How to hire a financial planner
Hire a fee only financial planner for the household planning seat, then interview that person like a hire, not a referral. This guide covers the need test, the pay test, fee shapes inside fee only, what the fee should buy, five first call questions with Want and Do not want answers, what not to shop on, and how to leave cleanly if the fit is wrong.
Written by retired financial planner, Ryan Inman. With roughly 15 years working as a flat fee only financial planner for physician households only (~500 families). While he is not a physician he is married to one. Awarded as an Investopedia Top 100 Advisor in the US 2019 and 2020. Left practice in 2021 and is not taking on any clients. This is not financial advice, education only.
Who should you hire for the planner seat?
Short answer: A fee only financial planner. Not a product salesperson wearing a planning label.
"Financial advisor" is an industry word, not one job. It can mean planning, portfolio management, product sales, insurance placement, or a mix. This post uses financial planner / planner for the household seat on purpose. Advisor appears only when naming that ambiguity.
Fee only means every dollar that person earns comes from the household they advise. No commissions. No cut of a product you buy. No referral fee from anyone they send you to. No revenue share from a company whose name you would have to hunt for.
The pay test (carry this): You pay them, and nobody else can pay them.
| Commission | Fee based | Fee only | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who can pay them | Products they sell you | You, plus commissions or product revenue | Only you |
| Household conflict | Built in | Still present | Removed for compensation |
| Easy tell | Paid when you buy | Fee plus a product path | No commissions, no product cut, no referral fee, no revenue share |
Easy tell (not the only one): If they sell insurance from the planner seat, that seat is usually fee based, not fee only, and conflicted on household decisions. You still need insurance done well. Hire protection as protection. Hire planning as planning.
When advice is the only product, the planner earns more by being worth more to you. Other models put a second customer in the room. You will not meet that customer. That is not a claim that every non fee only person is dishonest. It is a claim that you cannot audit pay you cannot see. Prefer the chair with nobody else to look for.
Commission can still put needed protection into a household that would never write a planning check. A policy that exists can beat a perfect analysis nobody bought. That is a product job. This post is about hiring someone to build and own a plan with you. For how the industry finds physicians when the goal is the product sale, listen to How Physicians Get Sold.
Do you need a financial planner?
Short answer: Not every physician household does. Complexity, time, behavior, alignment, and deadlines change the answer.
A simple picture (one W2 income, loans on a clear path, no business, no messy equity) can often run from a solid checklist.
The picture that usually earns a planner includes two incomes, 1099 or partnership income, a loan forgiveness decision, a house purchase, a practice buy in, a spouse who wants a second brain in the room, or a household that keeps not doing the thing it already knows to do. That last one is common and rarely named out loud.
What changes the answer
| Factor | What to notice |
|---|---|
| Complexity | Entities, equity, forgiveness, old job accounts |
| Time | Whether the household will actually do the work |
| Behavior | Whether paper plans become action without someone in the room |
| Alignment | Whether the two of you agree, or need a referee |
| Deadline | Contract, closing, buy in, forgiveness clock |
This week: Write the three money decisions you have been avoiding. If any has a date attached, that is often the hire.
If you finish every question below and decide to run it yourself, that is a legitimate outcome. These questions are not a funnel. They are how you learn whether hiring buys you anything.
How should fee only pricing be structured?
Short answer: Fee only is about who pays. Flat fee, hourly, retainer, and AUM can all sit inside fee only if the money still comes from you.
| Shape | What it usually scales with | Extra questions |
|---|---|---|
| Flat fee / retainer | Scope and complexity | What is included year one vs later? |
| Hourly / project | Time | What happens when the project ends? |
| AUM (% of assets) | Balance size | What is that in dollars year one and year five? |
If the price is a percentage of assets, ask out loud:
- What is that fee in dollars for my balances in year one and year five?
- What happens to your revenue (and your advice) when the right move is paying debt, funding a practice, or moving cash out of accounts you manage?
Over a long career, AUM often costs more than a fixed flat fee because balances grow with contributions and markets while the work may not. Flat fee is not automatically better without scope. It is a different incentive shape. Convert percentages to dollars on the phone. Get the number in writing before a second call.
What should the fee actually buy?
Short answer: A written plan you can own, plus a relationship that does real work. Not a list of feelings.
Typical shape for a physician household:
- Meetings with a real cadence
- A written plan a spouse could read and understand
- Cash flow and debt strategy (including loans / forgiveness math when relevant)
- Protection reviewed line by line without requiring that they sell the policies
- Investments with tax location explained
- Tax coordination (reading returns, calling the CPA before moves that hit next year's return)
- Benefits packet read
- Someone who answers when a decision lands under time pressure
If the deliverable is an investment proposal with a plan stapled on, you are often paying planner prices for asset management.
Ask: What am I buying for that number? What do you need from me and when? What will you not do?
Named limits are a green flag: "I do not do your taxes. I do not draft legal documents. I will not sell you insurance, but I will tell you when you need it."
Which jobs are separate from the planner seat?
Short answer: Sales, insurance placement, tax, and legal are different hires. Separate seats are normal.
- Salesperson: product side of the table; the product is the work
- Insurance: protection contracts (separate hire)
- Tax: CPA seat
- Attorney: legal seat
Forcing one person to fake every chair is usually more expensive than hiring the right seats. The planner holds the whole picture when that is the job you named out loud. If nobody is named, the job defaults to you.
What five questions belong on the first call?
Short answer: Pay, year one work, advice that earns them nothing, team coordination, and exit. Write answers down. Compare at least two candidates.
Ask in order. Read answers back ("If I am understanding you, you said…"). A good planner should welcome engagement. If another adult shares the household, they should be on this call. The relationship only works if both of you can call this person. A planner who will talk to only one of you often breaks on the worst day.
Q1. How do you get paid, and can anybody else pay you that is not me?
Want
- A number in dollars for your situation (year one and year five), not a vague range
- A flat no: nobody else pays me (no commissions, referral fees, revenue share, or pay from any product you might own)
- Both halves in under a minute, then offer to put it in writing
- Follow up: what am I buying for that number? (Work list, not feelings)
- Fee in writing before the second call
Do not want
- A percentage that never becomes a dollar amount (make them do the arithmetic on the call)
- "Fee is covered" / "no cost to you"
Q2. What would you actually do for a household like mine in year one?
Want
- A sequence with a calendar: gather, then plan you can read by about month 3, then work in this order, then specific first move for a household like yours
- Best version asks a few clarifying questions (loans, contract, dependents, what you are building), then still answers point blank
- What they need from you and when (documents, time, spouse conversation)
- What they will not do (taxes, drafting documents, selling insurance)
Do not want
- A website service list ("comprehensive planning, investments, retirement, insurance, estate, tax…")
- Empty "it depends" with no physician relevant first pass on an intro call (major red flag if they claim to specialize in physicians)
Q3. What would you tell me to do that makes you nothing?
Want
- A real example in about two seconds: pay off loans instead of investing that money; keep the workplace plan; do not move assets just so they can bill; take a path that earns them $0 extra
- Flat fee shape makes this easy: everything they tell you earns them nothing beyond the agreed fee
- Follow up: when is the last time you told somebody that? (Story with detail you can take seriously, or nothing)
Do not want
- A pause
- A pivot into something they sell
- Jargon that never becomes plain English (keep asking until you fully understand; that is their job)
Q4. Who else is on my team, and will you talk to them?
Want
- Yes, plus specifics: read the tax return; call the CPA before anything that hits next year's return; read what the attorney drafted so plan and documents agree; tell you when something belongs to someone else
- When they and the CPA disagree: they talk, lay out the tradeoff in plain language, you decide
- Named owner of the whole picture. If you do not name that person, the answer is you
Do not want
- "We handle everything in house" as a dodge
- "That never happens" on planner vs CPA tension (it happens constantly, on purpose)
Q5. When would you tell me I don't need you anymore, and what happens if I leave?
Want
- An actual threshold: if the plan is built and running and nothing complicated is coming, go run it and come back when something changes
- Leaving is boring: notice in writing, no penalty, accounts were always yours, help move them, do not slow paperwork
- Year 3 follow up: what am I paying you for when nothing has changed? (Rebalance, year end tax projection, update when income moves, phone call when you need it)
- Read the agreement before you sign. Do not sign in the intro meeting. Proration for work completed is fine; exit traps are not
Do not want
- "Never" (never is not a real answer)
- A scramble when asked what year 3 is for
- Long lockups, leave fees, or 90 day notice on a relationship you have not started
What should you ignore while shopping?
Short answer: Credentials alone, return charts, AUM ego stats, glossy offices, free "I work with physicians" claims, and colleague praise without a pay interview.
- Credentials alone (including CFP): the floor, not the hire. Clears a bar. Silent on who else can pay them, year one work, or whether they are good at the job. Same idea as board certification: useful signal, incomplete picture.
- Track records and returns on a sales call: a planner is not a portfolio. A performance chart on intro is a sales document. Heavy return talk is a red flag for the planning seat.
- How much the firm manages: describes their business, not your meetings.
- Fancy office / glossy binder: current clients paid for that.
- "I work with a lot of physicians": free claim. Ask for counts, recent households, and stage specific failure modes.
- Colleague referral alone: proves they can return a call and are not an embarrassment to that colleague. Silent on pay, conflicts, and whether your life matches your colleague's. Run the five questions anyway. Assuming diligence was already done is how households quietly overpay for years.
- Pleasant agreement on everything: nice, not the job. You are paying for someone who will fight for the household's money, including protecting it from you when needed, with education and zero compensation conflict.
What if you already have someone?
Short answer: Run the same five questions. Unexamined is not the same as bad. If the fit is wrong, leave in writing without a speech.
Every question above still works on a person you hired years ago. You do not need a dramatic reason beyond wanting to understand what you pay for. A good planner will answer and often think better of you for asking.
Ask first. You might be fine.
If you are not fine (overpaying, conflicted, commissions you did not understand), finding out now beats finding out in 15 years.
Leaving mechanics
"We've decided to make a change" is a complete sentence. You are allowed to say it in writing. You do not owe a reconsideration call.
Before you move anything, get three things in writing:
- What it costs to leave, if anything
- Whether accounts can move as they are (without forced sales)
- Whether anything cannot move at all (and the number attached to unwinding it)
Selling positions in a taxable account can create a tax bill you did not plan for. Ask if you can transfer in kind. Often you can. Nobody volunteers that unless you ask.
Your new planner usually handles transfer paperwork. Take documents with you: the plan if it exists, statements as far back as you can, and cost basis records. Do not liquidate "to simplify" because someone rushed you. Expect weeks, not an afternoon. Do not start a transfer in the middle of a house closing or a tax deadline.
Sometimes the answer is renegotiation, not leaving: ask for the written plan, CPA coordination, and a clear fee explanation. If asking for the job you have been paying for becomes a fight, that conversation made the decision for you.
How do fiduciary duty and AI change the hire?
Short answer: Software can draft. It cannot hold a legal fiduciary duty. Keep the human seat when you want that duty.
From The AI Advisor (supporting context, not the hire hour):
Calculation and software work are getting cheap. Draft plans are no longer scarce. What still does not travel well: values when two good answers collide, accountability on boring reviews (life insurance, estate), encouragement, and a legal fiduciary duty. AI will not be a fiduciary. If you want someone legally bound to put your household first, that remains a human seat.
Optional interview add on: How do you use AI in analysis and operations? On the show, Ryan's framing is that a practice that refuses modern tools can look like hiring an investment philosophy you would never accept. Use that as one signal among the pay test and the five questions, not as a replacement for them.
What should you remember?
- Prefer a fee only financial planner for the household planning seat when you hire at all.
- Carry the pay test: you pay them, nobody else can pay them.
- Separate fee only (who pays) from fee shape (flat, AUM, hourly).
- Convert every fee to dollars for your situation; understand flat vs AUM over a career.
- Run all five first call questions; write answers; compare candidates.
- Credentials, returns, AUM size, and colleague referrals are incomplete signals.
- Both adults in the household should be on the call.
- Leaving is allowed and should be boring on paperwork.
- Deciding to DIY after the questions is a valid outcome.
FAQ
Should I hire a fee only planner or a fee based one?
For the household planner seat, prefer fee only. Fee based can still earn product revenue. The words sound alike on purpose.
Is AUM the same as commission?
No. AUM can sit inside fee only. It is a pricing shape. Still convert to dollars and watch incentives when debt or practice funding shrinks managed assets.
What if a colleague already loves their planner?
Take the name. Run the questions. Two attendings in the same group can live completely different financial lives.
Can I hire Ryan?
No. Retired from practice. Not taking clients. This post is education.
Where do disclosed partners live?
Soft door: Recommended. This post teaches the hire; it does not close with a hard named successor sell.
Is this advice?
No. Education only. Your plan is your plan.
Hire the right chair once, for a clearly named job. The good version of this story is boring in a good way.
If you want what a boring plan looks like before you hire anyone, listen to The Frameworks on the show.
Education and entertainment only. Not financial, tax, or legal advice. Ryan Inman is not currently practicing as a planner and is not taking clients.
Episode transcript (Hire Help)
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