What questions should you ask a planner in the first meeting?
A first meeting is an interview, and it runs in both directions. Four sets of questions surface everything that matters: the licence, the money, the process, and the fit.
Every question below has a factual, checkable answer — and a good planner will already be volunteering most of them before being asked.
The licence questions
These have right answers, verifiable on the FSCA's public register:
- What is your FSP number? (Every licensed adviser operates under one — and it can be looked up)
- Which categories are you licensed for? (Licensed for insurance is not licensed for investments — the register shows exactly what advice may legally be given)
- Do you hold any designations, like CFP®? (What the letters mean is covered in "What do the letters mean — CFP® and other designations?")
The money questions
Fee structures are disclosable up front — "How much does a financial planner cost in South Africa?" explains each one:
- How are you paid — upfront fee, ongoing percentage, hourly, commission, or a mix?
- For anything you propose: what is the total effective annual cost (EAC), and which line of it is yours?
- If a product pays you commission, which products — and does that differ between the options on the table?
The process questions
These reveal how the planner actually works:
- Do you do a full financial needs analysis before recommending anything? (The FAIS suitability duty requires advice to fit circumstances — a proper stock-take is how circumstances get known)
- How often do we review — and what triggers a review between the scheduled ones?
- What do I receive in writing, and when?
The fit questions
- Who is your typical client? (A planner whose practice is built around people in a similar situation has seen this movie before)
- What does a client relationship with you look like in year three, not just month one?
- What happens if I want to leave — what's tied in, and what moves freely?
Now flip it: the questions a good planner asks you
The most telling data in the first meeting is not the answers — it is the direction of the questions. Suitability is built on facts about the client, so a planner doing the job properly will be gathering them:
- What do you earn, and what does your household cost to run?
- Who depends on your income — and for how long?
- What cover, investments and debts already exist?
- What are the goals — with numbers and dates?
- What has gone wrong with money before, and what would "sorted" look like?
A first meeting that is all product talk and no questions is itself data: nothing suitable can be recommended to a stranger, and the FAIS Act says as much. The planners who ask the most usually turn out to be the ones worth answering — the full picture of what separates them is in "How do you find a really good financial planner?"
Terms used on this page
- FSCA
- The Financial Sector Conduct Authority — South Africa's market-conduct regulator. Its public register shows whether an adviser is licensed, and for which products.
- CFP®
- Certified Financial Planner — a voluntary professional designation administered in South Africa by the Financial Planning Institute (FPI), requiring a postgraduate-level qualification, a board exam, experience and an ethics commitment.
- EAC (effective annual cost)
- South Africa’s standard for disclosing what an investment really costs: one comparable yearly percentage, split into fund management, administration, advice and other costs.
- financial needs analysis (FNA)
- A structured stock-take of income, expenses, assets, liabilities, cover, goals and dependants — the factual base the FAIS suitability duty requires before advice is given.
Reviewed July 2026