Credentials

Credentials for Financial Professionals can be divided into several groups. We call them Regulated, Selfregulated, Unregulated, and Formal. Click each link to discover how different credentials affect your advisors ability and quality of service.

Advisor Inquiry Questionaires

If you are considering an advisor, you should definitely ask them some questions. The following are a couple of links to some great questionaires that are ready for your use.

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AARP Advisor Questionaire The American Association of Retired Persons has developed a questionnaire that ordinary investors can give to brokers, advisers or others in the investment business to help investors evaluate whether they can entrust their money to the person who fills it out.

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The Certified Financial Planner Board -- 10 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Financial Planner   The Certified Financial Planners board has developed questionnaire to assist individuals interview and evaluate Financial Planners.

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Tough Questions To Ask (pdf)

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Focus on Fiduciary (flash)

 

Compensation

Compensation may not seem like an important factor in evaluating an advisors ability to serve you, however, it is critical. There are two basic kinds of compensation primarily used in the financial services industry. There are Fees and Commissions. Some other categories to exist such as Bid/Ask Spreads for Stockbrokers, Broker Dealers, and Market Makers, however most other types of compensation can be lumped into one of the previous two. We consider Bid/Ask Speads a commission at the retail level since the financial worker is paid every time a trade is made. If you are interested more in the particular kinds of abuse that can be present in this kind of compensation please view the link on "Churning."

How is Eddleman & Eddleman, LLC and its advisors compensated?