In my opinion, the financial planning industry in general tends to be good at dating, but less successful in marriage. You will find “advisors” who tell you what you want to hear just to get you as a client. Then they’re in pursuit of someone else. At Family Wealth Management (www.familywealthadvisory.com), we strive to provide diligent follow-up care—four quarterly meetings each year, preferably. The objective for each meeting is to reduce risks, focus on opportunities, and continue working so that we continue to tap into the client’s strengths and stay true to his or her values.

A lot of people in our industry sell stuff, but they may not do financial planning. Retirement planning may be more complicated than investing to accumulate assets. A good planner needs to analyze the client’s expectations and finances and understand all the major risks that retirees face. As you head into retirement, you should search for somebody who cares about your unique situation. See our previous blog post about this.

And that somebody isn’t likely to be the stockbroker who wants to direct you to all those hot mutual funds. The United States has about 1.3 million licensed stockbrokers and insurance agents, and they may call themselves financial planners, but there are only about 25,000 Certified Financial Planners™, or CFPs, who have completed the CFP certification process.