Oakland, CA | East Bay; Independent Financial Planners and Fiduciary Standards

Hi, my name is Erik Wolfers. I’m the Managing Member of First & Main Financial. We’ve been helping clients with personal finance since 2001.

Today I’m going to talk a little bit about perspective and expertise and the fiduciary standard in the financial services industry, or practicing as a fiduciary. We got a new client last week, a single mom who is struggling with buying a home; because of the cost of homes, and she also has other basic desires to retire on time or maybe a little bit late — sending a daughter through college.

On the phone in our initial call we discussed the concept of using an interest-only mortgage to buy a home and also potentially using a line of credit as a cash reserve—using equity in the home as an emergency reserve.

Often when people buy a house they use most of their cash and then they don’t have an emergency reserve and that feels uncomfortable for them.

So, we did quick calculations and went deep into concepts. I was happy to help her but then she decided to work with us in a more detailed basis.

It takes years to gather experience and expertise on all different facets of the personal financial services industry, and when you work as a fiduciary, as we do, our only interest is helping our clients achieve the best outcome possible—which is an idea that’s not resident for many people. In their minds, they’re worried the financial services industry is going to take advantage of them, or not be looking out for their best interest, which is often true.

We are interested in primarily helping our clients get the best results possible—and there are other people like us that operate in the same way. But, being a financial planner/financial advisor is like anything else: years of accumulated experience provides insight and perspective that you simply can’t have if you haven’t been doing the work for a long time.

I always encourage people to work with a fiduciary, work with someone that’s experienced, and I also lean toward independent companies because then there’s no conflicts of interest.

If you are looking for some financial guidance; whether for a one time financial plan or continuing advice on your investments, we invite you to meet with a First & Main Financial planner for a free consultation. We would be more than happy to sit down with you, assess your situation and review our services to help navigate your financial future.