Most people pick an advisor the way they pick a contractor: a name from a friend, one meeting, a handshake. That works out fine sometimes. When it doesn't, the cost shows up slowly — a fee you didn't fully understand, advice that quietly favored a product, a plan nobody revisited after your life changed.
Here's the shortlist I'd use if I were hiring an advisor myself, and the specific questions that surface the answers fastest.
1. Confirm they're a fiduciary — in writing, all the time
A fiduciary is legally required to put your interests ahead of their own. The catch is that some advisors are fiduciaries only part of the time: fiduciary when giving planning advice, then a salesperson when a commission product comes up.
Ask it plainly: "Are you a fiduciary 100% of the time, and will you put that in writing?" A yes should be immediate and unbothered. Anything that turns into a paragraph of qualifiers is your answer.
2. Understand exactly how they get paid
There are three basic models, and each shapes the advice you get:
- Fee-only — the advisor is paid only by you, through a flat fee, hourly rate, or a percentage of assets. No commissions, no product payouts.
- Fee-based — a mix. Some fees from you, some commissions from products sold to you. The name is confusingly close to fee-only, which is part of the problem.
- Commission — paid by the product companies. Advice is free at the point of sale, which means the cost is embedded somewhere you can't see it.
None of these are automatically disqualifying, but you should know which one you're in. Ask: "What is the total annual cost of working with you, including fund expenses and any platform fees?" Then ask them to show it to you as a dollar amount, not a percentage. A 1% fee sounds small. On $1.5 million it's $15,000 a year.
3. Check the credentials that actually require something
There are more than 200 financial designations in circulation, and plenty of them take a weekend. A few are worth weighting:
- CFP® — comprehensive financial planning coursework, a six-hour exam, thousands of hours of experience, and an ethics standard.
- CPA / CPA-PFS — tax expertise, useful if your situation is heavy on tax planning.
- CFA — deep investment analysis training, common on the portfolio management side.
You can verify a CFP® professional's certification and disciplinary history for free at letsmakeaplan.org, and check any advisor's registration and complaint record at adviserinfo.sec.gov and brokercheck.finra.org. Both take about two minutes.
4. Ask who they actually work with
An advisor who serves everyone tends to specialize in no one. If you're five years from retirement with a concentrated stock position and a rental property, you want someone who sees that pattern regularly — not someone whose typical client is a 32-year-old starting a Roth.
Good question: "Describe your three most recent new clients. What were they dealing with?" You'll learn more from that than from any brochure.
5. Find out what you get besides an investment portfolio
Investment management is the easiest part of this job to commoditize. The harder work is the coordination: Roth conversion timing, Social Security claiming, tax-efficient withdrawal order, healthcare before Medicare, estate documents, insurance that's still appropriate.
Ask what's included at your fee level and what's extra. Ask whether tax planning is done proactively during the year or only discussed in April. Ask who prepares the plan and who you'll actually talk to — sometimes the person selling you is not the person serving you.
6. Get clear on how often you'll talk
"We'll be in touch" is not a service model. Ask how many meetings a year are standard, whether there's a set agenda for each, and how quickly they return calls. Ask what happens when you have a question in October that can't wait until the annual review.
7. Ask what happens if something happens to them
This one gets skipped constantly, and it matters most with a solo or small firm. If your advisor is out for six months or leaves the business, who steps in? A real answer names a person and a written continuity agreement.
8. Read the ADV before you sign
Every registered advisor files a Form ADV Part 2, a plain-English disclosure of services, fees, conflicts of interest, and disciplinary history. It's public and free. Skim the conflicts-of-interest section in particular — it's where the interesting details live.
Questions worth asking in the first meeting
- Are you a fiduciary 100% of the time?
- How are you compensated, and what will I pay in total dollars this year?
- Do you receive any compensation from third parties?
- What does a typical client of yours look like?
- Is tax planning part of what you do, and how does it work?
- How many meetings will we have, and what happens between them?
- Who takes over if you're unavailable?
- How do you invest, and why that approach?
Signals worth paying attention to
Pressure to decide quickly. Vagueness about fees. A pitch for a product in the first meeting, before anyone has looked at your situation. Promises about returns. Reluctance to put anything in writing. None of these are subtle once you know to look.
The part nobody tells you
After all the due diligence, one thing still decides whether this works: whether you'll actually tell this person the truth. About the money you're embarrassed about, the sibling who needs help, the fear you haven't said out loud. Advice built on a partial picture is just guessing with a nicer report attached.
So on top of the checklist, ask yourself after the first meeting whether you felt heard or handled. That answer tends to be reliable.
If you're in the Atlanta area
I run a fee-only, fiduciary planning practice in Atlanta focused on people approaching or already in retirement. If you'd like to see what that looks like in your situation, a short intro call is the easiest way to find out — no cost and nothing to bring.
Frequently asked questions
- What questions should I ask a financial advisor before hiring them?
- Ask whether they're a fiduciary 100% of the time, how they're paid and what the total annual cost is in dollars, whether they receive third-party compensation, what a typical client looks like, whether tax planning is included, how often you'll meet, and who takes over if they're unavailable.
- What's the difference between fee-only and fee-based?
- Fee-only advisors are paid solely by you — flat fee, hourly, or a percentage of assets — and take no commissions. Fee-based advisors charge you a fee and can also earn commissions on products they sell you, which introduces a conflict of interest the name doesn't make obvious.
- How do I verify a financial advisor's credentials?
- Check CFP® certification and disciplinary history free at letsmakeaplan.org, and look up any advisor's registration, firm, and complaint record at adviserinfo.sec.gov or brokercheck.finra.org. Also read their Form ADV Part 2 for fees and conflicts of interest.
- How much should a financial advisor cost?
- Common structures are roughly 0.5% to 1.25% of assets annually, flat retainers of a few thousand dollars a year, or hourly rates. What matters more than the format is the total: ask for the all-in number in dollars, including fund expenses and platform fees.
- Does a financial advisor need to be local?
- No. Most planning work is done well over video, and being local matters less than fit, fiduciary status, and specialization. That said, some people simply prefer meeting in person, and that's a legitimate reason to choose someone nearby.
