An investment adviser is an individual, or a firm paid a commission for providing investment advice or doing securities analysis. Advisors invest money for you, help draft a financial plan that suits your financial goals, and answer financial questions. Investment advisors can also act on behalf of their clients with consent. Investment advisers are always supposed to act in the client’s best interest and avoid any conflict of interests.
A person or a firm engaged in this practice must be registered at the state level or by the United States securities and exchange commission (SEC) if managing more than $100 million in clients’ assets.
It’s highly recommended that you verify the registration status of a potential investment advisor and if the person or firm has been involved in malpractices previously. One way to do a check is thorough Broker Check, a free online tool maintained by the Financial industry regulatory authority (FINRA) and contains a list of both SEC and state-regulated investment advisors.
Investment advisors work with a lot of clients’ confidential information, such as account statements, tax returns, estate planning, and a host of other valuable data. Safely storing and exchanging this sensitive information should be a top priority for investment advisors. It is crucial to employ a secure file transfer method with different layers of security and only allows access to authorized parties to help safeguard against data breaches during transfer.
