Ensure your financial advisor is

A fiduciary financial advisor is an investment professional who is legally required to act in your best interest at all times. The obligation has two prongs: a duty of loyalty — the advisor must put your financial interests above their own — and a duty of care, meaning every recommendation must be suitable and well-reasoned for your specific situation. This standard is grounded in the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (Section 206) and reinforced by the SEC's Regulation Best Interest (2020). It contrasts with the older “suitability” standard used by many brokers, which only requires that a recommendation be broadly appropriate — not the best available option for you. A true fiduciary cannot accept commissions, kickbacks, or undisclosed compensation tied to the products they recommend. Fiduciary Check verifies this obligation against each advisor's Form ADV Part 1 and Part 2 filings before issuing its Orange Checkmark.

Fiduciary Check uses a six-step verification process anchored in public regulatory data, not self-reported marketing claims. First, we pull each advisor's CRD record from the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) system and FINRA's BrokerCheck to confirm registration and flag any disciplinary history. Second, we review Form ADV Part 1 for fee structure, custody arrangements, and disclosed conflicts. Third, we read Form ADV Part 2A (the brochure) and Part 2B (the supplement) for the advisor's service model and credentials. Fourth, we confirm the advisor operates on a fee-only basis — no commissions, 12b-1 fees, or revenue sharing. Fifth, we check the Form CRS relationship summary against the advisor's public representations. Finally, every verified advisor must re-qualify each year; the Orange Checkmark expires unless re-earned. Annual re-certification is what separates Fiduciary Check from every other advisor directory, none of which re-verify yearly against primary regulatory filings.

Not exactly — the two terms describe different things, though they frequently overlap. “Fee-only” is a compensation model: the advisor is paid solely by the client and never receives commissions, kickbacks, or sales incentives from investment companies. “Fiduciary” is a legal standard: the advisor is legally required to act in the client's best interest, governed by the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. In practice, most fee-only advisors operate as fiduciaries because there are no product-sales conflicts to manage. But not every self-described fiduciary is fee-only. Dually-registered advisors can hold both an RIA license (fiduciary) and a brokerage license (commissioned) — meaning they may be a fiduciary in one conversation and a commissioned salesperson in the next, depending on which “hat” they're wearing. Every advisor verified by Fiduciary Check is both fee-only and a full-time fiduciary — no dual-registration, no product sales, no part-time obligations.

Fees vary widely by advisor and service model, but most fiduciary financial advisors use one of three structures. The most common is a percentage of assets under management (AUM), typically 1% to 2% annually — for a $500,000 portfolio, that's $5,000 to $10,000 per year. The second is a flat retainer or subscription, often a few hundred dollars per month for ongoing advice, or a couple thousand dollars as a one-time project fee for financial planning. The third is hourly billing, usually $150 to $400 per hour, useful for narrow questions. What matters more than the headline rate is what isn't in the fee: a fiduciary fee-only advisor charges only what you pay directly — no hidden 12b-1 fees, no commissions on mutual funds or annuities, no kickbacks from custodians. Over a 30-year horizon, eliminating a 1% hidden fee can preserve roughly 25% more retirement wealth.

Fiduciary Check rejects any applicant advisor whose regulatory filings reveal disqualifying conflicts. The most common disqualifiers are commission-based compensation — including 12b-1 mutual-fund fees, front-end or back-end loads, variable-annuity commissions, and revenue-sharing arrangements with custodians or product sponsors — because each of these creates an incentive to recommend a product regardless of client fit. Dual registration as a broker-dealer is also disqualifying, since it permits the advisor to step outside their fiduciary duty whenever they switch “hats.” We reject advisors with material disciplinary disclosures on Form ADV Part 1 — customer complaints, regulatory actions, or criminal history — unless fully resolved and transparently explained. Soft-dollar arrangements that benefit the advisor at the client's expense are a hard stop. Undisclosed outside business activities, custody of client assets without independent audit, and missing or outdated Form CRS filings also trigger automatic rejection. The Orange Checkmark is issued only after every one of these checks clears.

You can verify your current advisor's fiduciary status in about fifteen minutes using public regulatory tools. First, ask your advisor directly for their Form ADV Part 2A (“the brochure”) and Form CRS (“relationship summary”); a fiduciary is legally required to provide both. Read Part 2A's Item 5 for the exact compensation model — look for the phrase “fee-only” rather than “fee-based,” since “fee-based” legally permits commissions. Second, search the advisor's name at the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site (adviserinfo.sec.gov) and FINRA's BrokerCheck (brokercheck.finra.org) for disciplinary history, registration status, and outside business activities. Third, confirm credentials with the issuing bodies — CFP Board for CFP®, AICPA for CPA, CFA Institute for CFA charterholders. Fourth, ask whether the advisor is dually registered as a broker-dealer; if the answer is yes, they are not a full-time fiduciary. Fiduciary Check performs every one of these checks automatically.