Quora Answer: Are Investment or Financial Consultants an Important Profession?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Are investment or financial consultants an important profession?” 

Unless you are an accredited investor, or equivalent, you definitely require the services of a financial services consultant.  You could conceivably buy may financial products, from collective investment schemes of various kinds to health insurance yourself, but you will still need a good financial consultant to service you. 

A good financial consultant, and they are not the majority, is only valued when things go wrong, when the market crashes, when you need to make a claim, when you have liquidity issues.  This is when you need the experience, and expertise, of someone to navigate the system from portfolio repositioning to underwriting issues.  No one appreciate the financial consultant when things go as planned, and that should be a testament as to how good he is.