Why you Should Fire your Broker or Financial Advisor

Why you should fire your broker or financial advisor

by David C. Arena

The recent bear market should have opened the eyes of investors, making them realize that you can't possibly think someone else, such as a financial advisor or broker can care more about your financial situation than you do. Now that investors have lost in some cases over 80% of their retirement accounts, all that these so called “advisors” can do is put their hands up in the air and say I was wrong. That is simply not good enough for clients who have trusted that professional for 10, 15 or 20 years. I know people that literally had to put retirement plans on hold and go back to work because they can't financially support themselves after these losses.
Brokerage firms teach their brokers to advise clients that thinking long term by making them sit in mutual funds for years and years is the way to come out ahead. This is done in an attempt to easily control that client for a long time while continuing to collect commissions no matter if your money is growing or not. What if after years, your funds didn't grow enough to meet your goals? When we have a market fallout like we did a few years ago, advisors simply say, “that's ok, we planned for these ups and downs, now we have to stay invested and wait for it to go up”. They are preying on a person's fear. “If I leave this advisor, will I be wrong”? This keeps most investors with an advisor for much longer than they need to be. There is no excuse for having major losses like this, it is simply the advisor's fault. You either were not diversified, the investment choices were poor or they didn't take profits and manage losses properly.
Believe it or not, the main problem is that brokers and advisors don't know enough about the investments they are recommending. The major brokerage firms influence their brokers by pushing whatever product they want clients to buy. They will even sponsor nice lunch meetings with the sales staff, so the brokers rally behind this product and then immediately sell as much as possible to their clients. These recommendations are regardless if the investment is appropriate for the client or not. The brokerage firm will even offer contest incentives to those that push the most product. Does this type of selling seem like it has the investor's best interest in mind? Then once you buy it, they make sure you feel comfortable just sitting there not making any major decisions and hoping the advisor knows what he is doing. It's about time people knew that there is nothing glamorous about a financial advisor or stock broker, they are simply over glorified salesmen. Most couldn't predict the correct direction of a stock if his or her life depended on it. And independent financial advisors do the same thing. They may not have a large firm telling them what product to push, but they have several mutual fund choices to pick from, each offering incentives or certain commissions for using their fund.
And why all the mutual funds? Because they are easy to sell and the broker doesn't have to worry about getting calls every day from annoying clients wondering if the 50 shares of some stock they just bought is going up or down. Mutual funds are for the long term they tell you, so you are supposed to sit and wait. The most ironic thing about mutual funds is that they claim to be long term investments, but the fund managers are actively trading in and out of positions daily without the client even realizing. But these brokers tell you that active trading is dangerous. Why? Because they do not have the know how to manage such an account, having to give you advice sometimes intra daily. They also have no interest in actively managing such an account. It takes up way too much of their time to baby sit a bunch of clients, but more so, they do not have the expertise to correctly advise you of what to trade or how to manage risk. What an advisor wants is to put everyone in the same few long term investments and review everyone's portfolio once a year. Then, they can sit back and manage more clients and more assets, collecting a small percentage on those assets for their trouble. Minimal work for maximum gain.
And what if you are ready to retire after waiting for 20 years through a good market and the bubble bursts like it did a few years ago and suddenly you have only a fraction of your retirement account left? What then? You work some more? Is this a position you want to be in after all is said and done, because you put faith into some other person looking after your finances? How much attention do you think you will receive from a so called “full service” broker? The really savy ones will call you after they haven't spoken to you in a few months and tell you about a great new mutual fund that he heard of over “lunch” and advise that you buy some. So, after he just railroaded you for a 5% percent fee on the last mutual fund, he will take your money out of the fund he just sold you and pop you into another one, so he can earn another 5% on the same money. Not only is this immoral, it's also illegal. And it's done everyday.
Anyone with an interest in being a successful investor needs to learn how to do their own research and make their own trades. In today's market, you must be an educated, active trader who has more knowledge than most retail brokers or financial advisors. If you can do that, you will be a wealthy investor. If not, you will simply be an average investor or perhaps even worse if you allow the market to control you instead of controlling the market.

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David C. Arena is a Wall Street veteran of over 10 years and has developed his professional trading strategies into a simple to follow step by step options trading course valuable to the novice or pro investor. This course is even used by New York Stock Exchange Floor Traders. Learn How to Turn $200 into $4,630 in 30 Days, How to get Paid for Doing Stock Research Online and Secrets Brokerage Firms Don't Want You to Know. To instantly download the course click: http//hypertracker.com/go/1optionscourse/ezinearticles1/ Free investment newsletter also included.
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