Six Questions to Ask a Financial Advisor Before You Trust Them with Your Money

There is no shortage of people who will call themselves a financial advisor. The title is not protected. A person can call themselves a financial advisor the day they pass their first licensing exam, with very little behind them in terms of training, obligation to you, or accountability.

So how do you find a fiduciary financial advisor — one who is actually working for your interests, not just working? And once you find one, how do you know before you hand over anything?

These are the questions to ask. They are the same ones I tell people to ask us.

1. Fiduciary vs. Financial Advisor: Are You a Fiduciary?

This is the first and most important question. A fiduciary is legally required to act in your best interest. Not in the interest of the firm they work for. Not in the interest of the product that pays the highest commission. Yours.

Many people in the financial services industry are held to a lower standard called “suitability.” That means the product they recommend only has to be suitable for your situation — not the best option for you. There is a significant difference.

Registered Investment Advisers (RIAs) like our firm operate as fiduciaries. Brokers typically do not. Ask directly: Are you a registered investment adviser? Are you a fiduciary? If they hesitate, or if they explain that it depends on the product or service, keep asking.

2. Do you hold the CFP® designation?

The CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ mark is the gold standard in this profession. Fewer than one in five financial advisors holds it.

What does it take to earn it? A complete curriculum covering taxes, retirement planning, estate planning, investments, insurance, and investment law. A rigorous exam. Four thousand hours of supervised work under a practicing CFP®. An ongoing ethics requirement. And continuing education for the rest of a planner’s career.

That is not a weekend course. The CFP Board designed the designation to differentiate the people who genuinely know this field from the people who sold products for a few years and handed themselves a title.

You can verify whether someone holds the designation at cfp.net. Search the name before you go in.

3. How do you get paid?

There are two basic answers. Either the advisor earns commissions when they sell you something — a mutual fund, an annuity, a variable insurance product — or they charge a fee directly to you, typically as a percentage of the assets they manage on your behalf, or hourly, or by the engagement.

Commission-based advisors are not automatically bad. But you should know whether the person recommending a product is also earning a payout from selling it to you. That is a conflict of interest worth understanding before you sign anything.

Our firm charges fees. We do not earn commissions on securities. When we recommend something, it is because we believe it fits your situation — not because of what it pays us.

4. Questions to Ask a Financial Advisor About Their Process

This is a question that separates advisors who will serve you from advisors who will sell to you, and the answer usually becomes clear within the first few sentences.

A good advisor should be able to walk you through their process before they know anything specific about you. What happens in the first meeting? The second? When — and how — do they expect you to make a decision about whether to move forward?

Be cautious of anyone who expects a commitment from you by the second meeting, or who uses close-the-deal language. You are not buying a car. This is your retirement.

Our first several meetings with a new client are entirely about understanding their situation: their family, their income, their expenses, their goals, their fears. We do not manage a single dollar until there is a real relationship and a real plan. Some advisors think that is slow. We think it is how it should work.

5. What won’t you do?

This one catches people off guard, but the answer tells you a lot.

Every firm has a philosophy — and part of that philosophy is what they will not recommend, regardless of how it is positioned or how much attention it gets in the headlines.

We do not put clients into cryptocurrency. We do not use private funds or highly speculative instruments in managed portfolios. We do not make market predictions and we do not promise returns. We will tell you that plainly before we get started.

Advisors who tell you they can do everything are often advisors who know a little about a lot and a great deal about very little. Specialization matters. We specialize in retirees and pre-retirees in Northern Ohio and Florida. That means we know the specific tax questions, the Medicare timing issues, the Social Security strategy, the estate concerns that come up for this particular group of people — in exhaustive detail. That is worth something.

6. Can I talk to your current clients?

A good advisor should be willing to connect you with clients who can speak to their experience — in compliance with applicable rules. If an advisor is reluctant to point to anyone who has worked with them, that is worth noting.

Beyond direct referrals, check. Google the advisor’s name. Look them up on FINRA’s BrokerCheck at brokercheck.finra.org — a free public database that shows licensing history, complaints, and regulatory actions. Look up the firm’s Form ADV, which RIAs are required to file publicly and which describes their fees, services, and business practices in detail. You can find it at adviserinfo.sec.gov.

This is public information. A trustworthy advisor will encourage you to use it.

One More Thing

The Midwest has a particular way of approaching decisions like this. People here take their time. They think it through. And when it comes to choosing a financial advisor for retirement — which is the highest-stakes version of this decision — they want to know who they are dealing with before they hand anything over. That is not being difficult — that is being wise.

Any advisor worth working with will respect that. They should not be rushing you. They should not be closing you. If you feel pressure before you feel trust, that pressure is telling you something.

We have clients who took months to decide to come on board. We still work with them. Some have been with us for more than twenty years.

When you are ready, we are here. And if you are not a client yet — if you have been wondering whether what you have in place is actually working for you — a first conversation costs nothing.

Schedule a Complimentary Meeting

Wayne K. Maslyk Jr., CFP®, and Andrew Brewer serve clients at Great Lakes Benefits & Wealth Management from offices in Sandusky, Elyria, and Madeira Beach, Florida.

Call: (866) 626-3990

Meetings are available by phone, video conference, or in-office.