'Investors frequently receive only a small fraction of the shares they request - if they receive any at all'
"I value the expertise, perspective, and specialization that person brings." (Photo subject is a model.)
Dear Quentin,
Whenever someone asks whether they should hire a financial adviser, I often see responses like, "Don't do it. You're just giving away your money." I think that's far too simplistic.
For context, I'm a CPA and tax adviser. For more than 40 years, I've worked with wealthy individuals and families, advised on estate planning and taxation, and evaluated investment managers.
Could I manage my own investments? Absolutely. Yet I still choose to work with a financial adviser. In fact, despite being a CPA, I don't prepare my own tax return. I hire another CPA whose primary focus is tax return preparation.
Not because I can't do it, but because I value the expertise, perspective, and specialization that person brings. Being capable of doing something yourself doesn't necessarily mean it's the best use of your time.
Every wealthy family I've worked with employed investment managers, financial advisers or family-office professionals. These were intelligent, accomplished people who built businesses, led large organizations, and accumulated substantial wealth.
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SpaceX offering
What I've consistently found is that successful people are highly aware of both their strengths and their limitations. They choose to spend their time where they create the greatest value and delegate.
A recent example illustrates this point. Many people have been discussing the recent SpaceX offering. These offerings are often heavily oversubscribed. Investors frequently receive only a small fraction of the shares they request - if they receive any at all.
Based on reports I saw, many investors received only a small percentage of their requested allocation. Not every financial adviser has access to opportunities like this, but mine did. To my surprise, I received the full allocation.
That single experience doesn't justify hiring a financial adviser. But it does illustrate that the value of a good adviser extends beyond investment selection. My point is not that everyone should hire a financial adviser.
Many people are perfectly capable of managing their own investments;for some, doing so is the right choice. Evaluate the costs, the benefits, the services provided, the opportunities available and your own level of interest, discipline, and expertise.
The right answer is different for every investor.
A Satisfied CPA
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You can email The Moneyist with any financial and ethical questions at qfottrell@marketwatch.com. The Moneyist regrets he cannot reply to questions individually.
You are, understandably, flying the flag for your profession.
Dear Satisfied,
Expertise is a double-edged sword.
Had you waited to buy SpaceX $(SPCX)$ stock, you could have bought it at nearly a 50% discount from its post-IPO peak of $225.64. But you wanted in, and now you're definitely in - no doubt for the long haul. Good luck with that investment.
Time will tell whether that was a good bet. As Mark Hackett, chief market strategist ?for Nationwide, tells Reuters about the future of SpaceX: "There's nervousness about expectations being too high. I expect that to continue until we get some earnings out."
The question isn't always whether you can do it yourself. It's whether doing it yourself is the best use of your time. That applies to everything from investing to gardening. Confidence can grow with wealth, and perhaps that's a time when your ego needs a second opinion.
Another thing a CPA will tell you: think beyond today. We all need an outside perspective as we are seeing our own world from the inside. That's why financial advisers hire tax accountants and doctors hire specialists. We need to view our problems from the outside in.
We need to view our problems from the outside in.
I agree, in principle, that we all only need to be good at one thing. If we're good enough at that, we will hopefully earn enough money to throw money at other problems that come their way: electrics, plumbing, investing, and estate and tax planning.
You are, understandably, flying the flag for your profession, and I don't blame you for that. Per this 2025 Northwestern Mutual study, many American millionaires don't feel as wealthy as their net worth suggests, and they seek out help.
In fact, three-quarters of millionaires have an adviser, the study concluded - more than double the rate of the average American. They also say that they trust financial advisers a lot more than any other source of financial advice.
Only 36% of millionaires with at least $1 million in investable assets consider themselves wealthy. Despite this, America's 23.8 million millionaires report being more financially disciplined, confident, optimistic and clear about their finances than the average American.
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Complex accounts
If you are a W-2 worker with a 401(k), a house, a couple of 529 college savings accounts for your kids, emergency savings, an IRA and/or a private pension, I can see why your life would be, in theory, pretty simple, and you may not opt for a financial adviser.
The more money you have, the more elaborate and complex your estate planning will be. And it can backfire for those who get overwhelmed easily and don't see a silver lining to having accumulated a lot of wealth.
Take this man who wrote to me recently, upset that his financial adviser made him $300,000 trading options. Sounds like a nice little profit, except the reader was upset that he was now going to get killed on taxes.
"I am getting hit with IRMAA in two years. I use three different RIAs at three firms, employing various strategies," he writes. "I have about 20 accounts, using both platform managers, asset-allocation models that each firm provides."
Estate planning can backfire for those who get overwhelmed.
That gain opens him up to Medicare Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount surcharges, given that they are based on modified adjusted gross incomes (MAGI) from two years prior. Still, take the crunch with the smooth.
He got lucky. Trading options, as I told him, are highly speculative, highly volatile and highly leveraged. They come with significant risk; you can lose big or you can win big. He won big this time. Who knows what will happen next time.
The problem for him wasn't just taxes or options; it was that he didn't have someone overseeing his entire portfolio. After mastering the accumulation phase of your wealth journey, managing the distribution phase can get increasingly tricky.
If you have experts who talk to each other - an accountant, a CPA, or a CFP to map out income and tax strategies; a lawyer to handle estates and trusts; and others to help you out - it won't matter if you're a CPA or a Ph.D.
Delegate, sure, but do so judiciously.
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-Quentin Fottrell
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July 25, 2026 13:24 ET (17:24 GMT)
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