Don’t just ask whether an advisor describes their practice as Advice-Only™. Examine the engagement itself.
Advice-Only™ verification evaluates documentary evidence from a specific financial-planning engagement against the governing methodology. Start with the 21-question Quick-Start Self-Check, Version 1.0.
- 21 screening questions
- No account required
- Responses are processed in your browser and are not sent to or stored by AdviceOnly.info
Advisors and firms may assess their own engagements. Doing so requires no membership, platform, or listing fee. Self-assessments must be identified as such and may not be represented as independent. The Quick-Start Self-Check is free and requires no account, and we do not collect your individual answers.
Why Verification Matters
Compensation descriptions such as fee-only, flat-fee, hourly, subscription, or project-based explain how a fee may be calculated. They do not necessarily establish whether the advice was formed separately from implementation-linked incentives.
Advice-Only™ verification asks a more specific question:
Does the documentary evidence show that the advice was formed, delivered, and economically completed before product sales, asset-management relationships, referrals, custody arrangements, or other implementation outcomes could influence the recommendations?
What Is Being Verified?
The assessment focuses on a specific financial-planning engagement, not the advisor or firm generally.
The assessment considers the engagement agreement, compensation structure, planning records, recommendations, communications, implementation boundaries, referral relationships, public representations, and other relevant evidence.
A finding is limited to the engagement, evidence, procedures, assessment date, and governing document versions identified in the assessment record.
A Business Model Is Not a Verification Finding
Fee-only, hourly, flat-fee, subscription, and asset-based compensation models do not, by themselves, establish whether a particular financial-planning engagement conformed to the Advice-Only™ Methodology.
Advice-Only™ does not require every advisor to adopt the same firm-wide business model or abandon other professional services. It requires that an engagement represented as Advice-Only™ satisfy the applicable structural requirements, including freedom from implementation-linked economic benefits, client control over implementation, and a documented completion or advice-cycle boundary.
An advisor may offer other services outside the assessed engagement. Those services do not automatically determine conformance, but their compensation arrangements, timing, and economic relationships must be examined wherever they could affect the assessed advice.
Verification evaluates the evidence of that specific engagement—not the advisor’s character, professional identity, or business model as a whole.
The objective is not to declare one category of advisor more ethical than another. It is to make the structure and conduct of financial advice inspectable against published requirements.
The Verification Process
1. Begin with the Quick-Start Self-Check
The Quick-Start Self-Check, Version 1.0, uses 21 plain-language questions and produces one of three screening outcomes:
- Further Review Recommended
- Insufficient Information for a Meaningful Self-Check
- No Obvious Structural Concern Identified
The outcome rule is deterministic: any No produces Further Review Recommended. If there is no No but one or more answers remain Not sure, the result is Insufficient Information for a Meaningful Self-Check. Otherwise, when every applicable answer is Yes or a permitted and supportable Not Applicable, the result is No Obvious Structural Concern Identified.
2. Review the Verification Standard
The Advice-Only™ Verification Standard governs assessment scope, evidence, evaluator responsibilities, materiality, findings, reporting, correction, and version control.
The Standard establishes the rules governing the Engagement Conformance Assessment.
3. Complete the Engagement Conformance Assessment
The Advice-Only™ Engagement Conformance Assessment applies the Verification Standard to a specific documented engagement. It uses 21 evidence-based criteria and records the evidence reviewed, criterion findings, limitations, and overall finding.
Download the Engagement Conformance Assessment, Version 1.0 (fillable PDF)
4. Record the Engagement Conformance Finding
After applying the governing criteria and finding rules, the assessment may reach one of three engagement-specific conclusions:
- Conforms
- Does Not Conform
- Unable to Determine
The finding belongs only to the documented engagement. It does not create continuing verified status for the advisor or firm.
Quick-Start Self-Check
The Quick-Start Self-Check provides a shorter, plain-language entry point into the Advice-Only™ verification process. It may be used independently as a preliminary screening tool or as the opening component of the Engagement Conformance Assessment.
It helps identify issues such as:
- Was the advisor paid directly by the client for the advice?
- Were product sales, asset-management fees, custody, and discretion excluded from the engagement?
- Were direct and indirect referral incentives excluded?
- Was the advice economically complete before implementation began?
- Was the client free to choose any implementation path after delivery?
- Did the public description of the service match the engagement actually delivered?
A Quick-Start result is a screening outcome, not a formal Engagement Conformance Finding. An unclear answer does not necessarily mean the engagement failed to conform; it indicates that additional evidence or a complete Engagement Conformance Assessment may be needed.
Who May Use the Assessment?
Clients
A client may assess an engagement using records available to the client. Any completed assessment should identify the assessment origin and evaluator.
Client-Authorized Reviewers
A client may authorize another person to review the engagement. Independence depends on the reviewer’s relationships, compensation, conflicts, and connection to the engagement or finding—not merely on a professional title.
Advisors and Firms
Advisors and firms may use the assessment for internal quality control or self-assessment. A self-assessment must be identified as such and may not be represented as independent.
Request an Assessment
Advice Only Financial Advisors can perform a professional Engagement Conformance Assessment for clients under the governing Verification Standard as a standalone service at the current hourly rate.
These are not independent assessments. Advice Only Financial Advisors is affiliated with the entity that authors and maintains the Standard. Any assessment it performs is identified as such and may not be represented as independent.
Any qualified professional may perform an assessment under the published governing materials. You are not required to use Advice Only Financial Advisors, and no assessment requires approval from AdviceOnly.info.
What Verification Does Not Mean
An engagement-conformance assessment does not:
- certify an advisor or firm;
- create a professional designation;
- create permanent or continuing verified status;
- approve every service offered by the advisor;
- evaluate the advisor’s overall competence or character;
- guarantee investment, tax, legal, or planning outcomes;
- establish compliance with every applicable law; or
- represent approval, sponsorship, or endorsement by AdviceOnly.info.
Worked Verification Case Library
The Advice-Only™ Verification Case Library shows how the verification architecture applies when engagement facts, evidence, timing, compensation, or implementation boundaries are difficult or disputed.
The library contains two distinct forms of case record:
- Documented Engagements examine one identified, documented engagement or bounded advice cycle. They are derived from a completed professional assessment and may report one of the governing engagement-specific determinations: Conforms, Does Not Conform, or Unable to Determine.
- Illustrative Stress Tests use stipulated, pattern-derived, case-derived, market-derived, or composite-derived facts to test how changed circumstances would affect application of the governing criteria. They provide conditional illustrative treatment and do not issue a formal Engagement Conformance Finding.
Each case page identifies its case format, source basis, governing version, assessment or application status, relevant criteria, limitations, and the facts or evidence that could change the treatment or determination.
A Documented Engagement page is a controlled public summary of an underlying assessment record; it is not the complete confidential evidentiary file. An Illustrative Stress Test does not replace the Engagement Conformance Assessment required to reach a formal finding concerning a documented engagement.
Public-source comparator briefs may inform future cases, but they remain a separate research format and do not establish conformance or nonconformance by a named advisor, platform, or firm.
Verification Documents and Downloads
The Advice-Only™ Verification Standard and Engagement Conformance Assessment, Version 1.0, are now published. Version History will be added as the remaining Version 1.0 materials are released.
Quick-Start Self-Check
Quick-Start Self-Check, Version 1.0 — 21 questions, three screening outcomes, no account required.
Engagement Conformance Assessment
The complete Assessment containing the Quick-Start Self-Check, the Engagement Conformance Matrix, assessment instructions, and the Assessment Record.
Download the Engagement Conformance Assessment, Version 1.0 (fillable PDF)
Verification Standard
The versioned technical standard governing evidence, procedures, findings, reporting, and limitations.
Version History
Review current versions, publication dates, amendments, corrections, and superseded materials.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this an advisor-certification program?
No. The process evaluates documentary evidence from a specific financial-planning engagement. It does not certify an advisor or firm and does not grant a professional designation.
Does AdviceOnly.info approve each assessment?
No. AdviceOnly.info publishes and maintains the governing documents and public assessment materials. It does not need to receive client records, appoint the reviewer, supervise the assessment, or approve the conclusion.
Can an advisor assess their own engagement?
Yes. An advisor or firm may use the assessment for internal quality control or self-assessment. The assessment must be labeled accordingly and may not be represented as independent.
Does a Conforms finding apply to every client of the advisor?
No. The finding applies only to the specific engagement, evidence, procedures, assessment date, and governing versions identified in the Assessment Record.
Does an hourly or flat fee automatically establish conformance?
No. Pricing is one part of the analysis. The assessment also examines implementation-linked compensation, asset-management opportunities, custody, discretion, referrals, professional-network benefits, engagement completion, and client implementation freedom.
What happens when the available evidence is incomplete?
The evaluator should document the missing or unresolved evidence. When sufficient evidence does not exist to support a conformance determination, the appropriate overall finding may be Unable to Determine.