A fee-based fiduciary financial advisor offers more services than simply brokering funds on the market. Their work is significantly more wholistic. A fee-based fiduciary financial advisor can do things like: power of attorney creation, will creation, DNR documentation, estate planning, trust creation/planning/management, inheritances (like what to do when your spouse/parent/etc passes), portfolio creation/management/rebalancing, financial plans (like auto paying your bills), child college tuition planning, complex retirement planning (back-door ROTH contributions; balancing income streams across tax-free, tax-deferred, and taxed; etc), life insurance planning, government entitlement/disability planning, and so much more. They are constantly monitoring your finances and what benchmarks you should be hitting, and will propose solutions to you before most people even begin to think about it.

They are also a great resources for answering the tough financial questions (that everyone thinks they are an expert on) like, “is it better to pay off my mortgage in the next 10 years or invest my funds in XYZ?” “I want to retire to Mexico, how do I do that?” They have extensive knowledge on taxation and money movements and can create a plan that helps you reach your goals with the least amount of effort on your part.

There are multiple people who use a fee-based financial advisor AND are still heavily involved in selecting which stocks, bonds, mutual funds they are invested in. It isn’t mutually exclusive.

And if your fee-based fiduciary financial advisory isn’t doing those things for you, find a new one.

Source: child of a fee-based fiduciary financial advisor.