What investors ask before, during and after hiring an advisor

We have not measured what investors type

This page promises no list of real prompts, because we have none. The only questions we have put to an assistant at scale were one local buyer question per business in our audit of 9,483 small business websites (40 trades, 90 metros in the US, Canada, Europe and the UAE, late August to early September 2026), and that probe recorded whether a business was named, not what people ask. Nothing here counts anything people type.

What follows is the shape of the questions, not how often each comes up: the stages a client passes through with an advisor, the kinds of question each stage raises, and the page on the firm's site where the firm's answer belongs. The example questions were written for this page. The real ones come from your own clients, and the last section says how to collect them.

None of the answers below is investment, tax or insurance advice. Each describes how the firm works, which is all a public page can tell a stranger whose circumstances the firm does not know.

Choosing: how you are paid, the minimum, what you do and do not do

Before a first meeting, the questions test fit, and the intent behind each is a decision about whether to call at all. Examples, written the way a client might type them:

• "how does [firm name] get paid"
• "is there a minimum to work with [firm name]"
• "does [firm name] do [service] or only [other service]"
• "does [firm name] also arrange insurance"
• "is [firm name] registered, and where can i check"

Every one has an answer the firm already knows and a page it belongs on: who pays the firm and the schedule on the fees page, with the minimum beside it; the services, and the ones the firm does not offer, on the services page; any insurance the firm arranges on a page of its own, as disability cover questions sets out; and the registration in the footer, linked to the register. The overview for financial advisors lists those facts, and stating how an advisory firm is paid covers the fees page.

The question about what the firm does not do is the easiest to leave unanswered, and one plain line answers it: "We do not [thing the firm does not do]; for that, a [kind of firm] is the one to ask."

The first meetings: what to bring, how long planning takes

Once a client has decided to meet, the questions turn to process:

• "what should i bring to a first meeting with a financial planner"
• "how long does [firm name] take to write a financial plan"
• "is the first meeting with [firm name] free"
• "can i meet [firm name] by video"

The answers are the firm's own: what the first meeting covers and how long it lasts, whether it is charged, what the firm sends beforehand, the documents the client brings, and the time between the first meeting and the written plan, such as [n] weeks after the firm has everything it asked for. They belong on a page about working with the firm, an answer page with the document list in its HTML rather than in an attachment sent after booking.

In the same audit, 61.5% of the sites had no question-and-answer content of any kind, and 50.7% had a heading phrased as a question with no answer under it that a machine could isolate. Neither is a figure for advisors: both describe all 40 trades, and we publish no cut for advisors alone. A page about the first meetings, written as the questions and the firm's answers, is the opposite shape.

The ongoing work: how often you meet, what a report looks like, who to call

A client who has signed asks about the service they are paying for:

• "how often will my advisor meet with me"
• "what does a review report from [firm name] look like"
• "who do i call at [firm name] if my advisor is away"
• "how fast does [firm name] reply to an email"

These are service facts: how often reviews happen and what each covers, what a report contains and how it arrives, the contact for day-to-day questions and the one for when the advisor is away, and how soon the firm replies, as [time] on working days. A sample report page with the figures removed shows a prospective client what they will receive. Anything with figures in it goes to the compliance officer first, as describing the work, not the result explains.

Leaving: how accounts move, and what it costs

The last stage has questions of its own, and a firm's site can answer them before anyone has to ask:

• "how do i move my accounts away from [firm name]"
• "does [firm name] charge a fee if i leave"
• "what happens to my plan if i stop working with [firm name]"

The answers are the firm's own terms: the notice it asks for, any final fee or none, what it hands over (the plan, the documents, the records it holds), and who starts a move of accounts, as [the firm's custodian or provider] runs it. Charges made by other parties go on the page only as the firm knows them, dated: [charge], set by [whom], as of [date].

None of this is advice on whether to move accounts, or when. It is what the firm does once a client has decided to, written down where the client can read it first.

Collecting your own clients' questions

The questions that matter for the site are the ones your clients have already asked, in first meetings and in email. Collecting them takes a routine rather than a tool:

1. After each first meeting, write down the questions the client asked about the firm, in their words, before writing anything else.
2. Once a month, go through the inbox for questions about fees, meetings, reports, documents and leaving, and copy the questions out.
3. Strip every personal detail as you copy: names, figures, employers, places, family circumstances. "How do you charge for a one-off plan" survives the edit; anything that could identify the client does not.
4. Tag each question with its stage: choosing, first meetings, ongoing work or leaving.
5. Count how often each one comes up in your own notes, and write the recurring ones as headings, with the firm's answer under each, on the page for that stage.
6. Put a few of them, as a client would type them, into the panel you read each month, as setting up prompt monitoring describes and our methodology scores.

What counts as personal data, and how long meeting notes may be kept, depends on where the firm works; the compliance officer, or whoever runs the firm's privacy procedures, sets that part of the routine. The file of questions itself holds no one's details.