Questions to Ask Your Advisor
No. We represent our clients and because we are required to act in a fiduciary capacity, our actions must always be intended to further the interests of our clients. If, instead, we had chosen to represent a brokerage firm or insurance company, we would then have a conflict of interest in advising you. Your physician doesn’t represent an insurance company and your attorney doesn’t represent your counterparty, so why should your financial advisor represent anyone other than you? Philosphically and ethically, we believe an advisor’s duty should always be to his or her client and to no one else.
Yes. Although registered brokerage representatives and insurance agents often hold themselves out as financial advisors, brokers represent their firms and insurance agents are agents for their respective insurance companies. Their allegiance is to their companies – not to you. While they are subject to certain “suitability” rules when selling their products, they are held to a lower standard of duty than are fiduciaries such as Wessel Investment Counsel.
Yes. We are properly registered with the appropriate regulatory authorities. In general, an advisory firm is required to register if it is engaged in the “ABCs” of the financial planning and/or investment advisory industry. It must register if it renders investment Advice in the context of a Business and does so forCompensation.
No. Nor have any complaints been filed against us.
Yes. We will provide you with an agreement that will allow you to engage us for on-going asset management services and/or financial planning services.
Yes. We will send you a quarterly invoice showing you not only how much you are being charged, but the precise manner in which that charge was calculated. Portfolio management fees you pay to us are also reflected on the account statements that our custodian will mail to you.
Financial planning and portfolio management fees are payable by check, but most clients prefer to have their portfolio management fees deducted from their portfolio automatically. Either way, you will always receive an invoice for any fees we may charge you.
Yes. When checking references, however, please refrain from posing questions that would require our clients to reveal sensitive information about themselves.