Questions for Financial Advisor Annual Portfolio Review
December 2025
When you sit down with your investment broker to review your investments and retirement planning, do you get the answers you are looking for? Do you know what you should be looking for? Are you even meeting on a regular basis? Depending on the size of your portfolio, and the amount of fees you are paying, you should be meeting at least annually, and perhaps semi-annually.
The PDF file attached here provides you with many questions that are important to, first, protect your money, second, to ensure it is invested appropriately, and thirdly, to let you know if you are getting value for money. These are questions that any independent organization supervising the investment industry would support. Unfortunately, many people are too shy to ask them, and it is a costly human emotion. When asked, sometimes the answer is avoided, and people do not follow up to get a solid response.
It is your money. No one should care more about it than you. However, there is no way to get it other than from someone else, and there are lots of people trying to sell you something to make themselves more of it. Be bold, and present many of the attached list of questions to your advisor at your next meeting. If they refuse to answer or, more likely, dodge the answers, ask why. And send me an email so I know if I am being unfair in my expectations. Truly, if you only have $10,000 invested, you cannot expect detailed responses to all the questions. However, if your fees are $1,000 or more per year, which would typically be fees charged or automatically deducted from an account having $100,000 or more invested in equities and mutual funds, your advisor should be willing to commit a couple of hours work to deliver the answers, .
Click on this link for the PDF file:
Questions for Financial Advisor Annual Portfolio Reviews
Blair Corkum, CPA, CA, R.F.P., CFP, CFDS, CLU, CHS holds his Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Accountant, Registered Financial Planner, Chartered Financial Divorce Specialist as well as several other financial planning related designations. Blair offers hourly based fee-only personal financial planning, holds no investment or insurance licenses, and receives no commissions or referral fees. This publication should not be construed as legal or investment advice. It is neither a definitive analysis of the law nor a substitute for professional advice which you should obtain before acting on information in this article. Information may change as a result of legislation or regulations issued after this article was written.©Blair Corkum