The One Thing Your Advisor Should Be Sending You Every Quarter (But Probably Isn’t)
The One Thing Your Advisor Should Be Sending You Every Quarter
(But Probably Isn't)
"If your advisor can’t document what they did for you, it may be a sign that very little actually happened.”- Paul Powell
If your advisor can’t document what they did for you, it may be a sign that very little actually happened.
Most investors assume their financial advisor is working behind the scenes—monitoring portfolios, reviewing risk, revising financial plans, coordinating with tax professionals, and making thoughtful adjustments throughout the year.
But here’s what two decades of institutional advisory work taught me:
If it isn’t written down, it probably didn’t happen.
Institutions require documentation.
Individuals rarely receive it.
And the gap between those two worlds explains why so many investors have no clear idea whether their advisor is actually earning their fee.
Strong advisors thrive in documentation.
Weak advisors avoid it, because it exposes inactivity.
The One Document That Reveals the Truth
Every investor should receive quarterly written commentary from their advisor.
Not a market newsletter.
Not a glossy firm update.
Not a generic “insights from our chief economist.”
I mean a personalized written summary of what your advisor actually did for you over the past quarter.
Something that covers three specific areas.
1. What Your Advisor Did With Your Investments
Institutions never accept verbal explanations. They require written records of:
What was bought or sold, and why
Rebalancing decisions
Risk adjustments or allocation changes
Due diligence on the funds or managers you hold
The rationale for maintaining the current allocation
A real process should produce real activity—and real activity produces real documentation.
If you didn’t receive this, you should genuinely ask:
What exactly happened in my portfolio this quarter?
2. What Your Advisor Did for Your Financial Plan
Planning is not a one-time event. It evolves as your life evolves.
Each quarter should bring written updates such as:
New savings or income assumptions
Revised retirement projections
Updated risk and cash flow analysis
Tax planning considerations
Progress toward goals or milestones
If your plan hasn’t been updated in over a year, it isn’t a plan.
It’s a binder.
3. What Your Advisor Did With Other Professionals
Sophisticated investors expect their advisor to coordinate with:
CPAs
attorneys
estate planners
business consultants
Institutions require cross-disciplinary alignment.
Individuals should expect nothing less.
If you had tax decisions, business events, inheritance issues, property transactions, or estate questions this year—and no coordination occurred—your advisor is operating in a silo.
That’s not oversight.
That’s isolation.
Why Most Advisors Don’t Provide Written Commentary
From inside the industry, I can tell you why documentation is so rare:
1. Many advisors follow a “set it and forget it” approach.
Once you’re invested, very little may happen unless you initiate it.
2. Commentary exposes inactivity.
Some quarters would be blank—and that’s uncomfortable to reveal.
3. Most advisors weren’t trained to write reports.
Retail advisors are trained in sales, not documentation or institutional-level reporting.
4. Writing takes time and reveals process gaps.
If there’s no real process behind the scenes, there’s nothing coherent to document.
Strong advisors welcome transparency.
Weak advisors avoid anything that creates accountability.
The Second Required Document: Written Meeting Minutes
Every single advisor meeting should have a written record.
This is standard at the institutional level.
It should be standard for you.
Written meeting minutes should include:
What was discussed
What decisions were made
What the advisor committed to doing
What changes to expect
What assumptions were adjusted
What the follow-up timeline is
Why does this matter?
Because a written trail creates:
accountability
continuity
clarity
memory
proof of activity
protection against drift
Most frustrations with advisors stem from missing expectations—not misconduct.
Written minutes eliminate missing expectations.
Documentation Turns Comfort Into Clarity
Conversations create rapport.
Documentation creates accountability.
In the institutional world, advisors are judged against four simple standards:
Do they have a process?
Do they follow it?
Can they prove it?
Does their work justify their compensation?
Most individual advisors can talk through #1 and #2.
Very few can prove #3.
And #4 becomes impossible to assess without written evidence.
Written commentary and written meeting minutes bridge that gap instantly.
How to Ask for These Documents
Here is the exact sentence to ask your advisor:
“Could you begin sending me quarterly written commentary on what was done for my portfolio and plan, along with written summaries after each meeting?”
Their reaction tells you everything you need to know:
If they welcome it: You have a strong advisor.
If they hesitate: They’re unsure if they can deliver.
If they resist: They’re hiding a lack of structure.
If they agree but never follow through: That’s performance drift.
If they get defensive: That’s your answer.
Advisors who are doing the work are not afraid to write it down.
The Bottom Line
Most investors assume their advisor is doing a lot behind the scenes.
But good relationships aren’t built on assumptions.
Quarterly written commentary and documented meeting minutes are the clearest indicators of advisory quality. They reveal whether an advisor is genuinely managing your money and your plan—or simply managing the relationship.
If your advisor can’t document what they did for you,
it may be a sign that very little actually happened.
You deserve to know the difference.
Want a deeper way to evaluate your advisor?
The Financial Self-Defense Checklist gives you the complete set of institutional questions that reveal alignment, transparency, and accountability before you trust anyone with your financial life.
