Many people have investments in the form of retirement savings. For Americans, this might be a 401(K) or IRA, and for Canadians, an RRSP. Often these investments have been set up by a financial advisor. I have dealt with many financial advisors over the years and have learned a few things. 1. Competence. Most financial advisors seem to be well-meaning people who don’t know as much as you might hope about investing. I’m sure that there are exceptions to both the well-meaning part and the competence part. 2. Main focus of the job. Their job is more of a mutual fund salesperson than what most people would think of as a financial advisor. 3. Individual Customer Attention. The comprehensive personal financial assessment that they perform with each client seems mostly geared toward figuring out how much they can get you to invest in mutual funds. 4. Conflict of Interest. The amount that financial advisors get paid varies from one mutual fund to the next. The funds they choose should be b...