Considering Money was developed to be a learning tool and resource for consumers. It provides clear explanations of financial terms, markets and techniques to help visitors accumulate more wealth, understand the financial markets and gain a greater understanding of money management.
As author and developer of Considering Money, I like financial advisors. I particularly like fee-based advisors. I believe they hold an important role in advising baby-boomers, gen-xers and even the millennial generation. Their popularity is growing as traditional brokers are fleeing the big brokerage firms in numbers to work more intimately with clients as advisors.
The ‘fee-only’ advisors work for a fixed fee instead of earning commissions on transactions like brokers historically have. The role of the advisor is friendlier to the client and less-biased. They are also less focused on creating transactions to generate income and more focused on the client’s overall financial picture.
As the developer of Considering Money, it’s my hope that the site will be as popular with advisors as it is with consumers. As a matter of fact, the only income that Considering Money will generate for me as developer is the ad revenue generated by advisors who advertise on the site. I will not get into the business of recommending any particular advisor initially, but I will be very interested in how they operate and what model they use to advise their clients.
In recent years, the financial services business has had its name tarnished. This should never be the case. The industry should always be focused on helping the people that it serves. When I had my own clients, I learned an important lesson. Never think about how much money you are going to earn by convincing a client to do something. If that happens, you put your own interests ahead of the clients. In the long run, that hurts you and the client.
The information on this site will always keep in mind the wisdom of our old friend; Mike Kavanagh. Mike was an advisor and radio personality in Atlanta with a financial education show on WSB. He believed in a guiding principle called SWAN, which stood for ’sleep well at night.’ He spent a lot of time with his paying clients, but he devoted a lot of free time to help people make better decisions with their money. It’s that devotion to helping people with their money, and putting their interests first that is the foundation for this site.
We hope to develop relationships with advisors who approach their business the same way. We will be happy to accept their ad dollars, but we will also be happy to connect people who need help with people who have the resources to offer help.
