The advisor education no one gave you.
Every question you ever wanted to ask about financial advisors. One place. Answered — in plain English, with citations — by someone who spent twenty years inside. So the next time someone slides a proposal across the table, you can read what it actually says.
Consumer education, not investment advice. Paul Powell is not currently a licensed financial advisor.
Start here.
The six steps, in order
The complete Evidence-Based Hiring Method — why the sequence is the point.
Read →The 12 Questions
The written due-diligence questions — with the clean answer and the dodge for each.
Read →The Red-Flag Checklist
36 flags of a bad advisor relationship. Check what sounds familiar. Count.
Take it →The five costs, ranked
What the research actually shows — including the famous number we refuse to inflate.
Read →The guides.
The Advisor Complaints Study
1,400 comments analyzed. “Scam” ×117. “AUM” ×5. What people really say about advisors, measured.
Read the study →Is a financial advisor worth it?
The honest answer: sometimes genuinely yes — almost never for the reason they’re sold.
Read →How much does a financial advisor cost?
The quoted number, the all-in number, and every fee model — in real dollars.
Read →Advisor vs. planner: the difference, really
Neither title has legal meaning. Here’s what actually separates the people behind them.
Read →Do financial advisors beat the market?
The data says roughly nine in ten funds don’t — and advisors’ own portfolios don’t either.
Read →How to run a background check on a financial advisor
BrokerCheck and Form ADV, step by step — complaints, settlements, and the fee table they’d rather summarize for you.
Read the guide →The designation decoder
CFP, CFA, ChFC, and the rest of the alphabet soup — which letters mean years of study, and which mean a weekend.
Read the guide →Already have an advisor?
Run the same six steps on the one you have — framed as the annual review institutions treat as routine.
Read the guide →Yes, advisor fees are negotiable
Institutions negotiate as a matter of course. The all-in number, the breakpoints, and the email to send.
Read the guide →How to fire your financial advisor
Surrender charges, transfer mechanics, and why you never have to make the breakup call yourself.
Read the guide →How to read your advisor statement
The annotated tour of where the costs hide — and the one number that never appears anywhere.
Read the guide →The Fee Translator
Your balance, your fees — translated into dollars, cars, and years of retirement income.
Run your numbers →Worried about your parents’ advisor?
How to help without a family fight — the psychology, the scripts, and the review that does the confronting.
Read the guide →Get the Method
All six steps, the worksheets, the 12 Questions, and the email templates — in one PDF, free.
Get it →What you see — and what the money is doing underneath.
Each piece takes one thing the industry shows you and walks the money trail behind it. With receipts.
What is a fiduciary — and what doesn’t it protect you from?
Read →Why is the fee a percentage of your money?
Read →The fund fee you never see on a statement
Read →Why you’re paying your advisor twice
Read →What’s inside your “all-inclusive” wrap fee
Read →Same fund, three prices: the share-class game
Read →Paid every year you hold that fund
Read →Paying 1% a year for nothing to happen
Read →Why you keep seeing the same five funds
Read →Why the firm’s own funds end up in your portfolio
Read →Why your advisor suddenly changed firms
Read →Who really paid for the trip to Hawaii
Read →Why they want all your accounts in one place
Read →Why they want your 401(k) out of the plan
Read →The TSP rollover pitch, translated
Read →Why is the financial plan free?
Read →Who’s really buying at the steak-dinner seminar
Read →The “free second opinion” on your portfolio
Read →Who pays for “find an advisor” matching services
Read →Why annuities get sold, not bought
Read →Why you can’t get your money out for 7 years
Read →The “no-fee” annuity: where the cost hides
Read →Indexed universal life, pitched as retirement
Read →The “cash value” pitch, translated
Read →The teachers’ 403(b) scandal nobody covers
Read →What a “lifetime income” rider really guarantees
Read →“Fee-based” and “fee-only” are not the same
Read →“Best interest” is not fiduciary
Read →The CFP letters don’t settle the fiduciary question
Read →You waived your right to sue — remember?
Read →“SEC-registered” is not an endorsement
Read →“Moderate risk” is not a number
Read →When you’re ready to act, act in order.
The Method turns everything in this library into a sequence you can run this week.