You've been meaning to deal with this for a while. Maybe a couple of years. You're good at your job, you read enough to know the basics, and you've put together something that works: a 401(k) you fund, an index fund or two, a savings account holding more cash than it probably should. Nothing's broken. Nothing's coordinated either.
What's changed is the size of the decisions. Ten years ago a mistake cost you a few thousand dollars and a lesson. Now one choice about an equity grant, a business sale, an inherited account, or a concentrated position can swing a number big enough to matter for the rest of your life. And you're making those choices in the margins of a demanding career, usually at night, usually alone. We hear some version of this on almost every introductory call.
The events that usually bring people in
Almost nobody hires an advisor because they turned forty. They hire one because something specific happened, or is about to. After years of first conversations, the pattern is consistent enough to list.
If two or three of these describe your year, the question has probably answered itself.
- A liquidity event: a business sale, a partnership buyout, an unusually big commission year, or a property sale that produces cash and a tax bill at the same time
- Equity compensation that's become material, especially an IPO, a first big vesting tranche, or options with an expiration date approaching
- An inheritance, especially a retirement account, where the rules carry deadlines and the mistakes made in the first few months can't be reversed
- A shift to self-employment or 1099 income, which removes the employer infrastructure that used to handle withholding and retirement contributions for you
- Retirement inside a decade, when the question flips from how much to save to which accounts to spend from and in what order
- A marriage, a divorce, a death, or aging parents entering the picture, each of which rearranges the plan whether or not anyone updates the documents
- A plan you've intended to write for two years and haven't, which tells you something about how much free time you actually have
Complexity matters more than age or account size
People tend to ask whether they have enough money to justify advice. We'd ask a different question: how many moving parts does your financial life have? A household with two W-2 incomes, a 401(k) each, and a mortgage can do very well with good habits and low-cost funds. A household with the same income plus a business entity, an equity grant, two rental properties, a trust, and an inherited IRA has a genuinely different problem.
Count the moving parts, not the dollars. Multiple entities, multiple states, illiquid holdings, concentrated positions, and any account with a deadline attached all add complexity, and complexity compounds. Somewhere in there, the coordination becomes the actual work, and nobody's doing it unless someone is paid to.
When you probably don't need one yet
An honest answer includes the cases where the answer is no. Say your income is steady, you contribute consistently to a workplace plan, you hold broadly diversified low-cost funds, your tax return is short, and nothing on your plate has a deadline. Ongoing advice may not add much you can't do yourself. Plenty of people in that spot are best served by reading carefully and staying out of their own way.
That doesn't mean it's all or nothing. A one-time project, billed hourly or as a flat fee, can answer a specific question without starting an ongoing relationship. Getting a second opinion on a single decision is a perfectly good use of an advisor, and a firm that only sells ongoing management won't always tell you so.
What waiting actually costs
Some financial decisions stay open indefinitely. Others close. The ones that close are why timing matters, and most of them aren't obvious until you've missed them.
An 83(b) election has a filing deadline measured in days from the grant. Options expire, often within a short window after you leave a job. Estimated taxes are due quarterly, and the safe harbor, the minimum you have to pay in during the year to avoid a penalty, can't be caught up later. A low-income year is a window for realizing gains or converting to a Roth, and it slams shut on December 31. An inherited IRA's ten-year clock started the year the original owner died, whether or not anyone told you. And insurance gets harder and pricier to get as health changes, disability coverage most of all.
We're not going to tell you what waiting has cost you, because nobody can calculate that honestly. What we will say is that in our experience, the expensive misses are usually windows that closed quietly, not portfolio choices anyone argued about.
What the first few months should look like
Before you hire anyone, know what you're buying. A serious engagement starts with a conversation about your situation and what you want out of life. Then come the documents, then a plan that covers your whole financial picture rather than just the portfolio, then a review where you push back and it gets adjusted. That's roughly how our own five-step process works, and we'll walk you through it before you commit to anything.
Then ask what happens after that, because that's where firms differ most. How often do you meet? Who answers when something changes mid-year? Does the advisor coordinate with your CPA and attorney, or hand you recommendations to relay yourself? Ask to see the process written down. A firm that can't describe its own process has just told you what year three will feel like.
What to do next
- List the decisions in front of you over the next twelve months, with any deadlines attached. If more than two have a date on them, the timing question is settled.
- Pull Form ADV Part 2 for any firm you're considering from the SEC adviser search and read how they're paid and what conflicts they disclose. Ours is there too.
- Book a 20-minute introductory call. It's a conversation about your situation, you don't need to bring anything, and it costs nothing to find out whether we're a fit.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a minimum amount of money to hire an advisor?
It depends on the firm. Many set an account minimum, some price by complexity, and others do hourly or project work with no minimum at all. Any minimum a registered adviser applies has to be disclosed in Form ADV Part 2, so you can check before you call. Our minimum annual fee is $10,000, charged based on assets under management. If your assets don't reach the minimum on their own, we can work out other ways to meet it.
Can I just use a robo-advisor or a target date fund?
For building and rebalancing a portfolio, automated platforms do a competent job at low cost, and we'll happily say so. What they won't do is tell you which retirement plan your LLC should open, how to stage the sale of a concentrated position, when to take inherited IRA distributions, or how the pieces of a complicated year fit together. If your situation is mostly a portfolio question, the automated route is reasonable.
I already have a CPA and an estate attorney. Do I need a third professional?
Often the third one is what makes the first two effective. Your CPA reports the year that already happened, and your attorney drafts documents when you ask. Neither is usually watching the whole picture month to month or making sure the trust, the beneficiary designations, and the account titling agree with each other. We act as your personal CFO, coordinating everyone rather than replacing anyone.
How do I know whether it's working?
Judge it on things you can actually observe, because a year or two of investment returns says more about markets than about advice. Are decisions getting made on time? Does your beneficiary paperwork match your estate documents? Did the tax planning happen before December? Do you know what you'd do if your income dropped by half? Those are answerable.
What happens on the introductory call?
We ask about your situation, what prompted you to look, and what you're trying to accomplish. Then we explain how we work, what we charge, and what the engagement would cover. Twenty minutes, no statements required, no obligation. If it's not a fit, we'll say so and point you somewhere more useful.
