Have you ever noticed that there are no good jokes about financial planners?  Lawyers are standard fare for podium pundits, and even accountants get a friendly poke or two, especially around tax time.

Perhaps people don’t make fun of financial planners because they are not sure what they actually do.  There are nearly 60,000 Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP) professionals in this country, but many consumers, especially younger Americans, have never met or talked to one. 

Financial planners are not just for older people with money. They work just as much for individuals with little more than a car, student loans, and high professional hopes.  And despite the magic that rings in “financial” or “plan”, going to a planner when you are in dire straits -   divorce, death, a do-it-yourself investment plan that has done-you-in – may just be too late

Financial planners, like doctors, are best consulted when you are not sick, and want to stay that way.  Here are four good reasons for visiting your financial MD:

1. Baseline Testing is needed to assess your financial health. Upon a first visit, your planner will do a basic triage:

• Balance sheet: These are your assets (what you have) and your liabilities (what you owe)
• Cash flow: This is how much your assets (investments, job, business) bring in and how much your liabilities (mortgage, credit cards, student loans) throw off.
• Risk analysis: This is a stress test to see how vulnerable you are to a change in assets or income.

Your planner will also help you set your financial fitness goals.

2. Regular Check-Ups are important to measure, and provide motivation for, your progress toward your goals, and for early diagnosis of any incipient financial maladies.

3. Routine Care may be required to address a special condition.  You need to go on a debt diet; your retirement plan could use a regular dose of deferred earnings and employer matches; you have a deficiency in your tax withholdings.  Your planner will work with you to find and adjust the right medicine.

4. Emergency Treatment or intervention can be necessary when your financial life is at stake.  But think how much better you will feel when the professional treating you in the emergency room is someone who has known you throughout your financial life.

Have you avoided making an appointment with a financial planner because you are afraid it might cost too much? There is a prescription for that problem, too.  At www.CFP.net, you can find local financial planners. Be sure to come in with a list of questions.

Call more than one – a second opinion is always a good idea. Discuss with them their services and compensation arrangements.  If you are looking for hourly fees and they do not work that way, ask them for a referral to a colleague who does.  CFP® professionals see themselves as being in a helping profession and they want to assist you in finding a solution, even if they themselves do not provide it.

I have been a financial planner for more than twenty years, and I am waiting for the day that the American public is so familiar with my profession that they finally start telling some good CFP® jokes.