Originally Posted by dimbulb

I would be careful to make sure that the broker is looking out for you, and not for himself. Most brokers and "financial planners" are simply glorified salesmen, with precious little more financial knowledge that you can obtain yourself.

If they are given strong sales commisions if you buy certain investments, you can be sure they will sell those to you. If they get commisions if you trade a lot, you can be certain you'll end up trading a lot. Think about it, if you were in the broker's shoes, you'd do the same.

If you want to get a financial planner, get a fee-only planner. That is, they don't get any commisions from any of the funds that they recommend, and the fee only covers the advice that they give you. This removes any conflict of interest that they might have.....