The Most Common Questions Financial Advisors Hear, Answered
Written by
Angela Mae Watson
Edited by
Jenna Klaverweiden
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Financial advisors hear all sorts of questions in their day-to-day lives. A good financial advisor is one who’s skilled and reputable, and who has your best financial interests at heart.
If you’ve ever wondered what types of questions financial advisors most often hear, you’re in the right place. These are the big ones, and their (simplified) answers.
Also see four questions to ask your financial advisor in 2026.
When Can I Retire?
Many financial advisors work with clients on retirement planning, so it’s no surprise they get plenty of related questions. For Jay Zigmont, Ph.D., MBA, CFP, founder of Childfree Trust, one of the most common queries is “When can I retire?”
His response: “Well, do you want to retire?”
Retirement doesn’t mean the same thing for everyone. Some pre-retirees actually plan to keep working; they just want to cut back a little.
“What is interesting is that the vast majority of our clients, all of whom are Childfree, answer that they don’t want to retire; they want to know when they can make a change,” Zigmont said. “In many cases, they have already reached financial independence, and are work-optional, but they have a ‘magic number’ in their head of how much money they need to have saved before they retire.”
Can You Make Sure There’s No AI in This Portfolio?
Financial advisors spend a lot of time working with clients’ investment portfolios. Sloane Ortel, chief investment officer at Ethical Capital Investment Collaborative, said one common question she’s been getting of late is this: “Can you make sure there’s no AI in this portfolio?”
Ortel’s response: “Honestly, even though we don’t invest in big tech and we do pretty deep bottom-up work on all the companies we own, I would have an easier time making sure there were no pants in an office building.”
According to Ortel, there are essentially three levels of being an AI-related company:
- The company sells an AI product.
- The company sells a regular product using AI.
- The company board has just decided to do something with AI.
For Ortel, the third option is the scariest since it indicates the company is creatively bankrupt to some degree. “As an equity investor, what you’re looking for is a group that has the ability to deploy capital and generate returns that substantially exceed the cost of that capital,” Ortel said. “And I’m not aware of many instances where that’s happened by taking orders from the Zeitgeist.”
Can You Help Me Budget and Stop Overspending?
For Annette Harris, AFC, founder of Harris Financial Coaching, one common question she gets is this: “I don’t know where my money is going. Can you help me budget and stop overspending?”
Financial advisors should be able to review your income and expenses, and then help set a realistic budget. This might mean having a set weekly spending limit or cutting down to the essentials. Whatever the case, the goal is to keep you from relying on credit.
What Should I Do To Improve My Credit Score?
Harris said clients often ask what they can do to improve their low credit scores and increase their eligibility for future loans.
“Let’s start by reviewing your outstanding credit balances and identifying which are paid on time, which are past due, and which are in collection,” she said. “We can also review your credit report for any errors and develop a plan to get your accounts current, reduce your utilization, and establish a consistent, on-time payment plan.”
There are other steps as well, but just paying on time goes a long way to improving your credit. After all, 35% of your FICO score is based on payment history.
Who Is Going To Take Care of Me When I’m Older?
Zigmont said this is another common query, especially among those without kids.
“Our answer is that their long-term care plan is going to take care of them,” he said. “We encourage all of our clients to have a long-term care plan in place by their mid 40s. Then they need an estate plan in place to make sure someone can make decisions for them when they can’t.”
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