Guides / Life Events

Are You Getting Good Financial Advice?

A good advisor relationship should feel like a partnership: clear communication, realistic expectations, and follow-through on both sides. Here's how to tell if yours measures up.

Don't just look at numbers; check your gut too

It's tempting to judge an advisor purely on returns, but performance alone is a misleading measure, markets rise and fall for reasons no advisor controls. A more useful test is whether your goals are getting quantified into milestones you can actually track: is your retirement savings on pace for a specific target by a specific date? Is a college fund growing toward what tuition will realistically cost? Progress against a plan tells you more than a single year's return.

Your gut matters too. Notice how you feel after conversations with your advisor: reassured and informed, or vaguely uneasy? Ask yourself honestly whether your risk tolerance is being respected, whether you understand what you're invested in, and whether anything has been recommended that you didn't fully understand at the time. Red flags worth taking seriously include calls that go unreturned for days, trades or changes made without your knowledge, and pressure to act quickly on unfamiliar products.

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Have you been following the advice?

A financial plan only works if it's implemented. If you find yourself consistently not following through, not increasing contributions when recommended, not rebalancing, not updating beneficiaries, it's worth asking why. Sometimes the plan doesn't fit your actual life or values, in which case a conversation with your advisor to recalibrate is in order. Other times, the disconnect signals it's time to find an advisor whose recommendations you're actually motivated to act on.

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Is the advice clear to you?

You should be able to explain, in plain language, why you own what you own and why you're taking the steps you're taking. If your advisor's explanations lean heavily on jargon without translating it, that's worth flagging directly, ask for it in plain English. A good advisor can explain the reasoning behind a recommendation clearly enough that you could summarize it back to a friend. If that's never possible no matter how you ask, the relationship isn't serving its purpose.

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Is your financial advisor a good listener?

Your circumstances change, a new job, a growing family, a health event, and your advisor should be adjusting recommendations to match, not running the same playbook regardless of what's happening in your life. Responsiveness matters: are questions answered promptly and directly, or deflected? Be wary of any advisor whose go-to response to a specific question is some version of "just trust me" rather than an actual explanation. Trust should be earned through clarity and responsiveness, not requested as a substitute for it.

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Frequently asked questions

How often should I hear from my financial advisor?

There's no fixed rule, but you should receive at least an annual review, and prompt responses to questions in between. If calls or emails routinely go unanswered for more than a few days, that's worth addressing directly.

What's a red flag that I should consider switching advisors?

Recurring signs include: trades or account changes made without telling you first, explanations that rely on jargon without ever clarifying it, and a consistent pattern of not implementing the plan you agreed to because it doesn't fit your actual goals.

Should I judge my advisor mainly by investment returns?

Returns matter, but they're influenced heavily by market conditions outside anyone's control. Progress toward your specific, quantified goals is usually a more meaningful measure of whether the advice is working.

This guide is for general informational purposes only and is not tax, legal, financial, or investment advice. Every business situation is different, so consult a licensed professional before making decisions based on this content.