How to choose a financial advisor in Scottsdale for retirement, and how to check their answers

A registered investment adviser owes you a fiduciary duty on every recommendation. A broker owes a lower "best interest" standard on trades. A dually registered rep can be either, depending on the account.

A good answer is a yes, in writing, with no qualifier. If it includes "when providing advisory services," ask what happens the rest of the time.

Percentages hide the number. On $1,000,000, a 1% fee is $10,000 a year before fund expenses and any commissions. "Fee-only" means you are the only one paying the adviser. "Fee-based" means fees plus commissions, and the difference shows up every year in the all-in cost.

A good answer is the all-in annual figure written out, with every source of compensation named.

Withdrawal order, Roth conversions, Medicare surcharges, and charitable gifts are tax decisions before they are investment decisions. An adviser who never sees the return is planning around a number they are guessing at.

A good answer names who prepares or reviews the return and how the plan and the return get reconciled each year.

"Four percent" comes from a 1994 study that assumed a fixed 30-year horizon and ignored taxes. Real spending rises, falls, and rises again for healthcare.

A good answer includes a cash reserve, a withdrawal order across taxable, traditional, and Roth accounts, an annual revisit, and a cutback rule you agreed to before the bad year arrives.

The smaller Social Security check stops. The survivor files as single at higher rates on nearly the same income. The account passwords are with the spouse who is gone.

A good answer shows you the survivor scenario already modeled, and explains what the adviser does so the less-involved spouse knows exactly who to call.

Your accounts should sit at an independent custodian such as Schwab, Fidelity, or Altruist, titled in your name, with the adviser holding trading authority and nothing more. Statements come from the custodian, not the adviser.

A good answer names the custodian. If anyone asks you to write a check to the advisory firm itself, stop.

Claiming at 70 instead of 62 raises the monthly benefit by roughly 77% for someone with a full retirement age of 67. Medicare sets premiums on income from two years earlier, so a Roth conversion at 63 shows up on the Part B bill at 65.

A good answer says both get modeled before any large income event, and can show you the last time that changed a recommendation.

You are listening for a process. Where does the next few years of spending sit so nothing gets sold at the bottom? What gets rebalanced, on what rule? Which losses get harvested against future gains?

A good answer has all three. An answer built around a forecast of when the market recovers is a warning sign.