What firms do you think are offering the best financial planning support to their advisors? What offerings make it “the best”? What firms have seen have the worst support? With more firms targeting HNW it seems like they’re moving away from the foundational support to assist up and coming advisors to get to the point of working with HNW.

Does anyone have any thoughts on certain companies to go for or avoid for programs like FADP and general financial advisor programs? Particular companies I’m interested in hearing thoughts on are Merrill, Raymond James, and Thrivent. Thanks in advance everyone!

For transparency I work in the industry and I am just wondering in this day and age of robo-advising and ETFs, does everyone hate financial advisors now?

And this question may not be for a lot of you that are truly investment savvy of course, but this isn’t the 1970s-1980s anymore and regulations are through the ceiling. A lot of financial advisors simply just want to do their job and try to assist people who may want or need it. A lot of advisors truly aren’t out to rip people off, companies just have to charge costs to keep the business running of course.

Are there fees with management yes? But there’s fees to pretty much any business being done in life, so legit question is why do people expect to be helped and have free management? I get if you can do it yourself that’s fine, but everyone isn’t an investment savant, and that’s not to say all advisors are either, but they are at least licensed and held to a fiduciary standard.

Some people may still want that financial planner who can not only deal with their investments but provide advice and options for lending, banking, tax efficiency etc. typically those who do their own investments think it’s as simple as “buy this etf and hold etf” but everyone’s situation is different in multiple ways. I once had someone ask me to invest their 74 year old friend into the QQQ because “they heard it has AI and is doing well”. But her 74 year old friend was highly conservative and not looking to take any risk. Sometimes your friends aren’t looking in your best interest because they aren’t fiduciaries.

For those of you who arent investment savvy, would you think about getting an advisor?

I’m looking for real opinions here.

Edit: from a lot of the comments it seems a lot of you all don’t understand what an FA really does. It seems like some of you just understand the investment piece but not the financial planning aspect. A true FA isn’t just a “performance pusher” they are there to help you make better non emotional decisions, get your kids through college, save you on taxes, plan your estate and much more.

If your FA just does investments that’s not an advisor.