Welcome to the ClaroConnect finance professional matching process. We’ve developed the most comprehensive matching tool to connect you to the right person for your financial needs. Many people are unsure how to find trusted advisors. Often, they ask a friend for a referral or are contacted by an advisor out of the blue. These are poor matches because even if the advisor works well with your friend, it doesn’t mean they are a good fit for you. The ClaroConnect process allows you to contact one or more advisors who are a fit for exactly what you are searching for. The process starts with determining your needs and goals.
What problem can we help you solve? What are your core needs? Your goal isn’t to find an investment broker with a fancy degree and four designations after their name. Your real goal is to save for retirement, insure your life or income to protect your family, or to complete an analysis of your portfolio. We help connect you to the right people for your goals. That’s why the first question in our search process asks, “What services are you looking for?”
Financial Planning – This incorporates a full process of setting your goals and then analyzing any financial decisions that may affect them. This may include setting a budget, financing your house, or the best ways to save for retirement.
Portfolio Management – Providing an analysis and recommendations for your investment assets.
College Savings – Advice on saving money to pay for college expenses.
Retirement Savings – Advice on saving money for retirement expenses.
Life, Disability or Health Insurance – Insurance to cover your needs in case of loss of life, loss of income due to disability and health insurance.
Estate Planning – Advice on structuring assets and transfers to minimize the impact of estate taxes.
Business Finances and Group Benefit Plans – Advice on business finances such as cash management, and on group benefit plans such
as health, retirement, and life insurance plans for employees.
Charity / Foundation Investments – Advice for public and private charities and foundations on spending plans, investment policy statements, and investment management.
Stocks – For individuals looking solely for advice with stock investments.
Bonds – For individuals looking solely for advice with bond investments.
Is location important to you? Enter your zip code and select whether you want to search for someone within 10 miles, within 50 miles, or any distance. If you want hands-on personal financial planning, you will likely want your professional to be within a convenient distance for meetings. However, you may need to choose any distance for some specialties or for narrow searches.
What qualifications do you desire in your advisor? If you have a strong preference for specific qualifications, you can search for them here, otherwise choose No Preference.
What is your account size? This is necessary to match you to advisors who work with accounts of varying sizes.
What fee structure do you prefer? Select “No Preference” to find the most advisors or if you aren’t sure what you want. There isn’t any one
best way to pay and many advisors can work in multiple ways.
If you select a planning fee, you are typically charged a flat rate by the hour, by the meeting, or per financial plan presented to you. This may
be best if you are looking for just a few hours of advice or for a plan that you will implement yourself. If you select an asset based fee, it is charged as a percentage of your assets under management, such as 1% of the investment portfolio the advisor is managing. This fee may
be best if you expect to do a lot of trading or expect comprehensive advice included in the asset management. If you select a commission,
it is paid for each product you buy, and may be best for a simple, buy-and-hold portfolio.
Do you want to search for a specific gender? Select this only if you have a strong preference for working with a male or female.
Do you want to search for a specific language? Select here to choose advisors who are fluent in a language other than English.
Do you want to search for a specific religion? Select this only if you have a strong preference for working with advisors who have stated that they practice a particular religion.
Custom Search: This allows you to enter your own text to search for unique characteristics not specified elsewhere. For instance, you can enter “401k” to search for advisors who help with 401k’s, enter “stanford” to search for an advisor with Stanford in their education, or enter “united way” to search for someone who lists themselves as a volunteer for United Way in their profile.
Once you have selected the characteristics you want, click on the “Search Now” button to bring up the list of advisors. The search results will first list any advisors who were an exact match for all of your criteria. It will then list professionals who met the largest number of criteria first.
The search results will show the basic profile of the financial professionals. Click on each basic profile to pull up the full profile for that
advisor. After you have found one or more advisors you are interested in, we recommend checking their disciplinary actions online. Unfortunately, there isn’t just one place to go. For brokers and many investment representatives, go to www.brokercheck.finra.org for a list
of disciplinary actions and their job history. For those titled as investment advisors, go to www.advisorinfo.sec.gov and click on “Investment Advisor Search”. For financial planners, go to www.cfpboard.org/search.
For the advisor, or advisors, you have narrowed the list down to, the next step is to email or call them. Tell them you found them on ClaroConnect.com and give them a brief interview to see if you develop rapport with them. Ask them to tell you more about their typical
clients, describe what you are looking for, and ask upfront how their fees work. If you have interviewed more than one professional, you can then select the one you feel most comfortable with.
For further guidance, please see “How to Work with a Finance Professional” which gives tips for making the most of your ongoing
relationship with your advisor.
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