At Lighthouse Wealth Management, we believe selecting the right wealth advisor is critical and more than just a financial decision – it’s about building a trusted partnership with a team that will help you align your financial resources with your goals, values, and long-term vision.
Clients have come to us through various channels but typically get introduced by a trusted friend or professional like an accountant or lawyer. If a referral is not an option for you, or you are simply looking to make your own decision, we have written this article to help you make an informed decision about working with an advisor to guide your financial future.
This article explores the key considerations when selecting a Wealth Advisor.
Where to Begin? Understanding Your Wealth Management Needs
Finding the right advisor starts with understanding what you’re looking for. The ideal Wealth Advisor will listen first and then work with you to match your assets with your financial objectives, risk tolerance, and design a plan that allows you to have your preferred level of involvement in overseeing your accounts.
1. Minimum Account Sizes – Is Your Portfolio the Right Fit?
Most full-service brokerage firms cater to clients with household assets starting at $250,000, while individual advisors may set their own minimums. It is typically at this size where it makes sense to consider working with a Wealth Advisor who can understand your complete picture and provide comprehensive advice.
At Lighthouse Wealth Management, we work with clients with $500,000 in investable assets or more. At this level of assets, personalized financial guidance becomes a greater priority, allowing us to add the most value, especially for clients with complex wealth needs.
2. How Much Time Do You Have? Defining Your Level of Involvement
The extent you wish to participate in the management of your assets will impact your choice of advisor:
- Hands-on investors who prefer direct decision-making may benefit from a Wealth Advisor.
- Hands-off investors who prefer to have their advisor make decisions may prefer a Portfolio Manager, who has a fiduciary duty to you and discretionary trading authority to make investment decisions on your behalf.
Every Portfolio Manager is a Wealth Advisor but not every Wealth Advisor is licensed as a Portfolio Manager, so it is important to know the difference when choosing a financial professional.
A Portfolio Manager is authorized to manage investment accounts with discretion to execute transactions on behalf of clients, without requiring their approval.
A Wealth Advisor must obtain verbal confirmation from the client before carrying out any investment transactions, ensuring your direct involvement in every decision.
At Lighthouse Wealth, we take a collaborative approach, ensuring that our clients have as much or as little involvement as they desire—with the peace of mind that their portfolios are overseen with care by a team of skilled and experienced financial professionals.
3. Licensing & Products – Are You Being Presented All the Options Available to You?
Financial professionals can hold varying licenses that dictate the investment solutions they can provide, and in some cases, firms will restrict the range of products advisors can offer to clients. We believe clients should be presented with the full range of options available to them when making investment decisions. So reviewing licensing and investment options for each firm is very important:
- Some advisors are only licensed to sell mutual funds, often proprietary funds.
- Some advisors can offer direct equity investments in stocks, fixed income, ETFs, and more.
If you seek to invest in common shares or exchange traded funds (ETFs) that trade on stock exchanges, you must deal with an advisor that is licensed appropriately to trade in these securities.
4. Aligning with the Right Investment Style
Not all advisors take the same approach to investing. Some are conservative, focusing on preserving capital through GICs and bond portfolios. Others are growth-focused, advising investments in emerging markets, technology, and alternative assets.
Regardless of an advisor’s style, they should be able to articulate their investment process – specifically how they make buy and sell decisions. Indeed, we believe a lack of an investment process, or one that cannot be clearly articulated should give you reason for pause.
At Lighthouse Wealth, we believe in goals-based investing, so unsurprisingly our process begins with listening carefully to your goals and objectives and incorporating them into our process before we apply our investment philosophy to your unique circumstances and make recommendations.
Our investment philosophy is deceptively simple: we start by strategically aligning your portfolio with our secular investment themes, guided and informed by long-term macroeconomic trends. We then purchase securities that align with your goals and our philosophy when their prices are at or below our estimate of that security’s intrinsic value.
From there, we apply risk management tactics and sound wealth planning practices to preserve against downside risk and help ensure your portfolio has the liquidity available when you need it to fund your goals and objectives.
5. The Importance of Customization
With more options available than ever, clients are looking for personalized investment strategies ranging from socially responsible investing to integrating tax-efficient wealth strategies into their portfolio, to maximize the value of their estate to pass on their wealth to the next generation.
Finding an advisor that will listen to your unique needs and has the breadth of knowledge and experience to design a portfolio and wealth strategy tailored to your values and unique needs is very paramount to success.
6. Evaluating Experience & Credentials
Years of experience should be taken into consideration when working with an advisor or advisory team. Finding out how long they have been working in the industry and how long they have been with their current firm will give you an insight into their long-term stability.
We believe a strong advisory team should have both experienced advisors and newer advisors since they each excel at different aspects of the work. Experienced advisors actively mentor newer team members, fostering a dynamic environment of growth and continuity. This ensures long-term stability within the advisory team, providing you with consistent, reliable guidance throughout your entire financial journey.
It’s essential to inquire about an advisor’s educational background and professional credentials. If you’re seeking services in wealth planning, tax strategies, or estate management, choosing an advisor with specialized certifications ensures a higher level of experience tailored to your needs.
The below credentials indicate additional expertise in wealth planning, tax strategies, and estate structuring, ensuring a holistic approach to overseeing your wealth.
- Chartered Investment Manager® (CIM)
- Certified Financial Planner® (CFP) or Qualified Associate Financial Planner (QAFP)
- Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
- Master’s degree
7. Researching & Verifying Your Advisor
Before deciding to engage an advisor, it’s wise to review an advisor’s regulatory record, their firm’s stability, and past affiliations.
Canada’s investment industry is regulated by CIRO (Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization), where clients can verify an advisor’s background through their Know Your Advisor portal.
At Lighthouse Wealth, we pride ourselves on transparency, ethical practices, and long-term client relationships. These principles allow us to build trusted relationships with clients across generations.
8. Recommendations & Referrals – Leveraging Trusted Networks
One of the most effective ways to find a Wealth Advisor is through trusted recommendations – whether from family, colleagues, accountants, or other financial professionals.
A reputable advisor should have a strong track record of satisfied clients and be able to demonstrate stability and experience.
9. Does Geography Matter?
While location was once an important factor, technological advances make it less of a factor today by allowing clients to work with advisors from different regions with ease. It is still important, however, to ensure your advisor is licensed to operate in your province. For example, if a Wealth Advisor wishes to have clients in Alberta, Ontario and in BC they must also be licensed in each of these provinces.
We have clients refer us to family members across Canada, and accordingly, we are licensed in multiple provinces and can work with families located across Canada.
Final Thoughts: How to Choose the Right Wealth Advisor for You
Selecting a Wealth Advisor isn’t just about numbers – it’s about trust, experience, and alignment with your financial vision and personalities. Once you have narrowed down what you are looking, it is relatively easy to do some research on your own.
For more information check out various websites of financial institutions, and more specifically, research the individual Wealth Advisors and Portfolio Managers at those firms.
If you’re searching for a knowledgeable and experienced, full-service advisory team that prioritizes transparency, strategic, goals-based investment planning, and personalized service, we invite you to set up a consultation with us.