How to Get Your Money's Worth From Your Financial Adviser
A good financial adviser will focus on how your financial planning and investment strategy align with your lifestyle and aspirations.


Years ago, as a stockbroker at a major brokerage firm, my job was straightforward: offer stock recommendations and hot tips. Clients came to me asking, “Where’s the best place to put my money right now?” With minimal context, I could easily direct them into investments that seemed (possibly) perfect for them and earned a nice commission for me. Back then, it wasn’t about financial advice; it was about instant gratification.
These days, you’re shortchanging yourself if you focus only on investments. Your financial life is more complex, and many financial advisers offer more than just investment advice. You should be receiving qualified financial advice that involves all aspects of your life.
This is where investors and advisers are not always aligned. A Morningstar survey asked both groups to rank the importance of 15 adviser attributes. Investors tended to focus on traditional services, such as generating investment returns, and undervalued the arguably more valuable interpersonal services that advisers offer.

Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
For example, most investors ranked “Helps me stay in control of my emotions” last, despite research showing that advisers acting as behavioral coaches is one of the most impactful services. This lack of appreciation for personalization and behavioral coaching can lead to missed opportunities for increasing overall wealth.
Fortunately, you can ensure that you’re not missing out. By understanding what a good adviser should provide and actively seeking those qualities, you can find the help you need and more. Here’s how.
Understand the limitations of traditional advice
In the past, a typical conversation with a financial adviser would go something like this:
You: How are my returns looking for the year?
Adviser: The market’s been strong, and our bonds have shorter durations. Our portfolios are outperforming the S&P by more than 5%. Let me show you how well we’re doing on the graph we sent you in your quarterly statement and our outlook for the next couple of quarters. Got any questions?
The problem with this approach is that it focuses almost entirely on economic and business cycles, with little consideration for how your personal investment strategy aligns with your lifestyle and aspirations. If 90% of the discussion is about external factors and only 10% on how you feel or envision your lifestyle, that’s a huge miss. After all, you’ve hired an adviser to support your lifestyle and alleviate fears about running out of money during your lifetime. Getting there can mean having to change the conversation — or finding a better adviser.
Set the right expectations
Let’s fast-forward to today, where now it’s the internet that’s the go-to source for hot tips and get-rich-quick investment schemes. People now seek financial advisers because their financial lives have become more layered and complex or because significant life changes require expert guidance. This is where holistic advice comes into play, giving you the opportunity to get more from your adviser and for your adviser to provide more.
The industry has a special term for this added value: “gamma,” a concept designed to quantify the benefits of intelligent financial planning decisions. It involves addressing decisions for a wide range of needs, from helping couples manage money to caring for special needs children, managing stock options, rolling over a 401(k) and preparing for retirement. I call this holistic financial advice, or lifestyle planning.
When you clearly articulate the reasons you want help, you’re setting expectations that can be met.
However, there can be a disconnect between your real motivations and the adviser you hire. Too many financial advisers lack the expertise to provide true holistic advice, focusing only on portfolio performance without considering your family, cash flows, real estate, legacy plans, retirement withdrawal strategies or Roth conversions. Quarterly meetings can become dull and perfunctory, leaving both you and your adviser uninspired.
The solution is to keep your best interests first at all times.
Put your needs first — and make sure your adviser does, too
The key to a truly rewarding adviser relationship is to prioritize your life, fears and aspirations. Having the right adviser is crucial to making this work.
Leslie Gagnon, living in Falmouth, Mass., illustrates this well. Despite her background — her father was a stockbroker and her ex-husband a banker — Leslie felt behind in her financial knowledge. Post-divorce, she prioritized her lifestyle in her advisory meetings, explaining: “Being divorced and feeling like an outsider means I have to put my lifestyle front and center whenever I meet with my adviser — that’s on me. And in my case, I’m lucky to have an adviser who starts every discussion connecting the dots between whatever she’s seeing and doing and how it fortifies my lifestyle.”
Her adviser, Dana Mascalo, CFP®, AAMS®, C(k)P® and Registered Life Planner® from TrinityPoint Wealth, is part of my Wealthramp network of vetted fee-only, fiduciary advisers. Her plan isn’t just built around portfolio returns or tax strategies, but with a deep understanding of her priorities: her children’s financial well-being and her legacy. As she explains, “When I talk to Leslie, it’s always about her lifestyle and priorities first. Each Zoom meeting connects market discussions with how we navigate external changes. It’s vital that Leslie becomes more confident in herself and knows she can count on us as the years go on.”
Your investments play a key role in driving the growth that later becomes your income after you stop working. But as this real-life example shows, a good adviser considers all aspects of your life — family, health, real estate, tax strategies, debt, job security, employee benefits, insurance, estate planning — everything!
You need an adviser who leverages their skills and resources as a tool in order to spend more time listening to you. This is how you truly get your money’s worth from a financial adviser.
Related Content
- Should I Pay a Financial Adviser an Assets Under Management Fee?
- Want to Hire a Remote Financial Adviser? What to Consider
- I Didn’t Think I Needed an Estate Plan Until This Happened
- Retirement Tips for 2024 From Five Retirement Experts
- Five Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Retired
Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more. Delivered daily. Enter your email in the box and click Sign Me Up.

With more than 25 years in investor advocacy, Pam Krueger is the founder and CEO of Wealthramp, an SEC-registered adviser matching platform that connects consumers with rigorously vetted and qualified fee-only financial advisers. She is also the creator and co-host of the award-winning MoneyTrack investor-education TV series, seen nationally on PBS, and Friends Talk Money podcast.
-
Don’t Miss Apple and Walmart's Back-to-School Tax-Free Holiday Savings this Summer
Sales Tax Select states host sales tax holidays during the summer; here’s what you can purchase.
-
The Rule of Retirement Inversion
The rule of retirement inversion says that to have a great retirement, you must ask yourself what would ruin a great retirement — and then plan to avoid it.
-
How Divorced Retirees Can Maximize Their Social Security Benefits: A Case Study
Susan discovered several years after she filed for Social Security that she is eligible to receive benefits based on her ex-spouse's earnings record. This case study explains how her new benefits are calculated and what her steps are to claim some of the money she missed.
-
From Piggy Banks to Portfolios: A Financial Planner's Guide to Talking to Your Kids About Money at Every Age
From toddlers to young adults, all kids can benefit from open conversations with their parents about spending and saving. Here's what to talk about — and when.
-
I'm an Investment Pro: Here's How Alternatives Could Inject Stability and Growth Into Your Portfolio
Alternative investments can often avoid the impact of volatility, counterbalancing the ups and downs of stocks and bonds during times of market stress.
-
A Financial Planner's Guide to Unlocking the Power of a 529 Plan
529 plans are still the gold standard for saving for college, especially for affluent families, though they are most effective when combined with other financial tools for a comprehensive strategy.
-
An Investment Strategist Takes a Practical Look at Alternative Investments
Alternatives can play an important role in a portfolio by offering different exposures and goals, but investors should carefully consider their complexity, costs, taxes and liquidity. Here's an alts primer.
-
Ready to Retire? Your Five-Year Business Exit Strategy
If you're a business owner looking to sell and retire, it can take years to complete the process. Use this five-year timeline to prepare and stay on track.
-
A Financial Planner's Prescription for the Headache of Multiple Retirement Accounts
Having a bunch of retirement accounts can cause unnecessary complications. Consolidation can make it easier to manage your savings and potentially improve investment outcomes.
-
Overpaying for Financial Advice? A Financial Planner's Guide to Fees
Take five minutes to review how much you're paying for financial advice. If you're overpaying, you could be better off with an adviser who charges a flat fee.