Financial Planning is Like Football
Your financial life is like a football game.
You have offense (building wealth through saving and investing), defense (insurance) and special teams (like tax and estate planning, social security and medicare issues).
I love the football analogy, but usually when it is presented by a financial advisor - they put themselves in the role of the quarterback. This relegates you to the role of ... what? ... hmmm ... spectator? ... wide receiver? ... center (first to touch the ball but you immediately hand it off to someone else then struggle to protect him from getting tackled)?
I have always felt that YOU (the client) is the quarterback. A financial planner's role is more that of the COACH.
The financial planner doesn't run or throw your football. The client (you, the quarterback) does that. They don't kick the field goals. There are special teams for that. A Real Financial Planner is not your defense, but has an important role in how the defense is deployed (because he/she helped design it).
A Real Financial Planner realizes that he/she doesn't even call in the plays. Plays are called on the field by the quarterback (that would be you again) or defensive back (also you) based on the training and experience you got in practice. Those practice sessions were designed by THE COACH!
Coaches don't win games. The players win the games. The players are the ones on the field battling to win. The coach's primary job is to train the players and give them the best tools possible. The great teams have successful quarterbacks who run the offense from the field ... although the coach may offer perspective (from the sideline and years of experience) of the best play for any particular situation.
The same thing goes with your money. The best choices with your money will not happen when someone else is telling you what to do, but you can make much smarter decisions with better training, better tools and the experience and perspective of a good wealth coach.