5 Things Your Financial Advisor Should Be Doing (That Most Aren't)

Kimberly Green | 2026-04-14

5 Things Your Financial Advisor Should Be Doing (That Most Aren't) Most financial advisors phone it in. You schedule a quarterly meeting, they review your portfolio, maybe they mention something about rebalancing, and you leave. Nothing changes. Nothing actually gets better. That's not advising. That's attendance. A true fiduciary financial planner doesn't wait for you to ask questions. They don't work in silos. They don't pretend that what happens on their side of the table exists completely separate from everything else in your financial life. They do the actual work of planning—which means anticipating problems before they arrive and taking action before you have to ask. Here are five concrete things your financial advisor should be doing right now. Most aren't. And if yours isn't, you need to understand why. 1. Proactively Modeling Concentration Risk Before It Becomes Your Problem If you work at a growing company, or if you were an early employee anywhere successful, you probably own a significant chunk of company stock. Maybe it's through restricted stock units. Maybe options. Maybe you bought in early. Regardless—concentration risk is real, and it's not some theoretical problem for when "you have time to deal with it." A proactive financial advisor runs the numbers without you asking. They model what happens to your net worth if that stock drops 20%. They calculate the tax impact of selling a chunk. They stress-test your portfolio against a concentrated position and tell you exactly what it means for your financial plan. They don't assume you know this is a problem. They tell you. They explain it. And they don't wait for your annual review to bring it up. 2. Coordinating With Your CPA on Tax Strategy Instead of Pretending They're Someone Else's Job Here's what usually happens: your tax advisor does tax work. Your financial advisor does investment work. They never talk. You end up paying more in taxes than you should because neither one is thinking about the full picture. Tax-loss harvesting is the obvious example, but it goes deeper. Charitable giving strategy. How much to contribute to retirement accounts. The timing of investment sales. These aren't just tax questions—they're financial planning questions. And they require someone to connect the dots. A fiduciary financial advisor who takes their job seriously picks up the phone and talks to your CPA. Or at least reviews your tax return and coordinates on strategy. It's not glamorous. It doesn't feel like active management. But it saves you real money every year. 3. Running Backdoor Roth Analysis...