How to Choose a Financial Adviser: Types, Fees, Fiduciary vs Non-Fiduciary

Choose the adviser whose verified experience, written scope, and total fee fit the decision you need to make. For a single retirement or tax-planning question, begin with a project quote. For continuing portfolio management, compare ongoing services, investment costs, and account authority. Use the same assignment when interviewing each candidate.

The most useful first step is a written assignment. For example: “I need a retirement-income plan for two spouses, a review of our workplace accounts and a decision about when to claim Social Security.” That description makes it possible to compare proposals that solve the same problem.

Define the deliverable before choosing an account

Separate advice from implementation. A planning engagement might deliver a written recommendation that you implement yourself. An investment-management agreement may authorize ongoing trading but exclude tax-return preparation or estate-document drafting. An automated service may manage a portfolio while offering only limited personal planning.

Write down the decisions, deadline, accounts involved and people who need to participate. A person considering retirement in 6 months needs a different service from someone starting monthly investing. A business owner with company stock may need coordinated tax and investment work rather than a standard allocation questionnaire.

Ask candidates to mark each requested task as included, excluded or separately priced. Identify whether the professional will implement the recommendation, help you implement it or simply provide a report. This prevents two similar-looking fees from concealing very different workloads.

Identify the role behind the title

Role	What to establish before hiring
Investment adviser or representative	Registered firm, individual registration where applicable, advisory services and agreement
Broker or registered representative	Brokerage firm, securities recommendations, transaction and account costs
CFP professional	Current certification plus the person’s actual firm, licenses and engagement
Insurance professional	State insurance authorization, products offered and compensation
Automated investment service	Registered adviser, investment process, human support and account limitations

These roles can overlap: a CFP professional may work in an advisory firm, brokerage, or insurance business, and one person can act in several capacities. Read the compensation disclosures for the proposed relationship, including any product-sales payments. SEC Form ADV brochure instructions.

Ask which entity signs your contract and which entity receives your money. Record its legal name, not merely the brand on the website. The answer should match the registration and documents you inspect.

Understand the standard of conduct and its scope

Investment advisers have fiduciary obligations within the advisory relationship. Specify the services, accounts covered, monitoring schedule, and length of the engagement in writing. A defined project and an ongoing management relationship need different descriptions of responsibility.

For brokers, Regulation Best Interest applies to covered securities and account recommendations to retail customers. Its disclosure, care, conflict-of-interest, and compliance obligations apply when the recommendation is made. Arrange any ongoing monitoring separately in the service agreement.

CFP Board’s standards require a CFP professional to act as a fiduciary when providing financial advice to a client. This professional obligation is separate from securities registration and applicable law. The existence of a credential does not tell you which firm holds an account or what services its contract includes.

For each proposal, ask: “In what capacity are you making this recommendation, what standard applies, and what will you monitor afterward?” Keep the written answer with the agreement so you can compare the promised responsibilities.

Verify the person and firm independently

Use FINRA BrokerCheck for brokerage registration and disclosure information, and Investment Adviser Public Disclosure for investment advisers. Search both the individual and the firm. Compare the identifying number, current employer and office details with the proposal to avoid confusing people with similar names.

FINRA explains that BrokerCheck includes registration, employment, and reportable disclosures. Read each event’s type, status, and outcome, then ask about unresolved matters. Use those records to screen candidates before evaluating their proposal and experience.

Verify claimed CFP certification using CFP Board’s verification page. For tax or legal services, separately verify the relevant professional license. Save the date of each check and resolve material mismatches before signing. A screenshot supplied by the salesperson is less useful than a record you retrieve independently.

Read the documents in a useful order

Start with the relationship summary, Form CRS, when applicable. It summarizes services, fees, conflicts, disciplinary information and conversation prompts. Then read the adviser brochure and the proposed agreement, which provide detail the summary cannot contain.

For Form ADV Part 2A, Item 5 addresses compensation, billing, additional costs and prepaid-fee refunds. Item 4 describes advisory services. Use those sections to test whether the proposal matches the firm’s disclosures. If an adviser says a charge never applies to you, ask where your exception appears in writing.

Keep a three-column worksheet: question, document location and unresolved issue. “Tax planning included” is unresolved until you know whether it means discussing a strategy, preparing a projection or filing a return. “Unlimited access” needs a response-time expectation and a description of who answers.

Compare costs on the same assumptions

Use the same starting balance and service period for every estimate. The following are hypothetical quotes, not industry averages:

Proposal	Stated charge	First-year arithmetic
Project plan	$2,400 once	$2,400 for the defined project
Subscription	$250 monthly	$3,000 over 12 months
Portfolio management	0.80% of $500,000	$4,000 if the billed balance stayed constant
Hourly advice	$300 for 8 hours	$2,400 before additional approved hours

Compare the included work before choosing among these quotes. Add applicable fund, custody, and transaction costs. A 0.10% weighted fund expense on $500,000 adds about $500 annually, reflected in fund returns. Record each charge once, alongside the advisory bill.

Facet Core lists a standard annual price of $2,600, checked November 3, 2026, with three designated planning meetings in the first year and one annual meeting afterward. Its membership is an annual, non-refundable commitment. Compare that package with a project quote if you need help with a single decision. The adviser-fee guide covers additional provider prices and billing calculations.

Ask whether fees use a flat rate or tiers, whether cash and outside workplace assets are billed, and whether payment occurs in advance. Fee-only compensation can include an asset-based fee; it is not limited to hourly or flat arrangements. Client-paid compensation also does not eliminate every conflict, such as incentives to keep more assets under management.

Interview using the same practical problem

Give each candidate a brief, sanitized version of your actual decision. Do not ask for a free complete plan. Ask what information they would request, how they would evaluate alternatives and what the finished work would contain.

For a rollover decision, a useful answer should examine the existing employer plan as well as the proposed IRA. For concentrated stock, it should identify taxes and concentration risk rather than immediately promise diversification. For retirement, it should address spending and income timing before naming funds.

Ask who will perform the work, who substitutes during an absence and which specialists are available. Request a redacted sample deliverable or a description detailed enough to assess its usefulness. Look for transparent assumptions and an implementation schedule rather than a polished report with unexplained projections.

Agree on custody, authority and an exit process

Identify the custodian and confirm how you will receive statements directly. Understand whether the adviser can trade without prior approval, deduct fees or move money. The account authorization should match the service being purchased. Keep your own account access and review transactions and charges.

Read the notice requirement, billing cutoff, prepaid-fee refund formula, transfer fees, and any product surrender restrictions. Before signing, ask how current investments would be handled on exit and whether unsupported holdings would need to stay behind or be sold.

Before committing, assemble a decision record: verified identities, signed scope, cost estimate, applicable capacity, account authority and unresolved questions. Choose the proposal that fits your specific work and whose terms you can explain in ordinary language. Review the relationship after the first deliverable and at the intervals agreed in the contract.