Selecting the right financial planner is the first important step as he would need to take care of your finances over several years.

So it's important to settle for a good financial advisorplanner when you start your investments to meet various financial goals in life. Selecting the right person who will handhold one through his financial journey is one of the most important decisions one can make in life.

A financial planner should understand your requirement for a financial plan and then put in place a plan based on your needs. He should then help you invest in products which are suitable for your financial goals, educate you, help you with the execution part and then should also review your plan so that in case the investments veer off the predefined path, he should help you bring it back on track.

The investor should follow certain steps while selecting the financial planneradvisor. These include interviewing the prospective financial planneradvisor. During the interview process, one should ask several questions like what sets the person from other IFAsplanners, the advisory process that the person follows, how he evaluates investments, investment monitoring process he follows, how he keeps clients apprised of market developments, regulatory changes etc. and the portfolio review process. Experience of the financial planneradvisor is also a very important factor that investors should be careful about. Look for advisors with a minimum experience of five years. Not only would they have a better understanding of the ups and downs of the markets, they would also have a better sense of judge ment.