The short answer: Before hiring a financial advisor, confirm they are a fiduciary at all times and get your total annual cost in dollars. Find out who actually holds your money and what the relationship includes beyond investments. Ask how they plan, manage risk, and measure success. Then verify their answers on the SEC and FINRA websites.
Most people interview a financial advisor the way they'd interview a contractor for a small job. They ask two or three polite questions, get two or three polished answers, and sign.
That's backwards. You're not hiring someone to pick stocks. You're handing over decisions about when you can stop working, how much of your wealth goes to taxes, what your family inherits, and what happens to all of it if you're not around to manage it. The person across the table should expect to be tested.
Below are the questions we think matter most when choosing a financial advisor. Ask them out loud, write down the answers, and pay attention to how the answers are given, not just what's in them. Hesitation is information.
1. "Are you a fiduciary at all times, or only sometimes?"
Ask whether the advisor acts as a fiduciary in every interaction, not just some. A fiduciary must put your interests ahead of their own. Advisors who are also registered as brokers or insurance agents can switch to a lower standard when selling products. Ask when their roles change and how you would know.
Start here, because the answer determines how much weight everything else carries. The complication is that nothing about the room changes when the standard does. So ask it precisely:
- Do you act as a fiduciary in every interaction we will have?
- Are you or your firm also registered as a broker-dealer or insurance producer?
- When do those roles switch, and how would I know?
Then verify it yourself. Look up the person and the firm on the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site and on FINRA BrokerCheck. Read their Form ADV Part 2A and their Form CRS. Both documents list conflicts of interest in plain language. You can read our Form CRS here. It takes fifteen minutes.
2. "What will I pay, all in, in dollars?"
Ask for your total annual cost in dollars, not a percentage. That total should include:
- the advisory fee
- fund expense ratios
- trading and custody costs
- platform fees
- any commissions or payments from product sponsors
An advisor who won't put the full figure in writing is telling you something about how they operate.
Advisory fees are the part everyone talks about, but they're rarely the whole cost. Here is where each layer usually hides:
| Cost layer | Where it shows up | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Advisory fee (asset-based, hourly, or flat) | Deducted from your account or billed directly | Advisory agreement, Form ADV Part 2A, custodian statement |
| Fund and ETF expense ratios | Taken inside the fund, never billed separately | Fund prospectus or fact sheet |
| Trading and custody fees | Trade confirmations, custodian statements | Custodian fee schedule |
| Platform or technology fees | Added to the advisory fee or billed separately | Advisory agreement |
| Commissions, revenue sharing, sponsor payments | Often not on your statement at all | Conflicts section of Form ADV 2A and Form CRS |
| Insurance and annuity charges | Inside the contract | Contract prospectus, annual contract statement |
Then ask the follow-up that separates the transparent from the evasive: "Add it up. What is the total, in dollars, that leaves my accounts in a typical year?"
3. "Who actually holds my money?"
Your assets should be held by an independent, third-party custodian. The account should be in your name, you should be able to log into it directly, and the custodian should send you its own statements. Ask who the custodian is and whether the advisor can move money anywhere other than to an account of yours.
This question rarely appears on advisor-interview checklists, and it should. Custody is the safeguard that backs up every other promise being made to you.
4. "What do you do for me beyond managing investments?"
Ask what is actually included in the relationship, not what is theoretically available. For households with real complexity, the planning work often matters more than which investments are picked. That work includes tax planning, retirement income sequencing, equity compensation, business exit planning, and estate coordination. Then ask who does that work and who owns the outcome.
Get specifics on:
- Retirement income and withdrawal sequencing
- Tax planning across account types, including Roth conversion analysis and charitable strategy
- Equity compensation: stock options, restricted stock units (RSUs), a large position in your employer's stock, and scheduled selling plans for company executives
- Business exit and succession planning if you own a company
- Social Security timing
- Insurance review, including life, disability, and long-term care
- Estate planning coordinated with your attorney, and a beneficiary audit
- Cash flow, debt, and liquidity planning
If the answer is "we coordinate with outside specialists," that can be fine, as long as somebody owns the outcome and it isn't you.
5. "What happens in the first 90 days?"
Ask for a specific, written description of the onboarding process. It should say what the advisor needs from you, what they deliver back, and when each meeting happens. It should also say when you'll be asked to commit. A vague answer usually means the process is improvised.
A real answer sounds specific. Here's ours:
- Discovery Call
A brief introductory conversation to learn about your situation, answer your initial questions, and determine whether a relationship would be a good fit for both sides. - Wealth Analysis Meeting
We take a deeper look at your financial picture, including your investment accounts, retirement plans, business interests, tax considerations, and other planning areas. We also spend time understanding your family, goals, priorities, and long-term objectives. - Personalized Plan Presentation
Approximately two weeks later, we present our findings and recommendations. We'll review your current strategy, identify opportunities for improvement, evaluate fees and costs where applicable, and outline a personalized investment and planning approach designed around your goals.
We schedule that final meeting late in the week on purpose, so you have the weekend to think without anyone in your ear.
6. "How is this tailored to me, and what assumptions are you using?"
Ask how the recommendations reflect your retirement timeline, income sources, account types, concentrated positions, and legacy goals. Then ask which return, inflation, and longevity assumptions the plan relies on. Also ask what happens to the plan if those assumptions turn out to be wrong.
Two families can hold identical portfolios and end up in completely different places because of taxes, spending, timing, and how much risk they can actually absorb. A plan that only works under one set of assumptions isn't a plan.
7. "How do you handle risk, including my own behavior?"
Ask how the advisor separates your tolerance for risk from your capacity to take it. Then ask what specifically happens during a significant market decline. The risks that do the most damage are usually not volatility itself. They are inflation, weak returns early in retirement, outliving your money, and decisions made at a market bottom.
Ask:
- What specifically happens in a significant decline? Walk me through it.
- What triggers a change, and what would keep you from making one?
You're listening for process and discipline. Predictions about where markets are heading are a bad sign.
8. "Who am I working with, and what happens if you're gone?"
Ask who your day-to-day contact is, who handles service requests, and how coverage works during vacations and emergencies. Then ask for the continuity plan if something happens to the advisor. A serious professional will have that answer ready.
This is your family's decades-long relationship, not a quarterly one.
9. "How will we know if this is working?"
Measure success against your plan, not an index. Ask how the advisor defines progress. Good measures include funding your spending goals, keeping an appropriate cash reserve, and managing your lifetime tax bill. They also include staying within your risk capacity and adjusting the plan as your life changes.
Performance charts are the easy answer, and they mean little on their own. Ask: "If the portfolio trails a benchmark but the plan is fully on track, what do you tell me? And if the portfolio beats it but I'm off track?"
10. "What do you need from me?"
Expect to be asked for tax returns, estate documents, and honest spending figures. You should also expect to flag job changes, inheritances, health issues, and large purchases before you commit to them. An advisor who only asks about your balances is managing an account, not advising a family.
Good outcomes are collaborative. What an advisor asks you tells you what the relationship is going to be.
One more question worth asking
"If I don't hire you, what should I watch out for?"
The answer shows whether the person is focused on your situation or on closing you. A thoughtful answer might include:
- keep your beneficiary designations current
- be skeptical of complexity you can't explain back to someone
- find out what you're paying in total
- make sure your risk exposure matches your actual timeline
If you want to run this conversation with us
Bring these questions and ask all of them. We'd rather answer hard questions early than manage a relationship built on unexamined assumptions.
The first call is short and is meant to establish whether there's a fit. There's no obligation attached to it, and if we're not the right firm for your situation, we'll say so. Schedule an introductory call or see our answers to common questions about working with us.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice, or a recommendation of any specific strategy or security. Bassam Wealth Management is an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Your circumstances are unique; consult qualified professionals regarding your specific situation.