No single online article is going to tell you if your financial planner is worth the money you are spending on him or her. Instead, this article offers a few questions and answers that may change how you think about your financial planner. Perhaps what you are spending is too much, or what you are risking is too much. Or, perhaps once you have read this article, you will feel better about your current financial planner.

Is “Financial Planner” a Protected Term?

Anybody can call themselves a nutritionist, but you cannot call yourself a dietitian without the correct qualifications or licenses. That is because “nutritionist” is not a protected term whereas “dietitian” is.

In some industries, such as the stock brokerage industry, calling yourself a financial planner without the correct qualifications and/or licenses will land you in trouble. However, in most cases, anybody can call themselves a financial planner or financial advisor.

The takeaway from this point is that you need to check what your financial planner considers to be qualifications, experience, and/or permissions to act as a financial planner. You could be wasting your money on somebody who is not keeping up their child support payments.

Can I Sue My Financial Planner?

The short answer is, no, you cannot sue your financial planner for doing their job, even if they do a terrible job. As with most things, it is a “caveat emptor” (buyer beware) situation.

The long answer is that you can sue just about anybody, it is just trickier suing a financial planner if they did a bad job.

You may have to prove negligence, or perhaps prove that money was taken from under false pretenses, or maybe even prove that there was some sort of false or advertising inappropriateness. Again, you can sue just about anybody for just about anything, but here are some of the more common things that financial planners are sued for:

• Failing to ensure a client can actually afford an investment, product, or plan of action
• Advising clients to invest in schemes that do little more than pay the advisor
• Offering negligent advice about tax avoidance schemes
• Offering negligent advice about Film Fund Schemes, SDLTs, EBTs, EFRB or EFRBS
• Giving negligent advice about unregulated collective investment schemes (UCIS)
• Giving negligent advice about high-risk investments that are unsuitable for you
• Failing to advise correctly about Accelerated Payment Notices
• Advising that you invest in self-invested personal pensions (SIPPS) or unsuitable pensions
• Unfair, aggressive, or unlawful coercion to follow the planner’s advice

You can also sue if your financial planner gets you to invest in a financial product that is not suitable for your needs, but it takes a lot of work to win such a case because there is still an onus on you to research the advice rather than follow it blindly.

How Much You Are Paying Vs Value Received

You have probably already considered a cost-benefit analysis and are probably having the same trouble quantifying the value of your financial planner. Perhaps consider shopping around for other financial consultants. 

Many financial planners offer free consultations for your first and perhaps second visit (the first is sometimes online). With that in mind, try testing out the competition to see if they cater to your needs a little better. Remember that sometimes a financial planner is good at their job but should still be fired because they don’t cater to your specific needs. For example, maybe you need a more aggressive advisor or perhaps a more conservative consultant. As odd as it sounds, sometimes you have to fire the ones who don’t suit your needs, even if they are good at their job. 

Final Thoughts – A Rose By Any Other Name

While considering the value that your financial planner offers, just remember that the terms financial planner and financial advisor are not protected. Neither are the terms financial consultant, chartered wealth advisor, wealth manager, retirement consultant and retirement counselor. Also, as a buyer of financial planning services, remember that if a person/company is going for the hard sell and are throwing a bunch of buzzwords and spreadsheets at you, then they are probably trying to hide the fact that they offer very little back in terms of value for money.

If you are looking for a career in financial planning, then do not let this article dissuade you from taking up the profession. It is a rewarding career. Just be aware that the way you market yourself, and especially the value you promise people, is going to affect your entire working relationship.