Business Owner Wealth Advisory
How to Choose a Financial Advisor as a Business Owner: What Generic Advice Gets Wrong
Most guidance on choosing a financial advisor was written for employees with a 401(k) and a salary. If you own a business, the questions you need to ask are fundamentally different. This framework covers what actually matters: legal duties, fee structures, and whether the advisor has ever worked through a business succession, equity compensation event, or integrated tax strategy.
Why This Question Is Different
Generic Advice Assumes You Are an Employee
The typical "how to choose a financial advisor" article focuses on finding someone who can manage a diversified portfolio and help you reach retirement. That advice is reasonable for a salaried professional with a predictable income stream. It is largely incomplete for a business owner.
Business owners face a fundamentally different set of financial variables: a significant portion of personal net worth is often concentrated in a single illiquid asset (the business), income can be irregular or structured in ways that require active tax planning, and events like a sale, succession, or equity distribution carry planning complexity that a generalist advisor may have never encountered.
Choosing the wrong advisor does not just mean suboptimal investment allocation. It can mean poorly structured sale proceeds, missed deductions across years of business ownership, or a succession plan that does not hold up under scrutiny. The stakes require a more precise evaluation process.
Key Distinctions for Business Owners
- 1 Fiduciary vs. suitability standard: Does the advisor have a legal duty to act in your interest, or only to recommend products that are "suitable"?
- 2 Fee-only vs. commission-based: Is the advisor compensated only by you, or do they also receive compensation from products they recommend?
- 3 Business-specific depth: Does the advisor have hands-on experience with succession planning, equity compensation events, and integrating business and personal tax strategy?
- 4 Independence: Is the advisor part of an institution with proprietary products, or are they free to recommend whatever serves your situation?
The Single Most Important Question
Fiduciary vs. Suitability: The Standard That Changes Everything
The most consequential question you can ask a prospective advisor has nothing to do with their investment philosophy or client minimums. It is this: Are you a fiduciary at all times?
A fiduciary is legally required to act in your best interest. Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) registered with the SEC or a state securities regulator operate under this standard. Broker-dealers and their registered representatives, by contrast, historically operated under a lower "suitability" standard, which requires only that a recommendation be "suitable" for a client, not necessarily optimal. While regulatory changes have raised the bar in recent years, the fiduciary duty of a registered RIA remains meaningfully different from the conduct standard applied to broker-dealers.
For a business owner with concentrated wealth, complex liquidity events ahead, and decades of compounding tax decisions, that distinction is material. An advisor who can recommend a product because it is "suitable" may have financial incentives that diverge from your interests in ways that are difficult to detect. An advisor bound by fiduciary duty, operating as an independent RIA, has a legal obligation to prioritize your interests above their own.
What to Ask:
"Are you a registered investment advisor operating as a fiduciary 100% of the time, including when recommending products or insurance?" If the answer is qualified or conditional, that is meaningful information.
At Defiant Capital Group, the firm operates exclusively as an independent, fiduciary RIA. Learn more about what the fiduciary standard means in practice before your first advisor conversation.
Advisor Type Comparison
Fiduciary RIA vs. Broker-Dealer vs. Bank Advisor: What Changes for Business Owners
Not all financial advisors are structured the same way. The differences in legal duty, compensation model, and institutional affiliation create materially different advisory relationships. Here is how the three primary types compare on the dimensions that matter most to business owners.
| Factor | Fiduciary RIA | Broker-Dealer | Bank Advisor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal Duty | Fiduciary: must act in client's best interest | Reg BI conduct standard; not a full fiduciary duty | Varies; often suitability or Reg BI |
| Compensation Model | Fee-only (AUM, retainer, or flat fee); no product commissions | Commissions and/or fees; product sales incentives possible | Salary plus sales incentives tied to bank products |
| Independence | Independent; no proprietary product shelf | May have preferred or proprietary product obligations | Typically required to prioritize bank products and services |
| Business Succession Experience | Varies by firm; seek RIAs with specific business-owner focus | Inconsistent; often limited to investment products | Typically limited; may refer to separate commercial banking team |
| Tax Strategy Integration | Can integrate investment and tax planning comprehensively | Often limited to investment-side tax efficiency | Typically refers tax work externally |
| Regulatory Registration | SEC or state-registered RIA; Form ADV publicly available | FINRA-registered; BrokerCheck records available | FINRA or state-registered; affiliated with banking institution |
Note: Advisor structures vary. Always verify an advisor's registration, fiduciary status, and compensation model directly through their Form ADV or BrokerCheck before engaging.
Fee Structure
Fee-Only vs. Commission: Why the Difference Is Larger Than It Appears
A fee-only advisor is compensated exclusively by the client. No commissions. No referral fees. No revenue sharing from product providers. A fee-based advisor, by contrast, may charge advisory fees and also earn commissions on products they recommend. The difference matters more than the terminology suggests.
When an advisor can earn a commission on a product they recommend to you, a potential conflict of interest exists, even if that advisor is diligent and well-intentioned. That conflict does not mean the advice is wrong. But it does mean you are not the only financial relationship that advisor is balancing in that moment. For business owners making decisions about insurance structures, investment vehicles, and retirement plan design, those conflicts can compound over years of engagement.
Fee-only advisory is structured to reduce certain compensation-related conflicts, though all advisory relationships involve some form of trade-off, and no advisory model is entirely free of all potential conflicts. Asking a prospective advisor to explain every source of their compensation in writing is a reasonable and important step in the evaluation process.
Questions to Ask on Fees
"Are you fee-only, fee-based, or commission-based? Can you provide that in writing?"
"Do you or your firm receive any compensation from third parties in connection with our advisory relationship?"
"What is your total annual fee, including any embedded costs in the investment vehicles you use?"
"Is your fee structure the same whether you recommend a passive or active investment approach?"
Defiant Capital Group operates as a fee-only advisor in Pittsburgh. All compensation is disclosed in the firm's Form ADV, which is publicly available through the SEC's IAPD database.
Business-Specific Expertise
Three Areas Where Most Advisors Fall Short for Business Owners
Even a fiduciary, fee-only advisor may lack the specific experience that business ownership demands. These are the three areas where an advisor's actual depth matters most, and where a generalist approach is most likely to leave value unrealized or risk unmanaged.
Business Succession and Exit Planning
For most business owners, a business sale will be the single largest financial event of their lifetime. An advisor without experience navigating asset vs. stock sales, earn-out structures, or rollover equity arrangements may not be equipped to provide meaningful guidance before, during, or after a transaction. Ask whether the advisor has personally guided clients through a liquidity event and what their role was in that process. Risks are significant, and outcomes vary considerably by how the event is planned. Effective financial planning before selling a business can meaningfully affect how much of that value you retain.
Equity Compensation and QSBS
Founders and business owners with qualified small business stock (QSBS) under Section 1202 of the Internal Revenue Code may be eligible for significant federal capital gains exclusions on a qualifying sale, subject to holding period and other requirements. Tax rules in this area are nuanced, applicable limits can change, and mishandling the planning can forfeit meaningful tax treatment. An advisor who has never navigated a QSBS situation, or who does not know what QSBS stacking involves, may not be positioned to help when it matters most.
Integrated Tax and Investment Strategy
Business owners often have more flexibility to control the timing and character of income than W-2 earners. That flexibility has real tax implications, but capturing it requires coordination between investment decisions, entity structure, retirement plan design, and annual tax planning. If an advisor manages your investments in a separate silo from your tax situation, opportunities to reduce your overall tax burden may go unrealized year after year. Integrated planning requires either in-house tax expertise or a disciplined coordination with your CPA. Ask how the advisor structures that coordination in practice.
Credentials and Registration
What Credentials Actually Tell You (and What They Do Not)
Credentials matter, but they are a floor, not a ceiling. Here is what to look for and how to verify it.
CFA
Chartered Financial Analyst
A rigorous investment analysis credential requiring passing three examination levels and meeting ongoing ethics requirements. Indicates depth in investment analysis and portfolio management. Does not indicate tax or planning expertise specifically.
CFP
Certified Financial Planner
Covers financial planning broadly, including retirement, tax, estate, and insurance planning. Requires examination, experience, and continuing education. CFP practitioners are bound by a fiduciary standard when providing financial planning advice.
RIA Registration
Registered Investment Advisor
RIAs are registered with the SEC or state regulators and are legally required to act in clients' best interests. Form ADV Part 2 discloses services, fees, conflicts of interest, and disciplinary history. Always review an advisor's ADV before engaging.
Independence
Institutional vs. Independent
An independent RIA has no obligation to recommend proprietary products or meet a parent institution's sales targets. That independence is structurally different from an advisor employed by a wirehouse or bank, regardless of the individual advisor's intentions.
How to Verify:
RIA registration and Form ADV filings are publicly searchable through the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) database at adviserinfo.sec.gov. CFP credentials can be verified at the CFP Board website. CFA charter holder status can be confirmed through the CFA Institute. Never rely solely on an advisor's self-description of their credentials or legal obligations.
Red Flags to Avoid
Warning Signs in the Advisor Selection Process
According to a 2024 survey cited by Yahoo Finance, approximately 57% of Americans reported regretting acting on online financial advice. For business owners, the stakes of a poor advisory relationship are higher. These patterns warrant particular scrutiny.
Vague or Conditional Fiduciary Answers
If an advisor cannot answer "yes" to "are you a fiduciary at all times" without qualification, they may not be. Dual-registrant advisors can switch between fiduciary and non-fiduciary modes depending on what they are recommending.
Unwillingness to Disclose Compensation in Writing
Any advisor who is reluctant to provide a clear written breakdown of all compensation sources, including third-party arrangements, is not operating with the transparency a business owner's situation requires.
Generic Conversation About Your Business
An advisor with genuine business-owner expertise will ask detailed questions about your entity structure, compensation strategy, and whether a liquidity event is in the foreseeable horizon. If the conversation stays at the level of "how much do you have to invest," that is an informative signal.
Investment Advice Divorced from Tax Planning
If an advisor's scope of work ends at the portfolio and does not include coordination with your tax situation, you may be optimizing one part of your financial picture while leaving opportunities and exposures unaddressed in another.
No Disciplinary History Review
Reviewing an advisor's regulatory history via IAPD or FINRA BrokerCheck takes approximately five minutes. Skipping this step is a common omission. Any significant regulatory action, customer complaint, or termination disclosure warrants further investigation before proceeding.
Overconfidence Without Appropriate Caveats
An advisor who makes forward-looking claims about what your portfolio "will" return, or who presents a strategy as certain rather than probabilistic, is not representing the complexity of financial planning accurately. Outcomes depend on individual circumstances and market conditions that no advisor can control.
The Evaluation Framework
A Business Owner's Step-by-Step Advisor Evaluation Process
Rather than relying on a first-impression conversation, approach advisor evaluation as a structured process. These steps will surface the distinctions that matter most.
Verify Registration and Fiduciary Status Before the First Meeting
Search the advisor's name and firm on the SEC IAPD database (adviserinfo.sec.gov) and FINRA BrokerCheck. Confirm they are a registered investment advisor and review Part 1 and Part 2 of their Form ADV for services, fees, conflicts, and any disciplinary disclosures. This step should precede, not follow, any sales conversation.
Ask Directly About Their Business Owner Client Concentration
Ask what percentage of their current client relationships involve business owners, and what types of business-specific planning situations they have navigated. Look for specific examples of succession planning, equity compensation, or liquidity event planning, keeping in mind that client confidentiality limits what they can share. Vague answers to concrete questions are informative.
Request a Complete Written Fee Disclosure
Before signing any engagement agreement, request a written disclosure of all compensation sources, including any revenue sharing, referral fees, or third-party payments. An advisor operating as a true fee-only RIA should be able to provide this without qualification. Compare what you are told verbally to what Form ADV Part 2 discloses in writing.
Understand How Tax Planning Is Integrated
Ask the advisor to describe how they coordinate with a client's CPA or tax counsel. Ask whether their investment decisions are made with tax implications in mind, and how they handle situations where investment strategy and tax strategy create competing priorities. The answer will tell you whether tax is a core part of their practice or a consideration they defer to others.
Evaluate Their Succession Planning Experience Specifically
If a business transition may be in your future, even a distant one, ask whether the advisor has experience advising clients on business valuation context, deal structure implications, and post-transaction wealth deployment. This is a distinct skill set from portfolio management, and not all advisors have developed it. The time to discover an advisor's depth in this area is before you need it, not during a transaction.
Related Reading:
If you are navigating succession planning complexity now, review What Business Owners Get Wrong About Succession Planning. For a deeper look at what makes an RIA structure different in practice, see the firm's perspective on whether a fiduciary is better than a financial advisor. Business owners with significant equity compensation may also benefit from reviewing QSBS stacking strategies for founders.