Christian Financial Advice

There are numerous financial advisors claiming that they are "Christian Financial Professionals" or "Christian Investment Advisors."  How do you tell the difference? How do you know that they will give you the proper advice and recommendations?

It is important to screen the financial advisors prior to hiring them for financial advice and investment management. Asking several good questions will help to narrow the field.

The principle questions of a Christian Financial Services Company might be: 
• They will do their best?
• They will give fair value for the work done?
• They will be ethical?

• They will be experienced?
• They will be courteous?

So what to expect from a "Christian Financial advisor"? What does it mean to invest like a Christian? They should do their best. They should be honest. They should be knowledgeable, etc. Many companies will meet this test. Some will not. We think we are well qualified in those areas of the business; the virtues of integrity, service and value provided.

The best way to make sure the financial advisor will provide you with the best ethical advice is to use a "fee-only" Christian financial advisor. When an advisor is fee-only that means they don't SELL you investment products, only quality unbiased advice. They work for you, not the brokerage firm.

There is another thing that needs to be considered. Assuming most companies will do their best, and that you have chosen a planner with high integrity, what else would be involved in your decision? Competence would be important.

How is our approach different than other options available to you? It should be Biblically based, that is a given. However, here is where we can get into trouble. There is a vast difference between Biblical principles and Biblical interpretation. Way too often, services that are touted as "Christian" are selling a style of investing based on questionable interpretations of end-time scenarios.

Remember the Y2K era? I remember best-selling Christian Financial Professionals giving people advice to cash in retirement plans and take the penalty! They were basing their advice to act on feelings and their ability to predict the future, which is clearly unscriptural. 

I would submit that much more money has been wasted that could have gone to the Kingdom of God, by Christians acting out of fear than by Christians being too bold. 

The Parable of the talents in Luke 19:12-24 illustrates this.

As Americans, God has blessed us. He has placed us in a time and location where stock and real estate values have increased greatly. The stock market (as measured by the S&P index) would have made your investment of the last 10 years (ended 12/31/01) grow by a factor of 4.4x. In other words $100,000 would have grown to over $440,000. As Christian Financial planners we cannot guarantee the future of capitalism. But we must also not be so arrogant as to predict its demise. 

Paranoia is not the litmus test for good Christian Stewardship. 

Financial Stewardship      Godly Counsel      Scriptures      Christian Advice      Seven Steps      Investment Principles       Money Management     

ElderAdo Financial is a faith based Christian Financial Planning firm that blends our faith along with traditional financial planning standards. We manage investment accounts with Christian values in mind for our client's accounts. In order to be effective stewards for our clients we avoid investments such as abortion, pornography, alcohol and tobacco.

We are also a fee-only financial planning firm that offers full-service investment advice without being influenced by sales commissions. As financial planners that believes in Christ Jesus, we feel the fee-only method is the best approach to offering the most ethical advice for our Christian clients since we give advice and don't sell financial products.

A Christian Financial Planner will help give you wisdom to manage your money with Biblically based investment advice. If working with a Christian Financial Planner appeals to you, we encourage you to consider our firm for your financial services needs.

Why should a Christian investor hire a Christian Financial Planner? The main reason is because the investor and advisor are both Christians, they share similar values. The advisor understands Biblical principles such as tithing, budgeting, saving for the future, investing and giving to the needy. After the initial interview process of numerous financial related questions, the financial advisor can identify areas of improvement for the client.

If you would like more information about working with a fee only Christian Financial Planner, please click here or read through our www.ElderAdoFinancial.com website further to learn more about us and how we operate.