10 Questions Every $1M+ NH Professional Should Ask a Financial Advisor

Late summer often raises an important question for investors throughout Keene, Manchester, and the Monadnock Region. Mid-year statements are in, fourth-quarter planning has not started yet, and there is finally room to ask it: is the person managing your money still earning what you pay them?

Asking the question does not make you disloyal. Asking makes you diligent. For investors with more than $1 million in investable assets, often alongside real estate, business interests, and a changing tax picture, that diligence matters. This can be especially true for Granite Staters. New Hampshire’s tax environment differs from that of many neighboring states, which can create planning considerations for residents with significant income, investments, business interests, or multistate connections. Your plan should be built for your specific lifestyle goals and include locally aware insight to ensure you’re not leaving savings on the table.

Whether you are interviewing a firm for the first time or quietly second-guessing one you have had for years, the ten questions to ask a financial advisor below give you a script for your next conversation. Most importantly, a good advisor will welcome every one of them.

Questions 1–3: Credentials and the Standard You Are Held To

When learning how to vet a financial advisor, a good place to start is with the standard governing the advice. Your list of questions should include: 

1. Are you a fiduciary 100% of the time?

Start with the question that makes every other answer more meaningful: “Will you act as a fiduciary at all times when advising me?”

A fiduciary is required to place the client’s interests first. Some financial professionals operate under different standards depending on the services they provide. An advisor may act as a fiduciary while managing an advisory account but may operate under a different standard when recommending a commission-based product.

Wording matters. Asking “Is my financial advisor a fiduciary?” may elicit a quick yes. Asking whether the advisor acts as a fiduciary at all times, across every service provided, makes the question harder to sidestep. A trustworthy fiduciary financial advisor should be able to explain the standard clearly, including any circumstances when it may not apply.

2. Are you a CFP® professional?

The CFP® vs financial advisor distinction confuses people — and understandably so. “Financial advisor” is a broad industry title, not a single professional designation. Do not rely on a title alone; independently verify the individual’s registrations, disciplinary history, and credentials. CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals complete required education, examination, experience, and ethics requirements. Under CFP Board’s standards, they must act as fiduciaries when providing financial advice to a client.

3. Will you put it in writing?

A verbal promise is reassuring, but it’s always better to get a written commitment. Ask for the documents that explain how the firm works, what it charges, and any potential conflicts. You should also receive a sample client agreement and information about the people who will be advising you.

Questions 4–6: Understanding How Your Advisor Actually Gets Paid

Compensation shapes recommendations, no matter how well-intentioned anyone is. Understanding their payment model helps protect you long before any conflict shows up in your portfolio.

4. Are you fee-only or fee-based?

Fee-only and fee-based may seem similar, but they are very different compensation structures. Ask for a plain-language explanation of how both the advisor and the firm are paid. Fee-only generally means the professional’s compensation comes solely from client-paid fees, rather than commissions or other product-based compensation. Fee-based is a less precise industry term and may indicate that a professional or affiliated firm can receive both client fees and other compensation, including commissions. Ask for the exact sources of compensation and any affiliated-party arrangements in writing.

Compensation structure does not tell you everything about an advisor’s character or competence. However, it does reveal where financial incentives may exist. The goal is not to find advice with no cost. The goal is to understand who pays the advisor, what actions generate compensation, and how those incentives could influence a recommendation.

5. Do you receive commissions, revenue sharing, or third-party compensation of any kind?

Do not stop after asking about the advisory fee. Ask whether the advisor, firm, or any affiliated company receives commissions, referral fees, revenue-sharing payments, insurance compensation, or other third-party payments.

Some products, such as annuities, insurance policies, and certain mutual funds, may include compensation that is not immediately apparent on a statement. A product can still be appropriate when compensation is involved. However, a fiduciary financial advisor should explain the conflict and why the recommendation serves your interests.

6. What is the all-in cost, in dollars?

The advisory fee may not be the whole number. Investments may also include other product expenses. Ask for the total as a percentage and as a dollar figure calculated on your actual balance. A capable financial advisor for high-net-worth households should clearly connect costs to tangible work, including planning, implementation, coordination, monitoring, and access.

Questions 7–8: Who Manages the Money Now, and Who Will Later

It’s great to have trust in the person sitting across the table from you today. However, a plan designed to run for decades depends on who is actually behind it, both now and after that first relationship changes.

7. Who manages the portfolio day to day?

The person who wins your trust in a first meeting is not always the person doing the work afterward. Ask whether portfolio decisions happen in-house or get outsourced to a third-party platform, who reviews your accounts and how often, and who will answer the phone when you call with questions.

8. What happens if you retire, leave, or sell the firm?

The question may feel uncomfortable. Ask anyway. A solo practitioner nearing retirement and a firm being absorbed into a national roll-up could potentially pose continuity risks for a plan meant to run for thirty years or longer. Some firms are intentionally built with more than one generation of advisors, so relationships and institutional knowledge carry forward rather than walking out the door. Learning the succession plan before you sign can help you feel more comfortable with the relationship.

Question 9: Going Beyond the Portfolio

Real wealth management in New Hampshire typically covers far more than an allocation. For many households, wealth management may combine investment management with financial planning and coordination across tax, estate, insurance, and cash-flow decisions.

9. What is included beyond investment management?

Ask what else falls inside the engagement, including things such as:

• Tax planning, including multi-year projections and withdrawal sequencing
• Estate and legacy planning, coordinated with your attorney
• Cash flow and liability management, including how your debt is structured
• Risk and insurance review, covering life, disability, and long-term care
• Charitable giving and philanthropic strategy

One follow-up separates thorough firms from the rest: does tax planning happen once, or every single year? Repeating the process is where the benefit lives. A plan should be revisited annually and whenever tax rules, income, family circumstances, goals, or markets materially change.

Question 10: How and How Often You Will Actually Talk

10. What does the relationship look like over a year?

Ask for specifics. How many scheduled reviews, in what format, covering what? Who answers when you call? How quickly can you expect a response? Find out if anyone reaches out proactively when tax law shifts or markets move, or whether initiating contact falls entirely to you.

Meeting frequency should reflect your portfolio complexity and current season of life. The strongest relationships tend to feel less like quarterly account reviews and more like an ongoing conversation, sometimes at a conference table, sometimes at your kitchen table.

Red Flags Worth Noticing

Watch for these during any interview when vetting a financial advisor:

• Dodging the fiduciary question, or answering around it
• Inability to state your all-in cost in dollars
• A product recommendation before anyone has asked about your life
• A portfolio proposal with no written plan behind it
• Defensiveness when you push back on a recommendation
• Pressure to move everything at once
• Questions only about your balances, never about your goals, family, or timeline

A good advisor gets more comfortable as you dig, not less.

The Checklist to Bring With You

Print this, or save it to your phone, and bring it to every conversation:

1. Are you a fiduciary 100% of the time?
2. Are you a CFP® professional?
3. Will you put your services, fees, and conflicts in writing?
4. Are you fee-only or fee-based?
5. Do you receive commissions or third-party compensation?
6. What is the all-in cost, in dollars?
7. Who manages the portfolio day to day?
8. What happens if you retire, leave, or sell the firm?
9. What is included beyond investment management?
10. How often do reviews happen, and who answers between meetings?

An experienced, professional advisor will not only answer all ten questions — they will welcome you asking them. 

Bring All Your Questions to a No-Pressure Conversation

Choosing an advisor is an important decision; the right relationship will hold up under direct questions about credentials, cost, conflicts, and continuity.

At Birch Financial Group, we welcome every question on this list, and any others you bring with you. Our team works with busy professionals and families throughout Keene, the Monadnock Region, and across New Hampshire to build plans around their actual goals and lifestyle, not a template. 

We are happy to review your current plan and provide a straightforward second opinion on where you stand as we head into the next quarter.  Schedule a free consultation with Birch Financial Group today!