Your questions about working with a financial advisor, answered.

It depends; the honest answer for many people is "maybe."

Three things tend to tip the scales toward hiring an advisor:

1.     Complexity. Multiple retirement accounts, equity compensation, a small business, real estate, and/or a complicated tax situation all add layers making it difficult to optimize alone.

2.     Stakes and reversibility. Some retirement decisions are nearly impossible to undo such as when to claim Social Security, which pension payout option to elect, whether to perform a Roth conversion in a given year, and how to position your portfolio in the years just before and after you retire. The cost of getting these wrong can dwarf the cost of advice.

3.     Whether you want to DIY it. Some people enjoy researching and managing their own financial life. Others don't, or did at one point but now find necessary planning has outgrown their bandwidth. There's no wrong answer here, only a preference.

If your situation is straightforward and you have the time and interest to manage your own retirement planning, you can probably wait to bring a professional on board. If you're approaching retirement with substantial savings, facing decisions you can't easily reverse, or finding that planning has gotten too complex for you to keep up with on your own, however, an advisor's job is to make sure such decisions hold up under scrutiny.

If you do decide to hire an advisor, the next question is what type to engage. Advisors range from hourly consultants (for one specific question) to ongoing advisory memberships (for a long-term sounding board) to full investment management (for soup-to-nuts assistance). Match the engagement to what you actually need.

A CFP® professional is a financial advisor who has earned CFP® certification, a credential overseen by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.

Earning this certification goes beyond just passing a test and requires college-level coursework, a comprehensive exam, several years of hands-on experience, and ongoing ethics and continuing-education requirements. CFP® professionals are also held to a fiduciary standard when providing financial advice, meaning they’re required to put client interests first.

First, head to two free public databases. The SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) tool covers registered investment advisors, and FINRA’s BrokerCheck covers brokers. Both provide the means to review an advisor’s registration, employment history, and disciplinary records.

To confirm a specific CFP® professional’s certification, visit the CFP Board site letsmakeaplan.org, and search “Find a CFP® Professional.”

These resources allow you to confirm an advisor’s qualifications and regulatory history before you decide to work together.

The main differences boil down to legal duty, how each is paid, and services offered. While a registered investment advisor (RIA) is held to a fiduciary standard and required to put your best interests first, a broker is generally held to a different regulatory standard and often compensated via commissions or other incentives tied to recommended products. That doesn’t mean brokers are necessarily the “wrong” choice here, but it’s an important distinction to understand when you’re deciding who to work with.

An RIA is a firm or individual registered with the SEC or a state securities regulator and held to a fiduciary standard, required to put your best interests first.

“Financial planner,” by contrast, is a general term not tied to any single license or standard. A registered broker, insurance agent, or the like can simultaneously consider him or herself a financial planner—each role linked to different obligations. The takeaway? Focus less on the title and more on how the person is registered, the means of payment, and whether he or she is acting as a fiduciary.

A fiduciary financial advisor is legally required to put your interests first when providing financial advice, an obligation applying throughout the relationship—not just when a single recommendation is made.

A non-fiduciary advisor—typically a broker or registered representative—is generally held to a different regulatory standard referred to as Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI), with the need to act in the client's best interest at the time of a specific recommendation but narrower in scope without the same ongoing duty.

Practical differences usually show up in three places: how the advisor is paid (with fiduciaries typically paid by clients via advisory fees whereas non-fiduciaries often earn commissions on products), how conflicts of interest are disclosed and managed, and whether the duty applies continuously or only at the point of recommendation.

To verify advisor registration, check the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) tool for RIAs or FINRA's BrokerCheck for brokers. Some advisors wear both hats—acting as a fiduciary in some interactions and a broker in others—so it's worth asking which role applies to your relationship before you sign anything.