Tips for finding the right financial adviser

Here are some quick tips to consider when choosing a financial adviser:

Make sure the adviser or firm is qualified to address your needs. You’ll come across a variety of impressive-sounding titles in the advice game: investment consultant, financial analyst, and wealth manager among them. Such terms tell you little about a person’s expertise, however. Know whether they have 20 years’ experience in investment, tax, and estate planning or whether they may have just started selling insurance two months ago.

Look for gray hair. Unless your needs are simple, don’t work with a newbie, Money Magazine advises. Instead, seek out a professional who’s been tested over many market cycles and whose typical client is a lot like you. Ask about average portfolio size and life stage.

Enlist other pros. Ask a trusted attorney or CPA what he or his colleagues know about the reputation of the individual or firm.

Know how your adviser is paid. There are commissions, fee-only, or fee-based (a combo of the two). Since commissions vary (mutual fund front-end loads range from 2.5 percent to 5.75 percent), it’s fair to ask what the adviser makes on each transaction.

The adviser or firm must play by the rules. In the court of public opinion, investment professionals are guilty until proved innocent: Two-thirds of Americans polled by Harris Interactive in April said they believed most people on Wall Street would turn criminal if they thought they could get away with it. But only 716 brokerage representatives (out of 630,000) were barred or suspended by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority last year for illegal or unethical behavior.