Ideally, you never take advice from anyone to manage the precious assets you have earned or have accumulated. You acquire over time enough financial literacy to be able to discern when the markets are trending upwards (or are in your favor), how to maintain a watch list of solid companies, what stocks to invest in, when to buy stocks, which to hold, when to sell; in short, ideally you learn how to be successful in investing! Financial literacy, like reading in the old days or computer literacy nowadays, is something everyone can and should acquire!

The opposite from the ideal, are all those who constantly rely on tips from their friends, their dentist, the cabdriver, or even the conversations at cocktail parties. People who follow tips unfortunately will often be misguided and have a difficult time figuring out why they never seem to get it right.

Suppose you fall in between: you have not yet reached sufficient confidence to invest on your own, but are also smart enough to know that tips from friends never work. What if you belong to 85% of the people who have financial assets greater than $75,000 and regularly rely on the advise of financial planners or investment advisors. What if you just retired and got a lump sum amount of money to invest, or you got divorced or just lost your partner and suddenly are faced with financial responsibilities, which you had never to deal with before. How do you avoid getting bad advice? How do you avoid selecting a financial planner or advisor who should not be trusted with your money?

A recent conversation with Jack Waymire, author of Who’s Watching Your Money? The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor (ISBN 0471476994, John Wiley & Sons, December, 2003, see related link) convinced me that the best you can do is consult the Paladin Registry he established. The main goals of the Paladin Registry are to help investors avoid the risks and consequences of bad financial advice, and to help them find high quality financial planners and advisors.

The Registry’s minimum standards exclude all advisors who only sell investment and insurance products for commissions, lack the credentials to provide quality advice, and/or have compliance or criminal records. Paladin estimates that 85% of all advisors fall into one or more of these categories; 8% of advisors are in transition from selling to advising and from commissions to fees; only 7% of professionals have the knowledge, ethics, and services investors need to achieve their financial goals. These statistics are derived from Paladin’s experience reviewing and processing Registry applications for more than 12,500 advisors.

The Paladin Registry was launched on April 1, 2005. It uses the following criteria for screening financial planners and advisors:

• Years of experience (minimum of 5, average of 16)
• Education (degrees and years)
• Certifications and Designations (CFP®, CFA, CIMA, etc.)
• Registered Investment Advisor or Investment Advisor Representative
• Acknowledge fiduciary
• Compliance record
• Criminal record
• Sole practitioner or team of professionals (credentials)
• Current number of clients
• Current asset amount
• Wealth management services
• Association memberships (code of ethics, continuing education)
• Full disclosure requirements
• Method of compensation (fees)
• Methods of client servicing

The planners and advisors who are members of the Registry pay fixed, monthly dues that Paladin uses to create visibility for the Registry and provide free services to investors. The payment of dues does not influence who is admitted to the Registry. Paladin rejects hundreds of advisors per month and closes Registry locations to new advisors when it has an adequate number of professionals.

In sum, if you need help with financial planning or investment advise and you still are not comfortable with the financial literacy you have acquired, the Paladin Registry provides a indispensable source of free information for finding financial professionals that have the knowledge, experience and ethics to achieve your financial goals.

Visit the Paladin Registry for selecting experienced financial professionals that you can trust watching your money.