Liz Weston

Dear Liz: I have met with a financial advisor, but he wants every investment to go through him. Although he is an advisor, he works for a company and wants me to buy their products. I’m a little resistant about this. What’s your advice?

Answer: Anyone can call himself or herself a financial advisor or a financial planner. There are no education, experience or ethics requirements for using those titles. A more accurate job description for this guy might be “product salesman.” He may not charge you upfront, but he’ll make commissions from those products and will recommend them even if there are better, cheaper options available.

If you want someone who puts your interests first, look for a fee-only advisor who’s willing to act as a fiduciary. “Fiduciary” means the advisor promises to act in your best interests. And don’t confuse “fee only” with “fee based.” Fee-only advisors are compensated only by their clients. Fee-based advisors may charge their clients while accepting commissions for the products they recommend. You can get referrals to fee-only advisors from the Garrett Planning Network at www.garrettplanningnetwork.com and the National Assn. for Personal Financial Advisors at www.napfa.org.

If you want someone to give you comprehensive financial planning advice, make sure that he or she has the appropriate credential such as Certified Financial Planner (CFP) or Personal Financial Specialist (PFS) and that you verify the credential with the group that issued it (the CFP Board of Standards for the CFP, and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants for the PFS).

If all you want is help with investment management, though, you may not even need an advisor right now. “Robo advisors” offer automated portfolio management using computer algorithms. Robo-advising began with start-ups like Betterment and Wealthfront and it’s now offered by more established companies, including Charles Schwab and Vanguard.