First Meeting with Your Financial Advisor
Identify financial goals with your financial advisor. Build a plan to help achieve them. It's that easy.

Identify financial goals with your financial advisor. Build a plan to help achieve them. It's that easy.
Whether it’s investing some extra income, preparing a future for your family with your retirement secured, or saving for a home or education costs, we’re here to coach you through it.
We'll discuss your financial goals to understand what's most important to you, and together we'll create a step-to-step strategy to help achieve them. And if anything changes along the way, we'll help you adapt and stay on track.
Before your first meeting, it's best to know what to expect. A financial advisor helps you develop a long-term financial strategy, chart the short-term steps to help you stay consistent, and adapt to unexpected events in your life or in the market. They also advise you on the financial product and service options to help you invest accordingly and live the life you want.
Financial advisors can not only help you find ways to fund your retirement, but can help you devise a strategy to help work toward your dream home, send your kids to college, upgrade your own education, minimize the taxes you pay and even plan for early retirement.
Write a list of questions around investment topics and products, as well as the firm's reputation, and some thoughts on the kind of relationship you'd like to build with your financial advisor. This can help build confidence as you begin your research.
1.Start with form ADV—which investment advisors use to register with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC)—by visiting the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site. (If you're having trouble finding the ADV for your financial advisor, search for the firm’s name under the “Firm” tab at the top left). Form ADV has three parts:
Understand how the advisor's firm operates, and how they build and maintain relationships across business segments, including:
Develop a richer understanding of the details and requirements of the firm's products, services and processes, including:
* These documents are the primary disclosures to clients, and a great source of information about programs relevant to you.
Identify key information that may not be explicitly called out in branded materials to better educate you and support your decision, including:
You can also read these online resources to check background information, including certifications and registrations.
2.Be sure to check out your financial advisor’s and firm's websites. Make sure the information aligns with what you find on the regulatory sites. If not, it may create questions you want to add to your list.
3.Check out the financial advisor's corporate or personal social media channels to get a sense of their personal profile, education, personality and values. Reach out to family, friends and colleagues who can share experiences they may have with the firm or advisor. This gives insight into their values to help you make the right choice.
As you research, you can also review the products and services your financial advisor offers. Make a list of the ones that interest you and jot down questions about the investment programs, services and fees that seem confusing.
In addition to thoughts and questions you have from your research, pull together information that gives your financial advisor a snapshot of your current financial status to help them get started:
At Edward Jones, we’ll start by getting to know you, what's important to you today and your plans for tomorrow, so you can live the life you want.. We also want you to have every opportunity to get to know us. Be sure to ask questions about our philosophy of investing and our approach to the client/advisor relationship. We'll be there to support you, every step of the way.
You'll want to ensure you share effective communication with your financial advisor and that they understand you, and vice versa. Is your financial advisor actively listening to what you're saying and taking your wishes and opinions into consideration as you talk? If so, your relationship with your financial advisor will be a long and worthwhile one.
We also want to get a feeling of your investment experience and comfort with risk.
After getting to know more about you, we want you to get to know more about how we can help you. We'll share what programs and services we offer and information about our related fees, and may provide options for your specific situation.
Following this conversation, you and your financial advisor will agree on a specific short- and long-term strategy, a clear progress check-in timeline, as well as a list of actionable next steps.
We'll work to understand what's important to you, follow an established process, and build personalized strategies that can help you achieve your financial goals. Throughout our partnership, we'll continue to revisit your goals and risk tolerance to help you stay on track. By working with your tax professionals, estate attorneys and insurance specialists, we can create a comprehensive approach for you and your needs.
Contact an Edward Jones financial advisor today to get started.