7 Questions to ask a financial advisor

Here are 7 interview questions when looking for a financial and retirement planner. Our answers are included.

1: Are you a fiduciary? (i.e. do you do what is in the best interest of your clients?)

  • Our team at Wise Wealth are fiduciaries. 

2. How do you get paid?

  • Investments: For investments that Wise Wealth manages, we get paid 1% of the assets that we manage. There is also a .35% platform fee that handles the performance reporting, trading and rebalancing of your account.

  • Insurance: For insurance that you purchase through our firm, the insurance company pays us directly.


3.  Who is on your team and what are their qualifications?

  • Our team is comprised of many professionals, including:

    • President and Founder, Stephen Stricklin: Certified Financial Planner (CFP)

    • Chief Investment Officer, Ben Malick: Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)

    • Director of Tax Services, Becca Oller, Certified Public Accountant (CPA)

    • Senior Financial Advisor, David Sandhu, Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC)

4. How will our relationship work?

  • You can click here to see the 4 initial conversations we have together, including family strategy, financial management, investment strategy and financial planning. These conversations help us understand your unique situation and develop a long term plan.

5. What's your investment philosophy?

  • As an independent investment advisory firm, we work together with our clients to choose portfolios that best match your risk tolerance and goals. We seek to find valuable companies that provide quality products and services that are doing good in the U.S. and around the world. We are pursuing for “good returns” for “long term investors.” Click here to read more about our investment philosophy.

6. Who is your custodian?

  • We utilize Charles Schwab as our custodian, a trusted name in the industry, because we believe that transparency and security are important to us and our clients.

7. Do you incorporate tax planning in your firm?

  • One of the benefits of our firm is that we have a CPA, Becca Oller, on our team. In addition to tax preparation, Becca helps our advisors and clients navigate the tax code and keep our clients informed, educated and prepared for tax law changes by understanding how the tax laws affect our clients.