From a 2014 State Street Global Advisors and Wharton School of Business survey and study of the responses from 776 investors regarding their investment practices.
If you manage all or a portion of your assets yourself, you may be compromising your short and long term objectives. Investors who manage all of their assets should make certain that they, themselves, are performing the role of the lead advisor. In this way, the self-directed investor needs to make sure that they are able to coordinate and monitor all of their accounts and portfolios. They need to manage the entire investment plan in a way that guards against overlapping exposures, too little or too much risk, or a portfolio that isn’t rebalanced periodically.
Above all else, self-directed investors who manage all or a portion of their own assets need to be honest with themselves about their abilities to manage their assets using a centralized approach. Very simply, you need to carefully assess whether you have the time, resources and experience to oversee multiple advisors, or to monitor and manage all aspects of your financial life on your own. Ultimately, you’ll want to ask yourself three questions:
- Are you really the right person to be doing this for yourself?
- Would you hire yourself?
- Would you refer yourself to a friend or relative?
If you answer NO to any one of these questions, you should re-evaluate your own role and consider hiring someone who can perform these responsibilities for you.