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iQuestions Faculty, Ron Blue 
 
 
Question: 
 
What should I look for when choosing a financial advisor? 
 
Answer:  
 
You know, there’s over a million financial advisors in America today. 
There are stock brokers, life insurance salesmen, CFP’s, CPA’s, 
attorneys—there’s all kinds of designations. As a matter of fact, there 
are ninety designations for financial advisors. It’s a very confusing and 
complex world. 
 
How do you choose an advisor, in light of all of that complexity? “Do I 
really even need an advisor?” is a legitimate question. Not only are 
there a million advisors, but there are also books, and radio programs, 
television programs, and all kinds of self-help resources when it comes 
to managing your finances. The question is, “Should I do it myself, or 
should I choose an advisor? 
 
There are a lot of self-help materials that are available to you. There 
are books, radio programs, TV programs, magazines, video series—
there are all kinds of things that will help you, when it comes to 
planning and managing your financing. So, if you want to, you have 
probably all of the resources that you need to do it yourself.  
 
However, God’s word says that you should also seek counsel, when it 
comes to making some of these decisions. I would like to encourage 
you to think about five characteristics, if you will, of a financial advisor 
that should be representative of any financial advisor that you select.  
 
 
 
First of all is, “What is their world-view?” In other words, what do they 
believe? What is their belief-system? Everybody has a belief-system—
and I think it’s important for you to know what is the world-view, what 
is the belief-system of your financial advisor? 
 
I happen to believe that a biblical world-view is the only rational 
world-view, when it comes to managing finances—and that means that 
my source of wisdom in financial planning and financial advising comes 
out of God’s word. So, “Does your advisor have a biblical world-view?” 
would be question number one. 
 
Secondly, “Do they ascribe to a code of ethics?” I guess I could 
bottom-line that one by asking, “Do they have integrity?” The best 
way you can determine that is to ask the question, “How are you 
compensated?” I think that there needs to be full disclosure of how the 
advisor wins in this relationship—because they do need to win in some 
way.  
 
Do they charge a commission? Do they earn their fees? Do they earn 
their fees off of increased values? Do they charge an annual fee? What 
is it that they get, in terms of the advice that they give? How do they 
win? And is it a win-win situation for you and for them? Do they have 
integrity? 
 
Thirdly is, “Do they have professional competency?” With all of these 
designations that are out there, you need some resources, and on this 
website are some places that you can go to find out, what do these 
designations mean, as far as the advisor that I am talking to? Do they 
mean anything? 
 
Professional competency is absolutely essential. They need to be 
competent in the area of expertise that they’re telling you they have 
that expertise in.  
 
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I can tell you this: nobody can be competent in every area. I’m a 
financial advisor, and I understand life insurance, but I don’t sell life 
insurance because I don’t understand it that well. I don’t even sell 
investments. I give investment advice from a principled standpoint, 
but not from a specific standpoint, because that’s a whole other world 
of expertise. I don’t know much about annuities. There’s so many 
areas that I don’t know much about.  I don’t have the professional 
competency in those areas—and you need to know the advisors’ areas 
of professional competencies, and where they don’t have professional 
competencies.  
 
Fourthly, “Will they give you character or client references?” 
 
That’s the best way to check out how good their advice has been. Can 
you talk to a client of theirs that’s been with them for a long time, so 
that you know that have honored that relationship, and that they have 
said and done what they said they were going to do. 
 
And then the last thing I think is really, really critical—and that is, “Do 
they personally practice what they preach?” In other words, do they 
live within their income? Do they give? Do they pay their taxes? Do 
they set goals with their spouse?  
 
There are certain things that I think are fundamental to good financial 
counsel. You need to make sure the advisor that you choose is 
following those things themselves, and that they personally practice 
the advice that they’re giving. 
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