PART 1: Decide If Your Advisor Is Failing You (1–20)
1. Pull your last 3 years of account statements and calculate your actual net annual return after fees → Tool: PortfolioVisualizer.com
2. Compare your returns to a simple 3-fund portfolio benchmark
→ Tool: Vanguard Total Market + International + Bond index
3. List every product you own and mark which ones have front-load, back-load, or surrender charges
4. Find your advisor’s compensation structure in writing (AUM %, commissions, revenue sharing)
5. Search your advisor on FINRA BrokerCheck and SEC IAPD
6. Check if your advisor is legally a fiduciary 100% of the time
7. Calculate your total expense ratio (TER) across all accounts
8. Identify how much of your portfolio is in actively managed funds
9. Determine if your asset allocation has changed at all in the last 5 years
10. List every time your advisor proactively contacted you vs you contacting them
11. Check if your advisor explained tax consequences of trades in advance
12. Verify if your advisor used financial planning software or “rules of thumb”
13. Look for over-diversification (more than 25–30 holdings in mutual funds alone)
14. Identify any products you don’t fully understand — flag them
15. Calculate how much you paid your advisor last year in dollars, not percentages
16. Compare advisor-recommended funds to ETF equivalents
17. Check if your advisor suggested insurance as an investment
18. Look for cash drag (idle cash earning near zero)
19. Confirm whether Roth planning was ever discussed
20. Ask yourself: If I fired them today, would my plan still be clear?
PART 2: Safely Prepare to Leave (21–40)
21. Download all statements, tax forms, and trade confirmations
22. Get a full holdings report with cost basis
23. Confirm which assets are portable and which are not
24. Identify surrender periods on annuities or insurance products
25. Confirm whether accounts are held at a custodian (Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard)
26. Check if your advisor controls login access — reclaim it
27. Turn off any automatic reinvestment changes temporarily
28. Create a list of account types (IRA, Roth, taxable, 401k, trust)
29. Verify beneficiary designations are correct
30. Document your current investment policy statement (even if informal)
31. Check if any positions have short-term capital gains risk
32. Identify positions with large unrealized gains
33. Determine whether liquidation would trigger tax cliffs
34. Export performance history to CSV
35. Screenshot your asset allocation pie chart
36. Confirm whether advisor has discretionary trading authority
37. Remove advisor from account permissions
38. Open a blank account at a new custodian (no transfer yet)
39. Pause new contributions until transition plan is clear
40. Set a clean exit date
PART 3: Rebuild Your Retirement Plan (41–65)
41. Calculate your retirement number using multiple scenarios → Tool: OpenSocialSecurity.com
42. Map expected income streams (Social Security, pensions, rentals)
43. Build a withdrawal order strategy (taxable → tax-deferred → Roth)
44. Choose a target equity/bond allocation based on timeline, not age
45. Stress test your plan against sequence-of-returns risk
46. Decide between 4% rule vs dynamic withdrawals
47. Evaluate Roth conversion ladders
→ Tool: Roth Conversion Calculator (Bogleheads)
48. Determine ideal cash buffer in retirement
49. Set rebalancing rules (calendar-based or threshold-based)
50. Choose a low-cost ETF lineup (max 5–7 funds)
51. Evaluate if TIPS belong in your plan
52. Model inflation scenarios at 2%, 4%, and 6%
53. Account for healthcare costs pre-Medicare
54. Decide if long-term care insurance is necessary
55. Run Monte Carlo simulations with conservative assumptions
56. Build a one-page retirement dashboard
57. Create a glide path instead of static allocation
58. Define rules for market crashes before they happen
59. Document when you would reduce risk
60. Document when you would increase risk
61. Decide how often you review the plan (quarterly, annually)
62. Automate contributions and rebalancing
63. Write a personal “investment discipline contract”
64. Store everything in one secure digital location
65. Confirm your plan works without any advisor intervention
PART 4: Choose a Better Advisor (If You Want One) (66–85)
66. Decide if you actually need advice, coaching, or execution
67. Filter only fee-only fiduciary advisors
68. Prefer flat-fee or hourly over AUM when possible
69. Ask for a sample financial plan
70. Ask how they handle down markets
71. Ask how they optimize tax location
72. Ask how many clients they serve per advisor
73. Ask what they don’t do
74. Verify credentials (CFP, CPA, CFA)
75. Ask how they measure success
76. Confirm they do not sell products
77. Ask for their investment philosophy in writing
78. Ask how often the plan is updated
79. Ask what happens if you leave them
80. Ask how they handle Roth planning
81. Ask if they custody assets themselves (red flag)
82. Ask for real examples of mistakes they’ve made
83. Confirm no lock-in contracts
84. Compare their cost vs DIY cost
85. Decide if peace of mind is worth the fee
PART 5: Execute the Switch Cleanly (86–100)
86. Initiate ACAT transfer at new custodian
87. Choose in-kind transfer vs liquidation
88. Confirm no taxable events were triggered
89. Re-establish automatic investments
90. Rebuild your allocation if needed
91. Confirm cost basis transferred correctly
92. Set up performance tracking
93. Update beneficiaries again
94. Update estate documents if needed
95. Review plan after 90 days
96. Compare new costs vs old costs
97. Track behavior improvements (panic reduction)
98. Write a post-mortem on the old advisor relationship
99. Create a personal “never again” checklist
100. Schedule your annual self-audit