When you need financial help, you can turn to an investment professional or team of professionals. These professionals may be brokers, investment advisers, certified public accountants, lawyers, insurance agents, or financial planners—and they may work in many different settings, from large firms to small private practices. In some cases, your bank may have a separate investment department that employs investment professionals.

The person or team of professionals you decide to work with will depend largely on the type of financial help you need and the types of investments you want to have in your portfolio. Those needs, and so the professionals you work with, are likely to change during your lifetime along with the amount of money you have to invest and the financial goals that are important to you. What doesn’t change, though, is the need to know how and where to find the help you need.