7 questions you should ask your advisor

1. Are you a member of a Professional Advisors Association?
Look for an advisor who is a member of at least one professional association like the NewPark Financial Services Group, the Professional Advisors Association (PAA) or the Institute of Financial Advisors (IFA). These associations have codes of conduct with which all members must comply.

2. What ongoing training courses do you take?
Is the advisor keeping fully up to date with the whole range of new products and services which are coming continuously onto the market?

3. Do you have access to the services of all the main Life Insurance companies?
Ask whether they have agencies with all the main insurers such as AIA, Asteron, Fidelity Life, One Path, Partners Life, NIB and Southern Cross etc. and do they have access to the other insurers as well. Agents who are dedicated to one insurance company are not brokers and can only offer insurance from that one company. They may have vested interests unlike an advisor who can research and negotiate with a number of insurers, and this is needed with over 19 insurers in New Zealand.

4. How much experience do you have?
Find out the kind of clients your advisor has had most experience with — small business, corporate, professional, trades, family? Will they understand your particular situation?

5. Do you use independent research?
Make sure your advisor is offering a wider not singular opinion on what is best for you and your family or business.

6. What is your general approach as a Life Insurance Broker?
Top Insurance Advisors start and finish with the needs of you in mind. They do not sell a product as such but will take you through a thorough fact-finding survey to find if and where you may have a need for financial protection. They will produce a Report upon which they will base their recommendations. This is the kind of professional service that you know you can trust.

7. How often do you keep in contact with your clients?
A top Insurance Advisor would always keep in touch on a regular basis. They would normally be in contact with you every year for your annual review. They do this so that they know what your current situation is like, whether you have bought a new house, got married, or had a new baby. There are some brokers that people may sign with, and you would not hear a word from them after they have done business with you.

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