Stock Brokers. They are there to help you carry out your decisions in terms of stock investing. I remembered Kiyosaki saying that you should not look for brokers because brokers are so-called brokers because they are “broker” than you. Instead, educate yourself effectively in such investments and make your own investment decisions.

But if getting a stock broker cannot be avoided, here are some of the tips and guidelines when you’re dealing with your broker or financial advisor.

Trust but verify. You can trust but verify. After all, it’s your hard earned money in that investment account and it’s up to you to make sure it’s safe. So monitor your monthly statements carefully to verify your stocks are being handled the way you trust they are.

In examining your monthly statements, here are some of the important steps to take:

Check for hidden fees. Always check for hidden fees. Your number one factor to achieve success as an individual investor is keeping expenses low. A lot of consumers pay fees they don’t even know are there. They don’t show up as commissions but are likely labeled as account fees or custodial fees. They’ll be listed in the section you may not typically look. If they’re quarterly fees, they won’t show up on every monthly statement.

What should you do when you find these fees? Call the company and ask for an explanation. Then ask them to waive the charges. Sometimes they will, but in other cases you’ll probably have to move your account to get rid of them.

A friend of mine recently emailed me a list of additional costs that he found out in his monthly statement in his BPI Trading account. He inquired the additional cost thru email and BPI Trade mentioned an updated fee structure of documentary stamps tax or DST. DST charges may differ from other stocks since it may carry a difference par value. From the explanation given by BPI Trade, it seems that DST charges are higher if you are purchasing stocks with low par value.

Require Authorization. You should routinely check your monthly statement for unauthorized trades just to keep honest people honest. This should be implemented if you are trading offline, meaning the stock broker is doing the trading for you.

Look for stocks bought or sold that you don’t recognize or remember giving permission for. Every trade earns a commission, so you want to make sure you’re not paying for trading activity you didn’t authorize.

I’ve heard some ways on how stock brokers maximize their earnings. Some stock brokers trade your stocks at a higher price than your specified selling price. Aside from getting a higher commission, they can even benefit more from the higher traded stock price. This is more likely if there is a bull run in the stock market. In order to avoid this, you should ask your stock broker if the stocks you ordered them to sell at a specified price was traded after the trading day.

If you are a newbie in stock market investing, you can learn how stock market works.

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