How to Know If Your Financial Advisor Is a Real Fiduciary? 10 Questions
We work with our clients as a true fiduciary. And we will continue to strive toward improving our efforts to look after clients’ interests first and foremost. We will not stop even though a US court ruling just effectively killed the DOL fiduciary rule [source].
How about your current advisor? Is your current advisor also going deeper with you as a fiduciary? Or is your advisor merely standing still?
Would you know the right questions to ask to find out?
Here are 10 ways to interview your advisor and see if the advisor really is a true fiduciary – or else someone who just says so. (You can also ask us these same questions.)
- How do you build a relationship with my family? What sort of information do you seek from me in order to help me?
- Are you paid simply based off the fee that I pay you on this relationship? Do you or your firm make additional compensation that I do not directly pay for?
- How much more money will you make off me if you give me one type of recommendation versus another recommendation?
- If you make a recommendation and I accept it, how can I come back and ask you questions? Or are you going to spoon me off to some junior advisor and never speak with me again?
- How often will you update me not just on the recommendation, but also see how I am doing (and if any big changes in my life have occurred)?
- Do you care enough to discourage me from investing more money with you if you think it would benefit me not to put more money with you for now?
- Who are the types of clients that you best work with? How do you know I am one of them?
- Are you concerned about my prosperity enough to have “hard conversations” when my financial strategy will not work with my lifestyle?
- I don’t have a lot of money. How do I know you will treat my account fairly compared to other accounts for your larger clients?
- How are you protecting my personal information?