Since the day I founded Wealthramp, I’ve made it a point to connect in person or by phone with our customers every week. It provides me and my team with very valuable feedback that helps us grow the Wealthramp network by truly understanding our customers. 

I met with Sarah on Cape Cod where she shared with me how she navigated the often complicated search process to find the right advisor.

Pam Krueger, Wealthramp Founder

Sarah had done well investing on her own. She knew she was lucky with her portfolio because she started investing in 2011 when the market was doing very well. She didn’t want to take any risk of losing her and her husband’s hard-earned retirement money, so she decided to look for a financial advisor. What she wanted was someone who knew what she wanted, but wouldn’t treat her like a commodity or take a cookie-cutter approach to managing her money.

Finding the right advisor, however, was very difficult for Sarah.   She had been looking for about ten years. The problem was there was no easy way to find a fiduciary. Every advisor she talked to said they were a fiduciary. It wasn’t until years later she learned that they were not fiduciary advisors but investment brokers. Sarah talked to 10 different advisors, each time she provided her financial documents.  Each one came back and tried to sell something in a program, or they had some prefab way of looking at their investments. Luckily, Sarah knew enough to say no.  

All the advisors Sarah talked to rolled their eyes at her because all her husband’s money was in an annuity. He really wanted an annuity and Sarah couldn’t find a professional to talk him out of it. He was going to retire due to health issues and he had to make that decision about his money. Sarah believed there must be somebody who is actually on their side. 

Collaboration was a very important requirement to Sarah in choosing any service provider – doctors, real estate agents, house cleaners, and more importantly financial advisors. Sarah got frustrated because she couldn’t find any advisor who would collaborate with her. 

As an investor, Sarah had very strong views about what was important in investing. She wanted an advisor who would listen to her because it’s her money and she wasn’t going to just hand it over! 

Sarah wanted an advisor to feel like they were in it with her, not one who would take it and run, and not one who would sell her a package they had already sold to many of their clients. 

And in the end, Sarah found a fiduciary financial advisor on Wealthramp. Sarah strongly believed in ESG investing and her advisor took her feedback. They had a true collaboration process to build a whole portfolio of environmentally-friendly investments for Sarah.

Sarah was very glad that she kept trying and eventually found the right fiduciary advisor.

If you enjoyed reading Sarah’s story, you’ll probably appreciate Jan’s story as well.

Interested in sharing your own story of finding the right financial advisor? Email us at contact@wealthramp.com 

Finding the right financial advisor can be challenging. Let Wealthramp help you find the right advisor who will help you with your personal financial needs and situation.

Featured user stories are current Wealthramp clients who are not compensated to share their experience with Wealthramp and their advisor. The customer stories provided may have been edited for clarity, may not be representative of the experiences of all customers, and do not guarantee future results. The information provided is general in nature, is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as investment advice. Consumers should evaluate advisors based on their own financial needs and situations.