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Why is it that although people have no compunction in seeking advice from doctors, dentists, lawyers, and other such professionals, when it comes to financial advisors, consideration would not appear to be that forthcoming. An IFA, or independent financial advisor is only approached when a savings plan or private pension plan is needed and it always seems to be at the last minute.

For those of you who don’t already know an Independent Financial Advisor is a person who is independent of all the life insurance companies banks and financial institutions. A good one will actually work for you the client. Whilst a lot of them work on a commission basis this rarely effects the advice that they give you, due mainly to the fact that they are duty bound to give you best advice and furthermore they have to confirm why they have done what they have done for you in writing, and trust me if it is not the best advice then it is almost impossible to justify it.

So what exactly can these independent financial advisors offer? Well, they can offer almost all financial products on the market such as life insurance, pensions, savings plans, investments and of course mortgages. Some advisors have additional services such as inheritance tax planning and will writing services.

You may be asking yourself, “Well, all these services can be acquired anywhere on the high street, so why should I go to the bother of hiring an IFA?”. The reason is that IFAs are not sales people. You don’t just ask them to sell you life insurance, for example. In approaching an IFA you will be asking them if you need life insurance at all, and if so, which is the best option available to you.

An independent financial advisor will spend all the time necessary sitting down with you and going through every aspect of your financial life to assess any further financial services you may need. They will assess any policies you already have. They will gauge your attitude to risk to determine how much you are willing to risk in the hope of financial payout. Most importantly, they will assess how much you can afford to be spending on your planning for future security.

Then they will look at your future financial aspirations. They will ask you about the quality of life you would like in the years to come. Maybe you would like to retire earlier in life, get sickness coverage to cover future events or pay your mortgage off before the term stated.

All these facts lead a good advisor to the point that they are able to accurately advise you on the most appropriate products for your needs and your budget. At which point they are able to design a solution for you and go off and get quotes for the best products to fit your profile.

They will then come back to you and see if you think that the solutions fit your purposes. If you are happy with their proposals then they can proceed to put the financial plan in place for you.

You may think that this is the end of the process, but you would be wrong. It is also the job of an independent financial advisor to keep in contact with you every year to make sure that the services you have are still what you need. Circumstances change, and in doing so, the type of financial cover you have will also naturally shift. It is important to have a financial health check every so often to make sure you are properly protected.

In conclusion, the role of an IFA is to pick through every aspect of your financial situation, budget and requirements in order to correctly advise you on what financial services would be beneficial to you. They then source and facilitate these services. It is then their job to monitor your situation to ensure that should your finances change, your financial protection will change accordingly where required. In these troubled times, you can see why now is the best time to seek expert help when it comes to controlling, and protecting, our finances.