15 Financial Advisor Questions to Ask Your Clients
Key Takeaways:
Asking financial planning clients foundational questions sets you up for a successful relationship.
Client discovery questions are more important than ever to support strong relationships and collaborative sessions.
Discovery isn’t a one-time meeting and should be a continuous process of getting to know your clients.
In 2025, financial planning clients are facing unprecedented complexity and uncertainty, with market volatility, tariff discussions, and ambiguity surrounding Social Security. Financial advisors must ask the right questions to help clients achieve their personal goals.
As a financial advisor, you and your client need to have a relationship based on trust. Guiding them toward financial decisions that are aligned with their lifestyle and interests will improve your value in your client’s eyes.
Open and honest communication will help you learn more about your clients, which in turn will enable you to create more robust and holistic financial advice that suits their lifestyle and yields satisfactory results. Asking the right questions will help you form a better understanding of how to improve your client’s quality of life.
This article will cover foundational questions to ask clients and share how Asset-Map helps bring client answers to life. Read on for a modern guide to what questions financial advisors should ask clients.
Why Discovery Questions Matter More Than Ever
Today, clients don’t just need product recommendations; they need clarity and connection. Discovery questions are your chance to forge connections with clients and uncover their values, motivations, and fears. Financial decisions are emotionally driven, and asking good questions helps you understand how clients think about their finances.
Discovery questions set the tone for collaboration and long-term planning. Support stronger client relationships by coming prepared with intentional questions that encourage honesty from clients.
Visual planning enhances discovery by giving structure to abstract goals. Asset-Map visualization features, such as the Discovery Interview, empower financial professionals to streamline the fact-finding process.
Key Categories of Client Questions
When deciding what questions to ask clients, group them into modern, planning-aligned categories. We’ve provided a few examples in common categories to help get you started.
Personal and Lifestyle Goals
"What does financial success look like to you in 10 years?"
This question is crucial to establishing a foundation for what is most important to your clients in the long term. Financial success looks different for each person, so it's essential to understand how your clients define long-term success. This could mean having all of their debts paid off, being able to retire, or even making a significant contribution to a charity they value.
"What’s one lifestyle change you’d love to make in the next 5 years?"
Digging into a client’s lifestyle choices can help you understand what is holding them back from reaching their goals. This question reveals the one thing they wish they could change in the short term.
"What would you do differently if money weren’t a concern?"
This classic question delves into how clients wish they could live. It prompts them to share what they would like to be doing differently that just isn’t feasible in their current financial state. Their answer reveals their priorities.
Financial Situation and Priorities
"What’s keeping you up at night financially right now?"
Money can’t buy happiness, but a lack of money causes problems for most. Asking this question helps you understand where to focus your client’s finances to alleviate this pain.
For example, your client might be worried about the possibility of being laid off in the coming months. In this case, what they’re worried about might be not only keeping up with their living expenses, but also affording them. Maximizing their emergency fund and reassuring them that they will at least be able to draw on it for a few months helps alleviate their stress.
"What’s one financial habit you’re proud of and one you’d like to improve?"
Asking this question enables you to see where clients struggle and excel in working toward their goals. You can use the answers to this question to help them improve their habits and take pride in themselves.
For example, they might mention that they want to improve their impulse-buying habit. You can help them set up a monthly budget to structure their spending habits and reduce impulse buying.
"Do you feel like your current financial plan reflects your priorities?"
Often, clients’ financial plans are in place as a checklist item but may not actually reflect their priorities. We’re told we should have a financial plan, so many people do, yet it might not be tailored to help them reach their goals.
If the answer is “No,” you can help clients identify areas of their plan that can be realigned to reflect their priorities.
Income, Assets, and Risk Tolerance
"How confident are you in your current income stability?"
This question may feel uncomfortable for some, such as for self-employed clients, but it is important to know. Income stability has a significant impact on a client’s financial plan. If a client isn’t confident in their current income stability, you may recommend building out a healthy emergency fund.
"What’s your comfort level with market fluctuation today vs. five years ago?"
This question gauges a client’s risk tolerance, providing insight into their comfort level with risk. Understanding risk tolerance is crucial when working with clients to invest in the stock market. You want to ensure their financial plan aligns with their risk tolerance and long-term objectives.
If a client is significantly more or less comfortable with market fluctuations than they were five years ago, it may signal a change in their life circumstances, financial priorities, or investment knowledge.
"Are you more focused on growing wealth or protecting it?"
A client’s answer to this question also reveals their risk tolerance. If clients are focused on growing their wealth, they are likely to be more comfortable taking risks to increase their rewards. If they say they are focused on protecting their wealth, that signals to you that they are risk-averse.
Retirement and Longevity Planning
"What does an ideal retirement look like for you and when?"
A prequel to the popular question, “What will be your monthly expenses in retirement?” This question makes it easy for clients to envision the kind of environment they’d like to live in as retirees.
Asking for a budget might give you material for a more concrete plan, but rephrasing it makes it easier to create a plan that’s more flexible and aligned with your client’s life goals after retirement.
"Have you thought about how long your retirement savings need to last?"
Asking this question prompts clients to consider their retirement savings and life expectancy. It also prompts them to consider whether their current retirement savings will be sufficient to support their ideal lifestyle for the remainder of their lives.
If their current retirement savings are lacking, you can work with them to create a plan to prepare for a happy and fulfilling retirement.
"Who else relies on you financially now or may in the future?"
Knowing who your client is financially responsible for is one of the most crucial pieces of information you can request during your consultation. Advice for someone with a spouse and a child to take care of will be vastly different from the advice you should give to someone with no financial responsibilities.
Family and Legacy
"What values do you want to pass down to your children or grandchildren?"
In legacy planning, passing on values is just as important as passing on assets. Financial advisors should ask this question to understand what is most important to their clients. Their answer can inform how a legacy plan should be formulated to ensure these values get passed to younger generations.
"Are there causes or people you want your money to support in the future?"
When planning an estate and legacy, it’s critical to know who clients want to support after they pass away. Whether it's children, grandchildren, or a specific group of people through a foundation or scholarship fund, it’s essential to discuss.
You can help your clients fulfill their desire to support those they love in the future by working together to craft a plan tailored to their specific needs and wants.
"How involved do you want your family to be in your financial decisions?"
This question reveals clients’ preferences regarding privacy, collaboration, and future planning. Understanding how involved they want their family to be will help you when structuring meetings and communicating updates. Asking this shows respect for their wishes and allows you to tailor your approach to support the client and any relevant family members.
How Asset-Map Enhances Discovery Conversations
Asset-Map enhances discovery conversations by providing visualizations that help you better understand your clients and their financial situations. It is an excellent method for reducing overwhelm among clients and helping them focus on what matters. With Asset-Map, you can visualize relationships, cash flows, and priorities to build trust and client buy-in.
Learn more about Asset-Map’s features.
Better Questions Lead to Better Planning
Great financial planning begins with better listening. It’s critical to note that client discovery isn’t a one-time meeting; it’s an ongoing conversation that evolves. Financial advisors should regularly revisit key questions as clients’ lives evolve.
Asset-Map empowers better discovery, planning, and client engagement with advanced visualizations. Schedule a demo to try it today!