How To Choose a Wealth Advisor
August 22, 2022
Experience how Washington Trust helps you write your complete wealth story
Selecting and building a successful relationship with a wealth advisor doesn’t need to be difficult or overwhelming if you have a sound strategy in place. While the options may seem daunting, we recommend focusing on three core aspects when determining which advisor to select: size, type, and style.
Size: Select a firm that is large enough to offer sophisticated solutions, but small enough to customize those solutions for you
We are all familiar with the “Goldilocks” story. When choosing a financial advisor, it should feel “just right!”
| In today’s complex financial markets, you should have access to a team of experts and a sophisticated array of solutions. You deserve exceptional service from an advisor that knows your name and your family. Great firms are well-established, stable, and help you manage assets across generations. They proactively deliver solutions that address your entire financial life, providing a team of experts to meet your needs while coordinating seamlessly with all your other advisors. |
| At Washington Trust Wealth Management, we offer a mix that is “just right.” We are large enough to offer state-of-the art financial planning, a deep bench of talent, and a robust investment research group that generates the best ideas for our clients. Yet, we are personal in our approach, offering you a dedicated service team, a financial plan and portfolio tailored to your specific needs, and locally based decision makers who can customize your unique client experience. |
Type: Find the right type of financial advisor for you
Different types of financial advisors have substantially different business models and operating principles – all of which can impact your fees and the services you receive.
The Washington Trust Advantage
At Washington Trust, we operate as a Registered Investment Advisor and Trust Company. Some of the advantages of our structure include:
| Commission-Free Advice: | We are a fee–only firm and charge based on assets under management. We never receive “extra fees” for recommending specific investments or proprietary solutions. |
| A Fiduciary Standard | As a fiduciary, we operate at the highest level of ethical standards which requires us to put our clients’ interests above our own. These standards are much more rigorous than the “best interest” or “suitability” measures that govern other advisors. |
| Comprehensive and Coordinated Solutions | Our relationship with our clients goes beyond financial planning and investment advice. We can help our clients implement a complete solution including trust services, lending, and banking so their entire financial life is well coordinated, working together to meet their goals. |
Style: Access a planning-centric, customized, and comprehensive solution
Some advisors are investment focused, while others integrate planning into the process.
At Washington Trust, financial planning is core to everything we do. We develop customized plans based on your unique personal needs, goals, and the stages of your life. We don’t simply rely on the output from an app or a standard “playbook.” Our customized approach to planning considers both sides of a client’s balance sheet. We collaborate with you to set your objectives. Then we create your investment strategy, design your personal portfolio, and create options for you to use insurance, borrowing, and cash management tools to help you control risk and access cash when you need it. As your personal advisor, we will meet with you to anticipate your financial needs so your plan can evolve over time – in real time – should your needs change.
Connect with a wealth advisor
No matter where you are in life, we can help. Get started with one of our experts today. Contact us at 800-582-1076 or submit an online form.
This document is intended as a broad overview of some of the services provided to certain types of Washington Trust Wealth Management clients. This material is presented solely for informational purposes, and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting, actuarial or tax advice. It does not take into account any investor's particular investment objectives, strategies, tax status or investment horizon. Please consult with a financial counselor, an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific financial, legal or tax situation. No recommendation or advice is being given in this presentation as to whether any investment or fund is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors, or markets identified and described were, or will be, profitable.
Any views or opinions expressed are those of Washington Trust Wealth Management and are subject to change based on product changes, market, and other conditions. All information is current as of the date of this material and is subject to change without notice. This document, and the information contained herein, is not, and does not constitute, a public or retail offer to buy, sell, or hold a security or a public or retail solicitation of an offer to buy, sell, or hold, any fund, units or shares of any fund, security or other instrument, or to participate in any investment strategy, or an offer to render any wealth management services. Past Performance is No Guarantee of Future Results.
It is important to remember that investing entails risk. Stock markets and investments in individual stocks are volatile and can decline significantly in response to issuer, market, economic, political, regulatory, geopolitical, and other conditions. Investments in foreign markets through issuers or currencies can involve greater risk and volatility than U.S. investments because of adverse market, economic, political, regulatory, geopolitical, or other conditions. Emerging markets can have less market structure, depth, and regulatory oversight and greater political, social, and economic instability than developed markets. Fixed Income investments, including floating rate bonds, involve risks such as interest rate risk, credit risk and market risk, including the possible loss of principal. Interest rate risk is the risk that interest rates will rise, causing bond prices to fall. The value of a portfolio will fluctuate based on market conditions and the value of the underlying securities. Diversification does not assure or guarantee better performance and cannot eliminate the risk of investment loss. Investors should contact a tax advisor regarding the suitability of tax-exempt investments in their portfolio.