Thinking About Reaching Out to a Financial Advisor? Here’s What You Can Likely Expect

A lot of people sit on the idea of calling an advisor for months. Usually it isn’t because they doubt they’d benefit. It’s that they have no idea what they’re walking into, and they assume picking up the phone commits them to something.

It doesn’t. Here’s how the process typically goes.

The First Call

Most of the time this runs about 30 minutes and can happen over the phone. Nobody is trying to solve your entire financial life in half an hour. The point is to find out what prompted you to reach out and whether there’s a reasonable fit.

Expect questions about what’s going on right now, what you’re trying to accomplish, what’s been nagging at you, and roughly what your accounts look like. It should feel like a conversation. If it feels like a pitch, that tells you something.

The evaluation runs both directions. Ask how the firm works, what kind of clients they typically serve, how the planning process actually runs, how investments get managed, and what the next step would be. You’re vetting them too.

The Second Meeting

If there’s something worth exploring, the next conversation is longer and more detailed, usually over video or in person. Sending material ahead makes it far more useful: investment and retirement account statements, bank balances, tax returns, a rough sense of your spending, mortgage and debt details, anything tied to stock options, RSUs, or ESPP, plus insurance and estate documents if you have them. None of it needs to be tidy. The details just matter.

This is where people tend to notice their accounts aren’t working together. The 401(k) is invested one way, the brokerage account another, the old IRA hasn’t been looked at in years, cash is either piling up or running thin, and company stock has quietly grown into a much bigger position than anyone intended.

None of that is automatically a problem. But it should be on purpose. Owning something because it fits your plan is a very different situation from owning it because it accumulated and nobody checked.

Taxes usually enter the picture here too. Not just what you own, but where it’s held, what gains are sitting in it, what bracket you’re in, and how your company stock gets treated.

Third Meeting and Beyond

Sometimes a third conversation makes sense, focused on the actual recommendation: what changes, what stays put, what gets consolidated, which risks need attention, and what the ongoing relationship looks like.

If accounts do move, that rarely means selling everything. Taxable accounts can often transfer in kind, meaning positions come over as they are and adjustments get made deliberately afterward. The transfer itself is more tedious than dramatic. New account forms, beneficiary updates, a few follow-ups.

The Real Point

Good advice isn’t just investment selection. It’s a system for making decisions: what you own and why, what you’re working toward, what needs to change, and what needs monitoring. If you’re approaching retirement, changing jobs, sitting on an old 401(k), holding concentrated company stock, or just tired of feeling disorganized, it’s worth starting the conversation. You don’t need everything figured out first. Figuring it out is the work.

This is general information and not individualized financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. Consult the appropriate professionals before making decisions for your situation.

Securities offered through LPL Financial, Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment Advice offered through Fortis Group Advisors, LLC, a registered investment advisor. Fortis Group Advisors and Christopher Edwards Financial are separate entities from LPL Financial.