What problem can we help you solve? Retirement savings, income, investment advice, financial planning, insurance, estate planning, or business benefit plans.

Search and pick Illinois wealth managers, financial planners, investment advisors, and insurance reps in the following cities:

Chicago, Aurora, Rockford, Naperville, Joliet, Springfield, Peoria. If you are looking for a different location, search here to Find a Illinois Financial Advisor or Financial Planner.

Recent Posts:

March 2010: What type of financial advisor should you use?

Many Illinois investors may not know where to turn to find a financial advisor. There are also many misconceptions about how to find a financial planner. One is that you should only work with a fee-based advisor. While this might be the best choice for many people, there is no perfect method that is right for everyone on how to compensate your advisor. With a fee-based advisor, they earn a percentage of your portfolio each year (for example, around 1%) for providing you with advice. However, someone who wants a simple, buy and hold portfolio without ongoing advice might be better off just paying a one-time commission. And someone who wants a financial plan, but then wants to do their own investing, would be better off just paying for the plan. So the type of fee choice really depends on your individual circumstances.

Other talking heads on financial TV channels tell you to only work with a Certified Financial Planner (CFP). However, it's clear that a financial advisor with 20 years of experience helping real people knows more than a recent college grad who just passed the CFP exam.

The best advice is to find someone who has experience working with other clients with financial situations similar to yours. If you are retired, you should find a financial advisor who works with other retirees, because the advisor will have experience with retirement income, estate planning, social security and medicare, healthcare insurance and long term care insurance.

Investors can click here for a free tool to Find a Financial Advisor.

October 20, 2009: Investors looking for professional advice or a second opinion on their investment portfolio

Since the downturn in the stock market, many investors who currently have a financial advisor are worried and looking for a second opinion. In addition, many do it yourself investors have realized that they need professional help.

Would you like a professional financial advisor to review your current investment portfolio?

The studies show that institutional investors (pensions, endowments, etc) outperform individual investors. This is the result of institutional investors having a defined Investor Policy Statement which outlines their goals, asset allocation, resources and current income. Sticking to an Investor Policy Statement is something high net worth investors should look for in a relationship with their advisor. The IPS makes it less likely that an investor will react to emotional changes in the market and more likely to make changes that meet their long term financial goals.

May 20, 2009: How to do a background check on your Illinois financial advisor, broker or investment adviser

How do you do a background check on a financial professional?

This is an important step when interviewing prospective financial advisors and important information to have regarding your current advisor as well. Unfortunately, it's not always a simple process and the disciplinary records aren't foolproof either.

Step one is to determine which regulatory agency governs your financial advisor. There are separate agencies for brokers/registered representatives and for registered investment advisors (RIA). Currently, FINRA governs brokers, while the SEC has records on investment advisers. For insurance brokers, every state has a separate regulatory agency, so you need to check with the state in which the broker is licensed. The following article gives you the websites for each of these regulatory agencies:

How to do a background and disciplinary check on your broker or financial advisor.

A strong word of caution though! The disciplinary records may not contain every complaint against a financial adviser! Many complaints don't show up for two reasons. One, if the case was settled, even if the adviser paid damages, it won't show up if it wasn't taken all the way to a lawsuit or arbitration. Second, many customers will file a complaint against the advisor's firm, instead of against the advisor him or herself. In that case, the complaint won't show up on regulatory records under the advisor's name, just the firm name.

Also, if an advisor has been in the business long enough, they may have run across a lawsuit happy client at one time who sued them just because the stock market went down. It is important to listen to the advisor's explanation in this case and ask other people whether it is reasonable or not. A long track record of cases though, is a bad sign.

So the bottom line, is that doing a background check on your financial advisor is a necessary, but not all-inclusive step in picking the right financial advisor. Be aware that not everything might show up and that even good advisors might have legal cases against them. You should conduct a thorough interview of preferably a few advisors and use the total information you collect to make a decision on the right financial advisor for you.

November 6, 2008: Illinois looks ahead to Economic and Investment Changes

Some Illinois and Chicago residents celebrated Barack Obama's election this week and are now looking forward to change in both government and personal finances. How will Obama's promised tax increases affect Illinois residents? What about the recent stock market crisis? How have the reduced values in 401ks and IRAs affected your retirement plans? How high will Obama raise the estate tax?

These questions have caused many Illinios residents to turn to a professional financial advisor for the first time. Both do-it-yourself investors and those not entirely happy with their current financial advisor are searching for financial planners and advisors on the internet. The important thing to remember is to look for advisors who are a good match for your goals and who have experience helping others in your situation.

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