People hate lawyers for a billion reasons. Lawyers charge too much. Lawyers aren’t human. Lawyers don’t speak English. Lawyers only care about themselves and on and on it goes. But I have always suspected the real reason why people hate lawyers is that they related seeing a lawyer with bad times. Most people equate seeing a lawyer with being sued, drafting a will/executing on the contents of a will, reviewing their severance package etc. Other than the purchase of a home (where you really don’t see the lawyer that much), lawyers are not people you see for the happy things in your life.

I find that the reverse logic applies with investment advisors and financial planners. Everyone wants to see them when the markets are up. Buy this. Sell that. Long this stock and throw me some funky financial products please. But what happens during bad times? I find that, in my circle of contacts anyways, there’s a distinct chill that occurs. People don’t want to call their investment advisors about anything other than to get them to put everything in cash. This seems strange to me. In good times, a trained monkey could probably pick enough stocks to make money but, in bad times, shouldn’t the trained and paid professionals navigate you through down markets to minimize damage?

I know there’s a lot of skepticism about the effectiveness of investment advisors and planners; some justified and some not. However, I am known for my catch phrases and one of them that applies in life should also apply for personal finance: don’t judge people when things are going right, judge them when things go wrong.

If you have a good investment advisor or planner, now is the time they will shine. If you have a bad advisor, you’ll really see how bad they are now they have to really work for their money and it will confirm your feeling that it is time to move on. Let me give you an example I have alluded to in the past. My parent’s current investment advisor was appointed by their financial institution after the unfortunate death of their previous advisor. The new advisor simply stinks. He kept trying to get my parents to sell stock when the market panicked earlier this year. I believe he must have skipped class the day they taught “buy low, sell high” but took extra notes on the class about how advisors are compensated. My parents obviously thought he was from Mars and didn’t follow his “advice” (I use the term loosely). Now to find them another advisor…

The point being engage your investment advisor in a meaningful dialogue in difficult times. You’ll know what you have on your hands. The good advisors earn their keep in difficult times while the meek crumble.