Does Your Financial Advisor Protect You from Identity Theft?
Your financial advisor has your portfolio performing well. You consider your risk to be minimal because your assets are well balanced. But have they really protected the portfolio from all types of risk, including identity theft? How would you feel if you took a 100% investment loss overnight because a thief obtained your personal information?
Earlier this week I was speaking to an audience of high net-worth individuals at the invitation of Erin Botsford, Certified Financial Planner (CFP), of The Botsford Financial Group. The event was sponsored by The Lincoln Financial Group and Inland Group and the subject of the speech was protecting your financial assets from identity theft.
Erin made a very salient point about financial advisors. She told me that if your financial planner is simply giving you investment advice, they are not a full-fledged financial planner, but an investment advisor. Erin’s philosophy is that in order to best serve your financial needs, your advisor needs to look at every type of risk that threatens your financial well-being, including the risks posed by identity theft.
Many investors (and advisors) don’t understand that investment accounts, if drained by an identity thief, aren’t necessarily restored as easily as a checking account would be. It can be an arduous, lengthy and occasionally unresolved process to get you whole. That pain demonstrates the incredible importance of prevention. I’m humbled that Erin brought me in to speak to her clients about ID theft for this very reason.
The result of Erin’s customer-wellness session was quite striking to me. In a matter of one hour, Erin had managed to separate herself from other Certified Financial Planners. Not only does she give excellent investment advice, she is genuinely concerned about all aspects of her clients well-being and has created a loyal customer base because of her extra care.
John Sileo
Motivational Identity Theft Speaker
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3 Responses to Does Your Financial Advisor Protect You from Identity Theft?
Thanks !! very helpful post!
Very good information. Did Erin happen to mention during the seminar if she was “Red Flags” compliant with the FTC?
At the time I spoke to her group, Red Flags was not really on the radar screen, so I’m not sure.
John