You have spent years building your wealth carefully. Choosing who helps you protect it and to keep it supporting you deserves the same rigour. These questions will help you find the advisor who is genuinely right for you.
1. Does their advice fit how your life has evolved?
The strategy for someone still accumulating looks very different from the one needed at drawdown.
- How does the advisor approach clients who are transitioning from building wealth to living off it?
- How would a plan change as goals shift: income certainty … helping family … leaving a legacy?
- How often does the advisor proactively revise a client’s plan, and what triggers that conversation?
2. Who will actually be managing the money?
At this stage of your financial life, you need someone who has seen more cycles than you have, not someone who is learning on your time.
- Accountability matters. Know whether the person across the table is the one making the investment decisions, or just the face of the relationship.
- Is the advisor the person who constructs and manages the portfolio, or is that handled by someone else in the firm?
- If a client’s goals or concerns change, how does that information reach the people actually making decisions?
- How many clients does the advisor personally look after, and what does that mean for the time available for each one?
3. Can you understand it, believe in it, and hold to it when it matters most?
The best investment approach in the world only works if you can follow it with conviction, especially when conditions are difficult. If a strategy can’t be explained clearly or doesn’t feel grounded in principles that have genuinely stood the test of time, it will be very hard to stay the course when markets fall.
- Can the advisor explain the investment approach in plain language, without jargon in a way that would make sense to a trusted friend with no financial background? Can they point to evidence that the principles underlying it have held up across different market environments and cycles?
- How has the approach performed, and how have clients experienced it, during periods of real market stress? What did the advisor do, and what did they ask clients to do?
- When markets are falling and confidence is being tested, what is it about this approach that should give a client genuine reason to hold firm rather than act?
- Has the advisor ever recommended a strategy they personally found difficult to explain or defend? How do they think about the relationship between simplicity and credibility in investment design?
4. Is their thinking current, or built for a world that no longer exists?
The investment environment has shifted materially. An advisor’s portfolio construction should reflect that.
- How has the advisor’s approach to portfolio construction changed since interest rates rose?
- What assumptions underpin their current investment philosophy, and how are those stress-tested?
- Can they point to a time they materially changed a client’s asset mix in response to shifting market conditions?
5. What will the total cost actually be?
Fees compound in the wrong direction. A client is entitled to a single, complete number before committing to anything.
- Can the advisor provide one combined figure covering advice fees, platform costs, and underlying fund charges?
- Are there any costs not included in that figure: commissions, transaction fees, or product charges?
- How do their total fees compare to alternatives offering a similar level of service?
6. Will you follow what is being done and why?
Clarity isn’t a luxury, it’s a basic expectation. A client should be able to explain every significant holding in their own portfolio to a trusted friend.
- How does the advisor explain investment decisions. Can they give an example of how they’d walk a client through a holding?
- Does the advisor produce written research on market outlook and portfolio positioning? Is it genuinely insightful and helpful, or is it generic commentary that could have come from anywhere?
- What does a typical review meeting look like, and how much of it involves the advisor bringing new thinking versus answering questions?
- Outside of scheduled reviews, how responsive is the advisor when a client has a question — and what is a realistic expectation for how quickly they will hear back?
- If something in the portfolio wasn’t understood, how would that conversation be handled?
7. Is this genuinely the right fit?
Choosing an advisor is a significant decision. A good one will encourage due diligence, not discourage it.
- Is the advisor willing to introduce a prospective client to someone at a similar life stage whom they currently advise?
- What kind of client does the advisor do their best work with, and are you genuinely that client?
- If a second opinion were sought on the plan they put together, what would the feedback be?
A good advisor won’t be unsettled by any of these questions — they’ll welcome them. If any question feels unwelcome, that’s valuable information in itself. The right advisor earns confidence through transparency, not just through reputation.
Get in touch
Whether you’re exploring your options or ready to take the next step, we’d love to hear from you. Reaching out costs nothing, and even an initial conversation can offer real clarity on where you stand and what’s possible. Get in touch with us directly — we’re accessible, straightforward to deal with, and always happy to talk. We bring the rigour of a larger institution with the personal attention and accountability that only a boutique can offer.
Level 3, 116 Military Road Neutral Bay NSW 2089
+61 2 8094 8410
info@assureinvest.com.au
