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What Is a Fiduciary Financial Advisor?

When discussing financial advisors and retirement planning, you’ll often hear the term “fiduciary”. But what does this mean, exactly? Especially as it relates to a financial advisor? 

A fiduciary advisor is a financial advisor who has an obligation to make financial decisions and recommendations that are in their clients’ best interest. For example, they cannot make certain decisions just because they pay a larger commission to the advisor.

Click Your State to Get Matched With Financial Advisors Who Serve Your Area

After you choose your state and answer a few questions, you can compare up to three advisors who serve your area and decide which to work with.

This is not an offer to buy or sell any security or interest. All investing involves risk, including loss of principal. Working with an adviser may come with potential downsides such as payment of fees (which will reduce returns). There are no guarantees that working with an adviser will yield positive returns. The existence of a fiduciary duty does not prevent the rise of potential conflicts of interest.

Fiduciary Advisors and Client Trust

When you begin working with a financial advisor, you grant them access to your money and investments. And, advisors often have discretionary control of your assets, which means they can make decisions on their own, without your approval. 

Because of this, an advisor’s role as a fiduciary is incredibly important. You need to be able to trust your advisor is making investment decisions that are in your best interest. This is why you should only hire a financial advisor if they are a fiduciary.

Where can I find a Fiduciary Financial Advisor?

Try SmartAsset's free advisor matching tool. This tool makes it easy to find vetted fiduciary advisors so you can make an informed decision and choose one to work with who best aligns with your goals. The whole process only takes a few minutes. Just answer a few questions and SmartAsset will match you with up to three fiduciary advisors. You can interview them for free, and there’s no obligation to work with any of them.

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Fiduciary financial advisors must:

• Put their clients’ best interests before their own, seeking the best prices and terms.

• Act in good faith and provide all relevant facts to clients.

• Avoid conflicts of interest and disclose any actual conflicts of interest to clients.

• Do their best to ensure the advice they provide is accurate and thorough.

• Avoid self-dealing, such as purchasing securities for their own account before buying them for a client.

SmartAsset Advisors, LLC ("SmartAsset"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Financial Insight Technology, is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as an investment adviser.  SmartAsset’s services are limited to referring users to third party registered investment advisers and/or investment adviser representatives (“RIA/IARs”) that have elected to participate in our matching platform based on information gathered from users through our online questionnaire. SmartAsset does not review the ongoing performance of any RIA/IAR, participate in the management of any user’s account by an RIA/IAR or provide advice regarding specific investments.

We do not manage client funds or hold custody of assets, we help users connect with relevant financial advisors.

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