5 signs your Financial Advisor is a loser

This article appeared on CNBC.com and tells you how to spot a losing Financial Advisor.

Earlier this year, the stock market fell to a 12-year low, losing 54 percent of its peak value and taking a vast chunk of ordinary Americans' wealth with it.

In the wake of such big losses, many investors are looking for someone to hold accountable. That has placed financial advisers under the microscope.

"From what I've seen from industry surveys and things like that, a very high percentage of people are re-evaluating their adviser," says David Loeper, chairman and CEO of Wealthcare Capital Management in Richmond, Va., and author of "Stop the Investing Rip-Off."

How do you determine whether your adviser has your best interests at heart? By asking questions and doing your homework, says Kristin Kaepplein, director of the Office of Investor Education and Advocacy at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"Even when you are delegating management of your assets, that doesn't mean you don't have to do your due diligence, especially on an ongoing basis," Kaepplein says.

The following are five signs your adviser may be a dud -- and, by contrast, five qualities the best financial advisers share.


Qualities of bad advisers

Losses that exceed standard benchmarks.
Selling products instead of sound advice.
Maximizing risk regardless of goals.
Linking past performance to future results.
Failure to maintain basic investment safety standards.


I am going to a one more. He says he is a financial advisor. In my years in the business I only found one that I would do business with. Now those are long odds!