Am I Unduly Concerned About Queries?
I do not mean to be critical in this post, but I have a concern about what I see posted here in the past year or so. I see an increasing number of posts with questions about “clients”. In my opinion these posts are regarding situations, which if from some type of “financial advisor”, should actually be common knowledge to such persons.
Does anyone else share my thoughts or is it just something I am imagining? I have been a long time reader of this forum and appreciate all the information that is shared here.
Permalink Submitted by Genevieve Comfort on Thu, 2013-10-31 23:53
I have had the same feeling after reading several posts from individuals who seem to be financial advisors. In several cases, they seem to address fairly basic questions that one would expect a qualified advisor to be familiar with. It is fortunate that this forum provides frequent responses from true experts. But, I remain very uncertain regarding how to employ a knowledgable advisor to help with IRA questions, e.g., upon my death, since it appears that many “run of the mill” advisors lack basic knowledge.
Permalink Submitted by Bruce Steiner on Fri, 2013-11-01 02:10
I don’t think it’s unreasonable that financial advisors don’t know the answers. They’re doing a service to their clients by spotting the issues and asking about them. However, since they’re often legal issues, or issues that a tax/estates lawyer would be more likely to know, or be able to research more effectively, I think it would be better if they didn’t try to solve them, but instead brought them to the attention of their client’s lawyer, or to the attention of their client if they don’t know who the client’s lawyer is. Many of these issues arise when someone dies, and when someone dies there generally is (or their should be) a competent trusts and estates lawyer handling the estate, who should be able to resolve these issues.
Permalink Submitted by Jose Morales on Fri, 2013-11-01 16:17
A agree with Bruce, but at the same time I have somewhat the same concern only because you can imagine how many financial advisors are out there that do not ask these questions. It isn’t uncommon for me to be on the phone with a CPA, lawyer or financial advisor that is upset I told their client something contrary to the advice they gave. They didn’t know the answer to their clients question but rather than possibly lose a little of their clients faith in their abilities gave them wrong information. There is a gentleman on another financial forum that has his own consultation business and has reached the level of being a moderator on that forum. His IRA knowledge is very spotty but since he is in the business of consulting on all financial issues he has never admitted providing incorrect information even when directed to plain language guidance directly from IRS sources. He’s gone so far as to use his ability to moderate the forum to end conversations that weren’t going his way.Beyond that, the truth is there aren’t a whole lot of us that have taken the time to build a solid base of IRA and retirement plan knowledge and keep that knowledge up to date.