Should You Hire a Financial Advisor? Key Signs & Benefits

Penny Pennington was a financial adviser for years before becoming Edward Jones' managing partner, so she knows when it's time to find one.

But what do financial advisers actually do? In short, Pennington told FOX Business, they help people identify their financial priorities and how to manage their money in order to obtain the future lifestyle they want.

"That financial adviser serves as an adviser, using financial tools and products, but they also serve as a coach to help you put together those goals, all those things that are important to you," Pennington said.

"Their job is to help keep you on track over the arc of your life from the moment that your needs are maybe less complex to the years ahead when they become way more complicated," Pennington said.

"Your financial adviser is like a friend with financial expertise that helps you put all that together over the long term to help you achieve what's most important to you."

- Penny Pennington, Edward Jones managing partner

You don't need to have a great deal of wealth to warrant help from a financial adviser, she added.

"Through the magic of compounding -- which is like gravity, it's a magical force of nature -- the earlier one begins putting away one's resources a little bit at a time, the better off that we are in the future," she explained.

Pennington said statistics show that individuals who earn less than $100,000 between the ages of 35 and 55 have 50 percent greater wealth if they get sound financial advice.