4 Signs It's Time to Fire Your Financial Advisor

Breaking up can be hard to do. That’s particularly true when it comes to your financial advisor. After all, he or she not only knows everything about your finances but also your dreams and goals. While firing your financial advisor is never easy, sometimes it's necessary. From being unavailable to not keeping your goals in mind, here's a look at four reasons to fire your financial advisor.

The cornerstone of any relationship is communication. Without it, it's easy for things to be miscommunicated, and for anger to brew, culminating into distrust. Poor communication can quickly sour a relationship, especially when money is involved, which is why a quality financial advisor will lay out the ground rules in terms of how often and when he or she will check in with you. If your advisor, all of sudden, stops returning your calls or emails or takes too long to get back to you that could be a sure-fire sign you may need a new advisor. After all, people turn to financial advisors for hand holding and if you aren't getting that, then why are you paying the person, to begin with?

In order to achieve your financial goals, your financial advisor has to know a lot about you, your risk tolerance, investment horizon, and aggressive or conservative nature. He or she won't be able to glean any of that knowledge without sitting down and talking to you, and more importantly, listening to you. But if you’re financial advisor spends your meetings telling you what to do without hearing your goals, dreams, and fears, then he or she doesn't have your best interest in mind. If your financial advisor is increasingly doing that, it may be best to go shopping for a new one. 

Investing can be complicated and confusing for many people, which is why there are so many financial advisors out there. But not everyone is going to do a good job explaining what you are investing your money in. Financial advisors that throw jargon your way but can't explain in laymen terms what's going on should throw up a red flag with you. Either the financial advisor doesn’t want to or can't give you the necessary information on your investments. Either way, it's not good for you and your financial well-being.

One of the quickest ways to see your returns diminish is to pay too much for fees and expenses. While it’s the financial advisor’s job to match your investments with your goals and expectations he or she should be keeping an eye on expenses. You don’t want to end up in a situation where your advisor is steering you toward investments with a big commission, nor do you want to be paying an exuberant amount for a fund when there is a similar investment available for less. A good way to tell how much your fees and expenses are is to look at your monthly or quarterly statement. See a high amount and it’s time to call your advisor on it. If you can’t rectify the situation or there isn’t a good reason why the expenses are so high, it’s a sign you may need to fire your financial advisor.

In this complex investing world, financial advisors play an important and necessary role in steering regular people into the right investments. But these professionals are only as good as the service they provide their clients. If your financial advisor isn’t paying enough attention to you, isn’t listening to you, or is confusing you with industry jargon instead of sound financial ideas, it may be time to call it quits and find a new advisor who is willing to go the extra mile to keep you as a client.