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Finding a financial advisor or financial planner
 You may already be working with a financial advisor or financial planner (see What does a financial advisor do?). If you’re not, and think you may be ready for one, here is a thumbnail list of benefits financial planning can provide (from the website of the Financial Planning Association). It can help you:
- Set realistic financial and personal goals
- Assess your current financial health by examining your assets, liabilities, income, insurance, taxes, investments and estate plan
- Develop a realistic, comprehensive plan to meet your financial goals by addressing financial weaknesses and building on financial strengths
- Put your plan into action and monitor its progress
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Stay on track to meet changing goals, changing personal circumstances, changing stages of your life, changing products, markets, and tax laws
Most people looking for a financial advisor are likely to do the same thing they do when looking for a lawyer: talk to friends, family, associates and other professionals with whom they might have a relationship.
You might also talk to your personal banker, or your accountant/tax advisor, if you have either. If you don’t have a trusted advisor, banker or accountant to turn to, where might you go for advice?
 Financial Planning Association
The Financial Planning Association® (FPA®) (http://www.fpanet.org/public) connects those who need, support and deliver financial planning. The organization believes that “everyone is entitled to objective advice from a competent, ethical financial planner to make smart financial decisions. FPA members demonstrate and support a professional commitment to education and a client-centered financial planning process.”
The FPA offers a PlannerSearch function to help people find a professional financial planner. You can use PlannerSearch in many different ways. Four different search options are provided: zip code search, city and state search, and radial search (within a selected radius of a city), or you can search by a planner's last name.
Additionally, you can customize your search to find only those planners who provide the particular service you are searching for.
The Society of Financial Service Professionals (FSP)
The FSP is a multidisciplinary network of credentialed financial service professionals. Members must have earned at least one of the following credentials: CLU®, ChFC®, CFP®, CPA, JD (licensed), RHU®, REBC®, CEBS® , CLF®, CFA©, CTFA®, Enrolled Actuary, CPC and graduate degrees in financial services.
FSP offers a consumer referral service available by phone or the web. Consumers (including business owners) who are seeking the help of a credentialed financial service professional may call the society's toll-free consumer referral service at 1-888-243-2258 or log on to the Society's web site, http://www.financialpro.org/Consumer/find.cfm
You will receive the name and contact information for up to five Society members whose practices are in or near your community. You will not be contacted by these professionals; it is solely your choice if and when you wish to initiate contact.
National Association of Personal Financial Advisors
Alternatively, you might go to the website of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (http://www.napfa.org). NAPFA is an organization of fee-only comprehensive financial planning professionals.
It was founded in 1983 by fee-only practitioner members of the Society of Independent Financial Advisors. They believed that the best way to provide independent financial advice was to do so on the basis of fees for service, not on compensation based on the purchase or sale of a financial product.
Through NAPFA’s Find-A-Planner search function, the organization offers consumers access to strictly fee-only financial advisors.
WiserAdvisor.com
WiserAdvisor.com (http://www.WiserAdvisor.com) is an independent matching service designed to help individuals find the best financial advisors for their unique needs, and to provide advisors with their ideal clients.
WiserAdvisor.com is designed to ensure a high-quality fit for both clients and advisors. The system is described as simple and accurate. Responses to a questionnaire from potential clients are fed into WiserAdvisor’s database and compared with the advisors' profile information and client preferences, resulting in matches well suited to the client’s needs.
WiserAdvisor.com’s parent company is WebFinance Inc. a financial Internet company www.webfinanceinc.com.
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Do you have another source or tips for finding a personal coach? Let us hear from you. Drop an e-mail to info@rebootyou.com.
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Last revised August 2007
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