A Suze Orman exclusive

Here are the 12 things you should expect a financial advisor to do for you. You should type all these requests up on a piece of paper, and have your advisor sign an agreement to do all the below.

1. Explain every commission.
2. Never pressure you into doing anything that makes you uncomfortable.
3. Call you every time they want to make a change in your account.
4. Explain in thorough detail each new transaction they recommend.
5. Explain (without you having to ask) the tax implications of any move they recommend.
6. Send you a transaction slip from the brokerage firm holding your money, telling you what's been bought or sold in each and every transaction. These slips must always match exactly the transactions you gave permission for.
7. Send you a monthly statement summarizing all that month's transactions, including deposits, withdrawals, and current positions held. This statement must come directly from the brokerage firm holding your money, not from your advisor's office.
8. Prepare quarterly reports and an annual report, detailing the exact return you're getting on your money - one that includes all fees and commissions. The figures on these reports should match the reports generated directly from the brokerage firm. These reports should show you all the realized gains or losses (all the money you actually made or lost from selling an investment) and all the unrealized gains and losses (investments where the money has not yet changed hands, to generate an official profit or loss) as well. They should also include returns of the overall index, so you know whether you're doing better or worse than the index is. You want everything on paper.
9. Never ask you to write a check made out to them personally. All the money you hand over needs to be placed in an institution, and every check is to be payable to the institution. This is absolutely essential. More than one "advisor" has flown the coop with dozens of clients' money.
10. Return your calls in a timely manner.
11. Always get you the information you request about an investment and answers to any questions you have that they don't know.
12. Keep you informed about your money, not just call you when they want to buy or sell something. If a stock has gone down, or isn't performing the way they expected it would, you should hear about it from them, not read it in the newspapers.