Deciding to partner your financial life with an advisory firm is one of the biggest decisions you can make. Regardless of how painless we try to make it for our new clients it is still a significant amount of work digging up documentation and filling out paperwork. It additionally requires you to examine and face a lot of personal notions and habits that can quite frankly be uncomfortable. This is, of course, not without a myriad of upsides, not the least of which is having an experienced partner to travel with while you fulfill your financial and life goals.

Here are some worthy questions recently submitted by a prospect. Regardless of if and /or when you decide to pull the plug to have your assets managed by a wealth manager, there are some valuable things you should know about the advantages of partnering with a fiduciary such as HoyleCohen:

• I know you have the CFP™ designation. What financial planning credentials and/or other licenses do your team members hold?
• My understanding is that HoyleCohen acts as a fiduciary. Please review again for me how you are compensated. Fee only? How is fee calculated?
• Are you a Registered Investment Advisory Firm or a Broker/Dealer? And what does that mean?
• Will there be a written agreement before engaging your team detailing the total compensation for services rendered?
• I have done much of our investing and financial planning solo until now and am still having trouble justifying the cost of partnering with a firm that will charge me to manage my assets. What do you think are the most valuable things an RIA partnership can bring to my financial life?
• How often will you review and provide written reports of my current financial situation with recommendations for future transactions based on contemporary needs? How often can I call you to discuss my portfolio? Will I always speak to you, or will there be other associates/advisors that manage my accounts?
• A key financial goal for us is ensuring adequate funds are available for current, future and unexpected increases in health care costs. Does your team have experience interacting with long term care insurance providers? Is this part of the service you provide?
• Consistently interacting with the same team members over time, what I call personal and identifiable service, is very important to us. Please confirm that, barring unforeseen circumstances, you will function as our personal representative as long as you remain with HoyleCohen.

For answers to these and other frequently asked questions click here or reach out to an advisor!