Getting reliable investment advice

There are plenty of investment 'experts' out there, all ready and willing to share with you their expertise.

In addition to relevant experience and professional qualifications, an important thing to look for is their 'process'. A robust investment advice process will lead to reliable and suitable advice. That is the type of investment advice you need.

Ask your investment adviser about their process. This is equally as important when continuing to work with an existing adviser as it is when you are selecting a new one.

There are six steps they should be able to describe (with ease and in detail) - understanding your financial objectives, assessing your attitude towards investment risk, strategic asset allocation, tactical asset allocation, fund selection and ongoing reviews.

This is relatively simple stuff, but in our experience many investment 'experts' prefer to leap straight to fund or product recommendation, largely neglecting the other important steps in the advice process.

If in doubt, get a second opinion. You have plenty to lose and plenty to gain.