Find a Financial Advisor Near Me
Written by Andrea Coombes
Edited by Carolyn Kimball
Fact-checked by Dayana Yochim
There’s a lot to think about when you’re trying to find and hire a financial advisor. Let’s boil it down to two simple facts:
- You want to find someone who’s got experience related to your specific financial goals — whether it’s saving for retirement, investing for the future, buying a house, or any other money goal. That’s why it’s important to ask questions before hiring an advisor.
- You want to find someone who’s focused on helping you make the most of your money, rather than someone who’s hellbent on maximizing their own profit. That’s why we recommend finding a fee-only fiduciary advisor — that’s an expert who gets paid solely by you, and focuses on your best interests.
A fee-only fiduciary advisor could be registered as an Investment Advisor working at a Registered Investment Advisor firm, and/or a Certified Financial Planner, a wealth manager, a financial coach — or hold any number of other titles and certifications. Find out more about different types of advisors and certifications.
Luckily for all of us, there are helpful online tools for finding vetted advisors.
To find a Registered Investment Advisor:
Use the robust tool on our website, investor.com, to search for a financial advisory company. Our Trust Algorithm collects more than half a million data points from the SEC every month to update the details for each advisory firm and to generate a star rating. You can search by your location or by an advisor's company name. Each company review page offers details on possible conflicts of interest as well as questions to ask when you meet with someone from that firm.
Among specific factors considered for establishing a firm's star rating are potential conflicts of interest and any disciplinary history. Once you find a firm you might like, contact them and be sure to ask the questions we ask in this article, including, “Are you a fiduciary in all your dealings with me?”
Another way to find a financial advisor? Check out the winners of investor.com's Annual Awards 2024. Our experts spent more than six months researching and analyzing our database of 17,000+ U.S. financial advisor firms to spotlight winners across three categories:
- Best Financial Advisor Firms Serving Everyday Americans
→ These award-winning firms focus on middle-income clients. - Best Financial Advisor Firms Serving High Net Worth Clients
→ These best-of firms focus on wealthier clients. - Best Hybrid Financial Advisor Firms
→ These companies are the best of the best among so-called “hybrid” firms — companies that are both registered investment advisors and broker-dealers.
To find a Certified Financial Planner:
- Look on the CFP Board’s Let’s Make a Plan website. Just enter your address in its “Find a CFP Professional” search tool to find CFPs near you.
- Search on the XY Planning Network website. This site lets you filter CFPs, such as by your specific planning needs, your family structure or your career stage. All of the advisors are willing to work virtually, so you can work with a CFP anywhere in the U.S.
To find a financial coach:
Use this page to search for an Accredited Financial Counselor, aka a financial coach, in your area.
To find a consumer credit counselor:
Search for a certified consumer credit counselor:
- On the U.S. Justice Department website.
- Or at the National Foundation for Credit Counseling website.
- The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offers tips on how to tell the difference between a reputable credit counselor and a scam credit repair company.
To find a tax expert:
Enrolled agents are tax experts who are authorized to represent taxpayers in front of the IRS. In other words, they know their stuff. Search for an enrolled agent using the search tool at the National Association of Enrolled Agents.
Pro tip: Where you meet your advisor can offer helpful clues about your advisor that you don’t want to ignore. Check it out:
| If you find your advisor… | Then… |
|---|---|
| In a hotel conference room, and you’re there because they offered a free lunch or a free steak dinner… | Seriously consider getting the heck outta there. These free-meal deals are sales pitches for pricey products. |
| At your bank… | Advisors at banks are often paid commissions to sell you products; ask if they’re a fee-only fiduciary so you know whether or not they’re working for your best interests at all times. |
| At your investment broker… | Like financial advisors at banks, some advisors at brokerages may be more focused on selling you products than helping you plan your financial future. Make sure they’re a fee-only fiduciary before you hire them. |
| At a friend’s cocktail party… | Cheers! This might be a fine way to get a referral, as long as you do some research on the advisor. Be sure to ask these questions before handing over any money. |
| Online… | Excellent. There are a lot of useful websites these days for finding a financial advisor (we linked to some above), and an online search can be a smart way to find the best advisor for you. |
Risky business
Our study shows that conflicts of interest and disciplinary actions are more common at hybrid financial advisor firms — those that operate as broker-dealers and are not held to a fiduciary standard. Learn more about this type of firm and what to look for when working with one.
Popular Financial Advisor Content
- Infographic: Conflicts of Interest at Financial Advisor Firms
- Certified Financial Planner (CFP) Review
- Find a Financial Advisor
- How Much Does a Financial Advisor Cost?
- Types of Financial Advisors and How to Choose
- What's a Fiduciary (and Why It Matters So Much)
- What Does a Financial Advisor Do?
About the Editorial Team
Andrea Coombes has 20+ years of experience helping people reach their financial goals. Her personal finance articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, MarketWatch, Forbes, and other publications, and she's shared her expertise on CBS, NPR, "Marketplace," and more. She's been a financial coach and certified consumer credit counselor, and is working on becoming a Certified Financial Planner. She knows that owning pets isn't necessarily the best financial decision; her dog and two cats would argue this point.
Carolyn Kimball is a former managing editor for Reink Media Group and investor.com. Carolyn has more than 20 years of writing and editing experience at major media outlets including NerdWallet, the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News. She specializes in coverage of personal financial products and services, wielding her editing skills to clarify complex (some might say befuddling) topics to help consumers make informed decisions about their money.
Dayana Yochim has been writing (articles, books, podcasts, stirring speeches) about personal finance and investing for more than two decades, focusing on bringing clarity and the occasional comedic aside to what is often a murky, humorless topic. She’s written for NerdWallet, The Motley Fool, HerMoney.com, Woman’s Day, Forbes, Newsweek and others, and been a guest expert on "Today," "Good Morning America," CNN, NPR and wherever they’ll hand her a mic.