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Find a qualified pre-screened financial advisor.

Answer a few questions and get matched with up to 3 local fiduciary advisors.

I am looking for a financial advisor in:

How it works
Answer a few simple questions Tell us a bit about yourself, including your financial situation and goals.
See your advisor matches You'll then get matched with up to three qualified, pre-screened advisors.
Book appointments You can use our online tools or concierge service to book an appointment.

How We Make Choosing a Financial Advisor Easier

If you want to find a financial advisor who can provide guidance for your personal finance decisions, our matching tool simplifies the process. First, we'll ask you a series of questions about your retirement plans, life status, investment goals and advisor preferences.

Next, our matching algorithm will match you with up to three qualified advisors in your area so you can decide which one best fits your needs. Anyone with whom you are matched has already been carefully vetted through our proprietary due diligence process.

Once you’re matched, you can expect to be contacted by an advisor within a couple of business days.

Things to Consider When Choosing a Financial Advisor

Each of the questions asked in SmartAsset’s survey relates to one of four main themes. Those themes are life status, advisor preferences, investment goals and advisor specialization. These are all important topics to consider when choosing a financial advisor. Your responses are shared with your advisor matches in order for them to have a meaningful consultation with you.

Life Status

Anyone can benefit from working with a financial advisor. At certain stages in life, however, a professional’s advice can be extra valuable. These moments typically revolve around big life changes, including:

  • When you get married or divorced
  • When you have a child
  • When you buy a home
  • When you start a business
  • When you're nearing retirement
  • When you receive a large sum of money
  • When you are figuring out how to pass on wealth

Another important consideration is how much you can afford to invest at your current life stage. Some of our advisors specialize in serving high-net-worth individuals and require account minimums in the millions of dollars. Others have no set account minimum.

If you're just starting out or don't have a lot of money to invest, a robo-advisor could be a good option. Robo-advisors, which digitally manage your investment portfolio, typically have lower account minimums and fees. Our matching tool recommends a robo-advisor to anyone who has less than $25,000 to invest.

Advisor Preferences

There are two main types of financial advisors. You can opt for a traditional advisor, who you can sit down with in person, or a robo-advisor, which digitally manages your investment portfolio. Here’s how the two stack up:

Traditional Advisors Robo Advisors
Fees 1% - 3% of the value of your portfolio Less than 1% of the value of your portfolio
Account Minimums Varies; while some have no set account minimum, most require at least $250,000 or more Varies; some account minimums are as low as $0
Investment Strategies Typically customized portfolios that include a wide range of investments, including individual stocks Less flexible portfolio models that are typically limited to ETFs or low-cost index funds and don’t include individual stocks
Services
  • Can include financial planning, investment management and consulting services
  • Easy access to a dedicated professional, with the option of in-person meetings
  • Often limited to investment services
  • Limited or no human contact, with communication typically restricted to online interactions
Best For Someone who:
  • Has a large sum of money to invest
  • Prefers to be more involved in investing
  • Wants human interaction
 Someone who:
  • Doesn't have a lot of money to invest
  • Wants a more hands-off approach to investing
  • Prefers to work online

Different Types of Traditional Advisors:

There are different subsets of traditional financial advisors. A financial planner, for instance, is a type of financial advisor who can help you analyze your current financial situation and create a plan for the future. A wealth manager will comprehensively manage your entire financial situation, combining financial planning with investment advice, tax services, retirement planning, estate planning, philanthropic planning and more. Our tool can help you find:

  • Fiduciary financial advisors
  • Financial planners
  • Wealth managers
  • Investment advisors
  • Retirement advisors

Investment Goals

When you complete our matching questionnaire, you’ll typically be matched with more than one financial advisor. We do that so that you have options to ensure you’re truly finding the right fit. It can be a good idea to talk to multiple matches before settling on one. Each advisor has a unique process, investing philosophy, communication style and overall approach.

One of the biggest differences between financial advisors is their investing philosophies. Some may abide by value investing, which seeks relatively undervalued stocks with the belief that those stocks will someday produce strong returns. Others may prefer growth investing, which focuses on buying into companies with promising growth potential. Still others may use contrarian investing, which advocates for going against the market majority. An advisor offering socially responsible investing will consider your values and the greater social good in addition to your returns when investing your assets.

Many advisors invest for the long term, which may be good if you’re saving up for a retirement that’s still far down the road. Others may emphasize short-term investments, which can be a fit for investors who have more immediate liquidity needs.

Financial advisors will often tailor your investing plan to suit your needs, taking into account your goals, objectives, time horizon and risk tolerance. Typically, the first step in building a relationship with your financial advisor is to sit down and determine your unique preferences, resulting in an investment plan that he or she can then implement.

Advisor Specializations

Depending on your life status or if you have a particular financial topic you want addressed, it’s a good idea to take note of each advisor’s area of expertise. Many financial professionals specialize in a certain areas, such as:

  • Estate planning
  • Socially responsible investing
  • High-net-worth financial planning
  • Tax planning
  • Insurance
  • Divorce
  • Retirement

For instance, if you’re focused on preparing for retirement, you may want to look for an advisor who specializes in retirement planning or who has a retirement-related certification. An advisor can be a certified retirement planning counselor (CRPC) or a chartered retirement specialist (CRPS).

Certifications can be an indication of a financial advisor's education and abilities. One of the most prestigious certifications is the CFP, or certified financial planner. This certification requires an advisor to have certain level of education, complete coursework culminating in a multi-day exam, submit to a background check and agree to abide by a board's ethics guidelines.

All CFPs are required to act as a fiduciaries, which is another key designation to look out for. Fiduciaries are bound by a code of ethics to put your interests before their own. All SEC-registered financial advisor firms are fiduciaries.

What industry experts are saying:

Individuals with financial advisors are twice as likely to be on track to meet their retirement goals.

Learn More About Financial Advisors

If you still have some questions, these articles can help answer them. Whenever you are ready, come back to the tool above and find your financial advisor today.

More Articles

Making connections

Thousands of people used SmartAsset to find a financial advisor last month.

Top Financial Advisors in Your Area

If you want to get a sense of the top firms in your area, we’ve reviewed hundreds across the country. These reviews, compiled through extensive research, rank the top firms in the following cities according to assets under management (AUM). They include detailed information on each firm’s investment philosophy, account minimum, certifications and services, all of which can help you decide whether a firm is right for you. The criteria for the matching tool differs from the methodology for the list below and you may not be matched with the advisor firms mentioned in the linked reviews.

Most Generous Counties in the U.S.

The below map of the U.S. highlights the places that make the most charitable contributions. The study takes into account charitable contributions as a percentage of net income and the proportion of taxpayers that made a charitable contribution of any amount in any given county. Scroll below to view the data and methodology for how the study was researched and compiled.

Worse
Better
Rank County Contributions as Percentage of Income Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions

Methodology

To find the most generous places, we looked at two factors in each county: how much money people donate as a percentage of their net income, and the proportion of people who made charitable donations.

To determine the amount of money that people donate as a percentage of their income, we first calculated the net income of all people in each county. To do this, we looked at tax return data and accounted for federal, state and local taxes paid. We also accounted for deductible entries, including mortgage interest, mortgage points and mortgage insurance payments. We then divided each county's total charitable donations by its total net income to see how much money county residents are donating relative to their income.

Next, we measured the total number of individual tax returns that show charitable contributions and divided that by the total number of individual tax returns in each county. This gave us the proportion of people in each county who make charitable donations.

We then indexed and equally weighted the two factors to yield our Most Generous Places Index.

Sources: IRS

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