Advisor Selection

Questions to Ask a Fee-Based Advisor Before You Sign

By the Attend Wealth team · Updated August 2026 · 6 min read

These are the questions we would want a physician to ask us. A firm that finds them adversarial has told you something useful.

Quick answer

Ask whether the firm is a registered investment adviser and a fiduciary at all times, total compensation in dollars in year one and year five from all sources, whether the fiduciary duty covers insurance recommendations, how many physicians the advisor currently serves and at what stages, and for a specific example of recommending against a purchase.

On structure and standard

Start here, because the answers determine how much weight to give everything else. Ask whether the firm is a registered investment adviser, whether anyone at the firm is also registered as a broker, and whether the fiduciary duty applies at all times or only to specific recommendations.

Then verify independently at adviserinfo.sec.gov rather than taking the answer on faith.

  • Are you a registered investment adviser? Is anyone here also a registered broker?
  • Are you a fiduciary at all times, across the entire relationship?
  • Does your fiduciary duty cover insurance recommendations?
  • Will you put that in writing?

On money

Ask for dollars, not percentages, and ask for two years rather than one, because commission-heavy compensation front-loads into year one and can make an ongoing relationship look cheaper than it is.

Ask what the firm earns if you decline every product recommendation. The answer reveals the shape of the incentive better than any disclosure document.

  • What will you earn from me in total, in dollars, in year one? In year five?
  • What do you earn if I buy no insurance at all?
  • Do you receive any compensation from any source other than me?
  • Are your advisory fees negotiable?

On physician-specific competence

Compensation model tells you nothing about whether the advisor has handled a PSLF certification or a cash balance plan. Ask for numbers and specifics rather than reassurance.

An advisor who serves physicians will answer these instantly with detail. An advisor who serves everyone and mentions doctors on their website will generalize.

  • How many physicians do you currently advise, and at what career stages?
  • Walk me through the last PSLF decision you handled.
  • How do you approach a partnership buy-in analysis?
  • What do you do differently for a physician than for any other high earner?

On judgment

The single most useful question in the set: describe a time you told a client not to buy something, and what their situation was.

A practicing advisor has this readily available and answers in specifics. Vagueness here outweighs every reassuring answer that came before it.

  • Tell me about a time you recommended a client not buy a product.
  • What is a situation where you would tell me to work with someone else?
  • What do you think most advisors get wrong about physicians?

Related physician planning questions

What should I ask a financial advisor before hiring them?

Whether the firm is a registered investment adviser and a fiduciary at all times, total compensation in dollars in year one and year five from all sources, what they earn if you buy no products, how many physicians they currently serve and at what stages, and for a specific example of recommending against a purchase.

What is the most revealing question to ask an advisor?

Ask them to describe a specific time they told a client not to buy something. A practicing advisor answers with detail immediately. Vagueness on this question outweighs reassuring answers elsewhere.

Should I ask for compensation in dollars or percentages?

Dollars, and for both year one and year five. Commission-heavy compensation concentrates in the first year, so a single-year figure can understate or overstate the ongoing relationship depending on which year you ask about.

How do I verify what an advisor tells me?

Search the firm at adviserinfo.sec.gov for registration status, Form ADV, and disciplinary disclosures, and check individual advisors on FINRA BrokerCheck. Both are free.

Related insights

See how this fits into a physician-focused plan.

Attend Wealth helps physicians connect planning, taxes, investing, insurance, and retirement decisions into one strategy. If you want help applying this topic to your own loans, taxes, investments, or retirement plan, schedule a complimentary conversation.

This article is for educational purposes only and is not personalized financial, tax, or legal advice. Attend Wealth is a registered investment adviser and acts as a fiduciary to its advisory clients. Attend Wealth is fee-based: in addition to advisory fees, our advisors are licensed insurance professionals and may receive commissions on insurance policies placed through carriers including Guardian, MassMutual, Ameritas, Principal, The Standard, and Lloyd's. That compensation creates a conflict of interest. We describe it, and how we address it, in our Form ADV Part 2A and Form CRS, available at adviserinfo.sec.gov or on request. Please consult a qualified professional about your specific situation.