financial event

If you have a significant financial event in your life like getting a promotion or inheriting money, you’ll want to meet with your investment advisor. This can impact your taxes and other aspects of your personal finance plan. The same is true if you begin to acquire a large debt. You want to see how these changes are going to impact your finances.

Major life-changing events

Life-changing events like marriage, having a child, divorce, or losing your job can change your financial planning. Meeting with your financial advisor can help you to re-establish your goals and see where your financial planning ideas should lie now. Your personal financial planner may be able to guide you through changes involving social security or to your retirement accounts such as your Roth IRA or 401(k).

Large investment portfolios

If you have large investment portfolios, you’ll want to meet with your advisor to discuss portfolio management. Depending on your goals, they may have different investment advice. Short and long-term financial planning can be altered by the major life-changing events we mentioned above.

Insurance Needs

Many certified financial planners can offer advice regarding insurance needs. Some may even be able to provide insurance quotes or put you in contact with an insurance company who can. These can include homeowners insurance, life insurance, travel insurance, car insurance, and more.

Debt Consolidation

A financial advisor can help guide you through debt consolidation. This is handy if you are overwhelmed by student loans, credit card debt, personal loan debt, or even if you just want to improve your credit score and fix your bad credit. They may be able to help you contrast and compare accounts and compare rates to determine which should take precedence. Sometimes it may be beneficial to do a balance transfer to a lower interest account. In other instances, you may want to consider a student loan refinance or mortgage refinance for better mortgage rates.

What’s the Best Frequency for Meeting with Your Advisor?

There is no cookie-cutter answer here because everyone has different needs and goals. Some people may prefer to meet annually, while others want to meet semi-annually or quarterly.  Then, some just want to meet when they need to make a major financial decision.

Whatever your situation may be, it’s always a good idea to meet at least semi-annually. Some people may want to meet just annually. You need to decide what works best for you. Your financial planner always may have a schedule he or she wants you to follow. When you meet with your certified financial advisor annually or semi-annually you’ll want to discuss items like your budget, taxes, and investment performance. You can see if you’re on the right track as well as look at ways you can increase your net worth in the coming year.

Some people want to meet more frequently. If you fit into that category, you should have the freedom to do so. Your financial advisor or planner should welcome those meetings especially if you have important matters to discuss.

Even when you don’t have much to discuss, you still want to touch base with your financial advisor. There may be new products that can help you meet your financial goals, or it may be in your best interest to reallocate some of your investments. Whatever the case, meetings with a professional for financial advice is always a good idea.

When it comes to the number of times you want to meet with your financial adviser, you should have as many meetings as you wish. If you are comfortable with one meeting, then it is fine to settle with that. On the other hand, some firms offer two exclusive meetings within a year, while others will prefer to meet quarterly.

Be Flexible with Meeting Frequency

Meeting semi-annually may work for some time, but you may have to change the frequency of your meeting over time. Don’t get nailed down to one schedule. Be flexible and hope that your financial advisor can be flexible as well.

If you’re just working with your advisor, you may want to meet more frequently to set goals and look at financial products available. Once you’ve established things, you may then want to get on a semi-annual or annual schedule.

When you get near retirement you may want to change the frequency of your meetings again. This will allow you to feel confident about your financial future.

Do Planning Meetings Have to Be Face to Face?

It is important to have some face-to-face meetings, but you should be able to meet via phone as well as over video call. These days, more and more meetings are being done online.  You should be able to change your meeting style as it suits you. You can also ask your advisor about how he or she likes to meet.

The Bottom Line

When it comes to how frequently you have to meet with your financial advisor, you need to determine your personalized financial needs. This will help you and your advisor decide how frequently you should meet. While everyone will meet with their personal financial advisors at different times, it is usually recommended to meet at least once a year, if not twice a year. Sometimes people want to meet more frequently. You should be able to change the frequency as it suits you and not be locked into one meeting schedule.

Many times, the frequency of financial meetings can be influenced by major life events like marriage or divorce. Also, inheritances or sudden debt can prompt a meeting with your personal financial advisors. They can work with you on investment strategies or debt consolidation. They’re a good resource in any financial situation and can offer options and financial solutions.

Another thing to remember is that meetings don’t always have to be face-to-face. You should have the option to meet over the phone or by video chat if you want to.

Remember, when it comes to when to meet with your financial advisor, you have to choose a meeting schedule that makes sense for your financial needs.