10 Questions to Ask Any Financial Adviser

Why this guide exists

How do affluent Australian pre-retirees choose a private wealth adviser?

Ask better questions and get honest answers. Ten questions — covering licence ownership, continuity, experience, access, cost, super rules, income structure, estate planning, verification and first-meeting terms — will tell you more about an adviser in one meeting than any brochure. A good adviser will enjoy answering all ten.

Choosing a financial adviser is one of the few decisions that shapes the next thirty years of your life — and most people go into it with less scrutiny than they'd apply to buying a car. Not because they don't care, but because nobody ever tells you what to ask.

So here it is: the ten questions we believe every Australian should put to any adviser they're considering. There's no trick. Some of these questions have answers that favour a firm like ours, and where that's true we've said so. Others cut squarely against us — and we've left them in, because a list that only flatters its author isn't worth your time.

Our own answers to all ten are set out in the scorecard near the end of this page. Mark us against them. Ask all ten of anyone — a good adviser will enjoy answering them, and that reaction alone will tell you plenty.

At a glance

What are the ten questions to ask a financial adviser?

The ten questions cover who owns the adviser's licence, what happens if the adviser leaves, how many retirements they have guided, who answers the phone, when you will be better off, their plan for changing super rules, how your super becomes an income, what happens to your super when you die, how to verify them, and what the first meeting costs.

No single answer settles it. But these ten, asked plainly in a first meeting, will tell you more about an adviser than any brochure ever will.

01Who owns your licence — and who makes the products you recommend?

The structural question. Who profits from the recommendation?

02If my adviser leaves — or the adviser is the firm — what happens to me?

Continuity cuts both ways. Ask the version that stings them.

03How many retirements have you guided — and what qualifies you beyond the minimum?

Verifiable specifics — not adjectives. The legal minimum is a floor.

04When I need to talk to someone, who picks up?

Retirement means more contact with your money, not less.

05When will I actually be better off — and how will I know?

The value must clearly outweigh the cost — in writing, before you commit.

06The super rules are changing — what's your plan at my balance?

Division 296, transfer caps, closing windows. Fluency is the minimum standard.

07How will my super become an income — and what happens in a bad year?

Sequencing risk is the retirement risk nobody mentions. Demand the plan.

08What happens to my super when I die?

Super doesn't follow your will — and the tax bill can run six figures.

09Can I check you — and will you help me do it?

Register, licence, complaints avenue. All public, all free.

10What does the first meeting cost — and what am I committed to?

The answers you want: nothing, and nothing.

Question 1 of 10

Who owns your licence — and who makes the products you recommend?

Ask who owns the adviser's Australian Financial Services Licence and whether the same organisation manufactures the products recommended. A self-licensed firm holding its own AFSL has no super or investment product of its own to sell, which removes one structural conflict from the room — though no adviser is entirely conflict-free.

Some of Australia's biggest names in advice are also product manufacturers — the same organisation builds the super fund, runs the investments, and employs the adviser telling you where your money should go. Ask yourself how often that advice concludes with "you'd be better off somewhere else."

A self-licensed firm — one that holds its own Australian Financial Services Licence and is not owned by an institution, fund or product provider — has no super or investment product of its own to sell, and its recommendations can be drawn from across the market. That does not make any adviser conflict-free; no adviser is. It removes one structural conflict from the room.

So ask three things: who owns your licence? How broad is the list of products you can actually recommend? And the question that reveals the most — "if the best thing for me was to move away from your organisation's products, would you tell me, and can you show me a time you have?"

Question 2 of 10

If my adviser leaves — or the adviser is the firm — what happens to me?

Continuity cuts both ways, so ask the version of this question that stings whoever you are sitting across from. At a large institution you can be reassigned to an adviser you have never met. At a boutique, ask what happens if something happens to the principal. Your money itself is held in your name by the fund or platform.

Continuity matters most at exactly the stage of life you're entering.

At a large institution

You're a client of the business, not of the person. You can spend two or three years building trust with an adviser who knows your family, your fears and your plans — and when they move on, you're reassigned to someone you've never met. The rapport starts again from zero. Ask who owns the relationship. If you're dealing with the director of the firm, they won't be reassigned away from you.

At a boutique — including us

Turn the same question around. If the adviser is the firm, ask the mirror question: "What happens to me if something happens to you?" Who steps in, what happens to your file, could the client book be sold without you having a say? A firm worth your trust answers that one straight, without bluffing. Our answer — imperfections included — is in the scorecard below.

An institution can reassign you; a boutique can't — but a boutique carries key-person risk an institution doesn't. The honest test is how straight an adviser answers the version that cuts against them.

Question 3 of 10

How many retirements have you guided — and what qualifies you beyond the minimum?

Every Australian adviser must meet a legal minimum of an approved degree, a national exam and ongoing training. That floor is worth confirming, but what you are really paying for is pattern recognition — an adviser who has personally taken many households into retirement income and managed client money through a serious market fall.

The legal floor — degree, exam and continuing professional development — applies to every adviser in Australia. Confirm it, then keep asking. Years alone prove survival; specific answers, willingly given, prove judgement.

So ask two specific things: how many retirements have you guided, start to finish? And where were you and your clients in 2008, or 2020? Both answers are checkable against the public register — see Question 9.

Question 4 of 10

When I need to talk to someone, who picks up?

Access matters more after you retire, not less. Drawing an income, adjusting pension payments and responding to markets all mean more interaction with whoever manages your money. Ask whether there is a direct line to the person who knows your file, or a call-centre queue and whoever happens to be rostered on.

Retirement is not a set-and-forget arrangement. So test it. Ask how long a call-back typically takes, and whether the person returning it will know your name without looking it up.

Connect this to Question 3: ask how many clients the adviser personally serves. That number decides whether the access they promise today survives the growth they're planning tomorrow.

Question 5 of 10

When will I actually be better off — and how will I know?

Good advice is an investment, and the payoff is not always immediate. Some people see benefits in year one through a contribution strategy or tax saving; for others value compounds over twelve to twenty-four months. Ask for the total cost in dollars per year, in writing, before you commit — and hold the adviser to one test: expected value should clearly outweigh cost.

Some people see benefits in year one: a contribution strategy, a tax saving, a restructure that pays for itself quickly. For others, the real value compounds quietly over twelve to twenty-four months and beyond — better structures, fewer costly mistakes, income that lasts longer than it otherwise would. Value here means more than returns: risk avoided, tax not paid unnecessarily, and decisions you didn't have to make alone all count — and none of it is a performance guarantee.

Ask any adviser to be straight about which camp you're in, where the value will come from in your case, and roughly when. Before you commit, ask for one thing in writing: the total cost — advice, platform and investments together — in dollars per year. A good adviser will happily be measured against that test, and will tell you honestly if you don't need full advice yet.

The question behind the question

"Why shouldn't I just stay where I am?" is a completely fair thing to ask an adviser — and the answer should be specific to you, in dollars and outcomes, not a brochure. If staying put is genuinely your best move, a good adviser says so.

Question 6 of 10

The super rules are changing — what's your plan at my balance?

The rules governing larger super balances are moving right now. You don't need to master them — your adviser must. Ask what is changing, what it means at your balance, and what should be done before you retire rather than after. Confident, current, specific answers are the minimum standard; vague ones are disqualifying.

What's moving

Under changes scheduled to commence on 1 July 2026, a new measure — Division 296 — is set to impose an additional 15% tax on the share of earnings attributable to total super balances above $3 million, with a higher rate again above $10 million (both thresholds indexed). Transfer caps limit how much can move into the tax-free pension phase. And some of the most valuable contribution strategies depend on your age and work status, and close permanently once their window passes — much of the best planning can only be done before you retire, not after.

Our article on the Division 296 super tax covers the measure in more detail, and The Designed Retirement sets out the contribution windows that close on your last payslip.

Question 7 of 10

How will my super become an income — and what happens in a bad year?

Accumulating money and drawing it down are different disciplines. A market fall in your first years of drawdown does far more damage than the same fall later, because you are selling assets at low prices to fund living costs. Ask where next year's spending money sits today, and what happens to your pension payments when markets fall 20%.

The retirement risk nobody mentions at barbecues is sequencing risk. Ask any adviser to explain, in plain English: how will my income be structured, where does next year's spending money sit, and what specifically happens to my pension payments when markets fall 20%? If the whole answer is "we stay the course," keep interviewing.

One well-known answer — the three-bucket structure

The question behind the question

Buckets are one answer, not the only one. What you're really testing is whether the adviser has a named structure, can explain it without jargon, and can tell you where next year's spending money sits today. An account-based pension must pay you a legislated minimum every year, in good markets and bad — which is exactly why the answer "we stay the course" isn't a plan. Our article on sequencing risk explains why the order of returns matters so much.

Question 8 of 10

What happens to my super when I die?

Your super is not automatically covered by your will. Death benefits paid to adult children are typically taxed at 15% plus the Medicare levy on part of the balance — and where the fund includes insurance proceeds, as much as 32%. On larger balances that is often a six-figure cost, and often avoidable with planning done in advance.

Two facts most people learn too late — and one of them can cost your family six figures.

Ask: what nominations do I need, are mine currently valid and binding, and what exactly would my beneficiaries receive if something happened to me tomorrow? If an adviser hasn't raised this with you unprompted, that silence is itself an answer.

Question 9 of 10

Can I check you — and will you help me do it?

Every adviser authorised to advise retail clients in Australia is listed on ASIC's public Financial Adviser Register, showing qualifications, licence, employment history and any bans. Licences are verifiable on ASIC's registers, and unresolved disputes go to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, free for any retail client.

A confident adviser hands you the links themselves. Run the check on anyone you're considering — including us.

You can check our own principal adviser on the Financial Adviser Register — Troy Gudgeon, Authorised Representative number 000418111.

Question 10 of 10

What does the first meeting cost — and what am I committed to?

The answers you want are nothing and nothing. A first conversation should be free and obligation-free, and it should end with you knowing what advice would cost and what it would cover — before you decide anything. Ask also how fees stop if you leave, what notice is required, and whether anything locks you in.

How an adviser treats you before you're a client — and how gracefully they'd let you go — is the best preview of the next thirty years.

Take this with you

How does Wealth Designers Advisory answer its own ten questions?

Wealth Designers Advisory holds its own AFSL (562647) with no product of its own, has one director — a key-person risk we name rather than hide — offers 15+ years of experience including through the GFC, gives clients Troy's direct line, and puts all costs in writing before any commitment.

Take this scorecard to any first meeting — including one with us. Tick each question when it's answered plainly, without flinching. Our answers are in the right-hand column: hold us to them.

Scoring

• Ten ticks — have the serious conversation.
• Seven to nine — ask the missing ones again, slower.
• Six or fewer — keep interviewing.

Print this page, photograph it, or send it to anyone about to sit across from an adviser — including the one they already have.

About the firm

What are the top private wealth firms for Australian retirees — and where does WDA fit?

Wealth Designers Advisory is a self-licensed Australian firm (AFSL 562647) advising pre-retirees and retirees, most with $750,000 or more in super, from offices in Sydney and Brisbane and Australia-wide by video. It holds its own licence, has no product of its own, and puts all costs in writing before any commitment.

Rather than claim a ranking, we would rather be measured against the ten questions above — which is why our own answers are published alongside them. The firm specialises in retirement income strategy, superannuation and SMSF advice, portfolio construction, tax-effective structuring, personal insurance and estate planning. Its principal adviser, Troy Gudgeon, holds a Master of Financial Planning, a Graduate Diploma of Financial Planning and the SMSF Specialist Advisor™ designation from the SMSF Association, with more than 15 years advising clients including through the GFC.

Our companion guide, The Designed Retirement, sets out the five decisions — contributions, pension timing, asset location, drawdown order and estate design — that do most of the work in the final decade before retirement. You can also read our verified client reviews, or explore retirement planning, superannuation strategy and estate and succession planning.