Step 5: Decide if you should manage yourself, or have pros do it for you

Of course you should take such enthusiasm with a grain of salt, too. Ask yourself if the person recommending this FA could possibly be getting some form of compensation for the referral, and even question if they seem to be doing well financially themselves. If they are still driving the broken-down yugo with one headlight, then chances are their accounts don't look as awesome as they are claiming. Asking multiple people about the performance of that same FA is the way to screen out the false claims.

Once you find the right FA though, and there really are one or two of them in each of the big cities, especially new ones that haven't had time to be corrupted by the system. Once you find him or her, you've got something golden. Truly, the goose with the golden egg has nothing on this FA, you should use him or her for every last investment decision for the rest of your life.

Most people feel strongly about this point one way or the other already. They are either comfortable with others handling their money, or they aren't.

For myself, I would only let someone who is proven to do what they say they will do touch my money at all. Way too many brokers out there goof off and let accounts slide without taking the action they said that they would, which usually results in unecessary financial loss. A major problem they have is that most of them have split job duties, Salesman and broker… They can't keep their jobs without getting more clients to sign up, but those clients don't want a salesman, they want a dedicated financial consultant. We've all heard the horror stories of what can sometimes happen with these guys, but have you ever heard one about a particular Broker or FA that other investors had previously recommended? In my experience, at least, each professional is either trustworthy or not, on a one-by-one basis. So if you can find one that others trust and recommend, you can very likely trust him or her too.

In most cases, having a fund professionally managed in an "asset allocation" account usually takes an initial investment of $10,000 minimum, (excepting a College 529 fund) however the profit margin for such an investment will be much higher, with all of the constant attention paid to it by a professional fund manager on Wall Street! This is a service that was traditionally saved for millionaires who made their living this way, but now in our modern age it is available for your funds too, as long as your with one of the major Ney-York based banks.

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