Should I Keep My Parents' Financial Advisor After They Die?

The honest answer is that most people do not, and most people are right to make that decision deliberately rather than by default. Roughly 70% of heirs fire their parents' financial advisor within a year of inheriting, according to industry research from Cerulli Associates and multiple wirehouse internal studies. But "fire" is the wrong frame. The right frame is: this person served your parent under a specific compensation model, with a specific service offering, sized for a specific financial situation that is no longer yours. The question is whether they still fit.

This article walks through the seven questions that actually matter, the three red flags that should end the relationship today, and what to do if you are not sure.

The data on what heirs actually do

Industry surveys converge on a consistent pattern. A 2025 Harris poll found that 43% of Americans expecting a significant inheritance plan to fire their parents' financial advisor and asset manager. Cerulli Associates' September 2025 survey of investors with at least $250,000 in financial assets found only 27% of future beneficiaries plan to keep their benefactor's advisor, with the share dropping to 20% among those who have already inherited. Older industry estimates ranged as high as 70-90%, and those numbers still appear in advisor trade press.

The most common reasons heirs cite for switching are not anger or disappointment. They are practical:

• 50% already had their own advisor
• 28% had no relationship with the parent's advisor
• 14% did not want to work with any advisor
• 10% said the advisor did not meet their specific needs

Less than half the reasons are about the advisor themselves. Most are about fit. That distinction matters because it tells you what to actually evaluate.

The seven questions to answer before you decide

1. Is the advisor a fiduciary, or do they operate under Regulation Best Interest?

This is the single most important question, and most people inherit without knowing the answer.

A fiduciary is legally required to act in your best interest at all times, with both a duty of care and a duty of loyalty. Registered Investment Advisers (RIAs) and their representatives are held to this fiduciary standard under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.

A broker-dealer representative operates under Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI), which the SEC adopted in 2019. Reg BI requires recommendations to be in the client's best interest at the time they are made, but it does not impose ongoing fiduciary duty, does not require continuous monitoring, and does not require avoiding conflicts of interest, only disclosing them. Before Reg BI, brokers were held to the older "suitability" standard, which is a lower bar still referenced in industry literature.

A "fee-based" or "dually registered" advisor switches between these two standards depending on what they are doing in any given conversation. When they are providing advice, they may be a fiduciary. When they are selling you an annuity, a mutual fund with a sales load, or an insurance product, they are operating under Reg BI as a broker.

How to find out: ask for the advisor's Form ADV Part 2 and their Form CRS. Both are public documents the advisor is legally required to provide. Look at the licenses they hold. A Series 65 license alone typically indicates a pure RIA representative (fiduciary). A Series 6 or Series 7 license indicates broker-dealer registration (Reg BI). A Series 66 is a hybrid. You can verify all of this for free at the SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database and at FINRA BrokerCheck.

2. How is the advisor compensated, in total, including from product manufacturers?

There are three compensation models. Each has different incentives baked in.

The terms "fee-only" and "fee-based" sound nearly identical and they are nearly opposite. Fee-only means 100% of compensation comes from the client. Fee-based means a mix that includes product compensation. The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) requires fee-only status from its members.

Average AUM fees in 2026 range from approximately 0.59% to 1.18% per year, with about 60% of advisors using tiered fee structures, according to the 2024 Kitces Research on Advisor Wellbeing. On a $1 million inherited portfolio, that is $5,900 to $11,800 per year. On $5 million, $29,500 to $59,000. The math compounds so you want to ensure you are getting the value, you are paying for.

3. Does the advisor specialize in your financial situation, or your parents'?

Most advisors who serve retirees specialize in retirement income planning, distribution strategies, Social Security optimization, and conservative portfolio management. That is exactly what your parents needed and probably exactly what you do not.

If you are 42, with 20+ working years left, possibly running a business, possibly raising kids, with an inheritance that doubled or tripled your net worth overnight, your planning needs are radically different. You need:

• Tax-efficient distribution planning across multiple inherited accounts
• Coordination with your existing 401(k), Roth, and brokerage accounts
• Possibly a Roth conversion strategy spanning the next decade
• Estate planning for your own family, not your parents'
• Cash flow planning that accounts for an inherited IRA's 10-year drawdown

An advisor who has spent 20 years writing distribution plans for 75-year-olds is not the wrong person, but they may be the wrong fit. Ask them directly: "How many of your clients are between 35 and 50 with inherited wealth?" If the answer is "you would be one of the few," that is your answer.

4. Did the advisor get the inherited IRA distribution rules right?

This is a specific test. There is one way to know, in 2026, whether your parents' advisor has kept up with the regulations governing what you are inheriting.

Ask them: "Under the SECURE Act final regulations, do I need to take annual RMDs from this inherited IRA during the 10-year window?"

The correct answer is: "It depends on whether your parent had reached their Required Beginning Date and started RMDs before they died. If yes, annual RMDs are required in years 1-9 plus full distribution by year 10. If no, no annual RMDs required, just full distribution by year 10. The IRS finalized this in July 2024, with enforcement starting in 2025 after three years of transition relief."

If the advisor answers anything else, including "I will get back to you" or "you have 10 years to take it out however you want" without the RBD distinction, they are not current on the rules that govern the largest single asset you just inherited. That is disqualifying.

5. What is the advisor's actual investment philosophy, and does it match yours?

Your parents' advisor built a portfolio for their goals. Conservative income, capital preservation, lower volatility tolerance because the time horizon was short. That portfolio is probably wrong for you.

Ask the advisor to walk you through how they would reposition the inherited assets for your situation specifically. If they propose keeping the existing allocation because "your parents were comfortable with it," that is a sign they are managing the assets, not advising you.

A good answer sounds like: "Your parents' portfolio was 40/60 because they needed income and stability. At your age with your timeline, we would likely shift to 80/20 or 75/25 over the next 6-12 months, sequenced to manage tax consequences in the taxable accounts and use the step-up in basis on inherited holdings strategically."

6. How does the advisor communicate, and is that compatible with how you actually live?

Your parents probably had quarterly meetings, paper statements, an annual review. You probably want a portal you can check on your phone, secure messaging, and meetings on Zoom that do not require driving to an office.

This is not trivial. Communication mismatch is one of the most cited reasons heirs leave inherited advisors. If the advisor's tech stack is built around what worked in 2005, you will be frustrated within six months.

7. Did the advisor reach out to you before your parent died?

This is the tell that separates advisors who plan for intergenerational continuity from advisors who do not.

If the advisor met you, learned your name, asked about your goals, and tried to build a relationship with you over the years your parent was their client, they understood that you were the next chapter. That advisor is more likely to be worth keeping.

If you are meeting them for the first time at the reading of the will, they treated your parent as the asset and you as the liquidation event. The Cerulli research is explicit on this: advisors who do not engage the next generation early lose the assets at transfer. That outcome is not coincidence. It is consequence.

Three red flags that end the conversation immediately

Some signals are not "evaluate further." They are "leave today."

Red flag 1: They push you toward an annuity in the first meeting. A non-qualified annuity is almost never the right vehicle for inherited assets. They are sold, not bought, and they are sold because they pay 5-7% commissions to the seller. If your parents' advisor proposes annuitizing your inheritance before they have done a tax analysis, a goals analysis, or a risk analysis, the recommendation is about their compensation, not your situation.

Red flag 2: They cannot or will not put their fee schedule in writing. Every fee should be on a single sheet of paper that you can take home and read. AUM fee, planning fee, transaction costs, fund expense ratios, custodial fees, any 12b-1 fees, and any other compensation the advisor receives from any source. If the advisor hedges, deflects, or says "we can talk about that later," walk out.

Red flag 3: They tell you not to get a second opinion. A confident, capable fiduciary welcomes a second opinion. They know their work holds up. An advisor who actively discourages you from interviewing other firms is telling you something important about why.

What to do if you are not sure

If after working through the seven questions you still cannot decide, do this:

1. Do not move the assets immediately. There is no benefit to rushing. Inherited IRAs, taxable accounts, and other inherited assets do not need to move within 30 days. Take 90 days minimum. The 10-year inherited IRA clock runs regardless of which custodian holds the account.
2. Interview two other fee-only fiduciary advisors for comparison. Use the NAPFA find-an-advisor tool or the CFP Board's Find a CFP Professional database. Ask each one the same seven questions you asked your parents' advisor. The contrast will tell you everything.
3. Get the second opinion in writing. Many fee-only fiduciary firms will provide a written analysis of your inherited portfolio and proposed allocation for a flat fee of $2,500 to $7,500. That is one of the highest-ROI expenditures you can make on an inheritance over $500,000.
4. Make the decision based on fit, not loyalty. Your parents chose their advisor for their needs. You owe your decision to your needs, not to your parents' relationship history.

Bottom line

Keeping your parents' advisor is the right answer when the advisor is a fiduciary, fee-only, has worked with clients in your age range and situation, gets the inherited account rules right, and built a relationship with you while your parent was alive. Those advisors exist and they are worth keeping.

If any of those conditions do not hold, the inherited advisor relationship is a default, not a decision. Your inheritance is too consequential to manage by default.

Primary sources cited

• Cerulli Associates, "U.S. High-Net-Worth and Ultra-High-Net-Worth Markets 2025" (September 2025 release on heir advisor retention)
• Harris Poll on inheritance and advisor retention, 2025
• 2024 Kitces Research on Advisor Wellbeing (AUM fee data)
• SEC Regulation Best Interest, 17 CFR 240.15l-1
• Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (fiduciary standard)
• SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database
• FINRA BrokerCheck
• NAPFA fee-only fiduciary standard

Last verified: May 2, 2026 against current SEC, FINRA, and NAPFA standards.

About the author

Kurt Altrichter, CRPS, is the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Ivory Hill, LLC, a fee-only fiduciary registered investment advisory firm based in Edina, Minnesota. He specializes in wealth management for business owners and high-net-worth individuals navigating major financial transitions including inheritance, business sales, and retirement plan design. Kurt is an Investment Adviser Representative under Life Inc. Retirement Services.

To discuss your inheritance or wealth planning situation, contact Kurt at kurt@ivoryhill.com or visit ivoryhill.com.

Apply to work with Kurt https://calendly.com/ivoryhill/discovery

Disclosure

The information provided in this article is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Tax laws and inheritance rules are complex and depend on individual circumstances. Consult with a qualified financial advisor, CPA, and estate attorney before making decisions involving inherited assets. Ivory Hill, LLC is a registered investment adviser. Investment Adviser Representative services offered through Life Inc. Retirement Services.