A financial adviser is a professional who helps clients to maintain the desired balance of investment income, capital gains, and acceptable level of risk by using proper asset allocation. Financial advisers use stock, bonds, mutual funds, real estate investment trusts (REITs), options, futures, notes, and insurance products to meet the needs of their clients. Many financial advisers receive a commission payment for the various financial products that they broker, although "fee-based" planning is becoming increasingly popular in the financial services industry.

Ein Finanzberater berät Kunden über Geldanlagen, Kredite und Versicherungen. Diese Beratung erfolgt entweder anlassbezogen oder im Rahmen einer systematischen Finanzplanung.