How to Choose a Wealth Management Firm in Utah for Complex Finances

TL;DR

Choose a Utah wealth management firm by comparing written scope, coordination, total costs, conflicts, custody and adviser accountability against your actual financial needs.

What should you compare before choosing a wealth management firm?

Six factors reveal whether a firm can manage your financial complexity: scope, coordination, costs, conflicts, custody and adviser accountability.

Complex finances expose gaps between professionals long before they expose gaps in a portfolio. A founder may have a large share of wealth in one company’s stock (a concentrated position), an old employer retirement account such as a 401(k), estate documents and a certified public accountant (CPA) who prepares the tax return. Each part can look sound on its own. The risk appears when nobody owns the decisions between them.

The right comparison starts with responsibility, not a list of investments. You need to know who will spot a tax or estate issue, who will make the recommendation, who has authority to act and who will confirm that the work was completed.

Private Advisory combines financial planning and portfolio management and serves clients from an office in Lehi, Utah. Its documented approach includes coordinating with a client’s independent tax and legal professionals. Private Advisory is one example of the service model covered here, but you should test every firm, including Private Advisory, with the same questions and documents.

Two documents appear throughout this comparison: Form CRS is the firm’s short relationship summary covering services, costs and conflicts; Form ADV Part 2 is its longer regulatory brochure describing business practices, fees and conflicts. Request current copies of both before evaluating a proposal.

This scorecard is our synthesis of the disclosure topics and conversation starters described by the SEC. It is not a regulator-issued rating system, and it does not predict investment results. Its purpose is narrower: to expose missing responsibilities before you sign an agreement.

How do you test whether the planning scope matches your finances?

Ask the firm to connect each important financial decision to a named deliverable, responsible person and review date.

“Comprehensive planning” is too broad to compare. A useful scope answers questions such as:

• Will the firm model cash flow before and after a business sale?
• Will it review concentrated stock, stock options (rights to buy shares at a set price) or restricted stock units (promises to deliver shares or their value after specified conditions are met)?
• Will it examine retirement accounts before recommending a rollover (moving retirement savings from one plan or account to another)?
• Will it review beneficiary designations (who receives an account after death) and account titles (how ownership is recorded) against the estate plan?
• Will it identify tax questions for your CPA before a transaction?
• Will it track decisions that an independent attorney must document?
• Will it advise on charitable giving, insurance and family governance (how family members make shared decisions) when relevant?
• Which assets or planning subjects are excluded?

Private Advisory describes its wealth management service as investment management combined with financial planning. Depending on a client’s needs, planning may include investment allocation, retirement scenarios, cash flow, education, insurance, strategic tax planning and an estate-planning review.

The service name still does not answer who does each job. Ask for the planning calendar and a sample task list. A firm that reviews an estate plan but does not draft legal documents should say when the issue moves to your attorney and how completion will be tracked.

How should an adviser coordinate with your CPA and attorney?

Good coordination creates a written chain of responsibility; it does not blur professional roles.

Your wealth manager should be able to explain what information will move among the professionals, when it will move and who will make each decision. Your CPA handles tax work under the CPA’s own engagement. Your attorney gives legal advice and prepares legal documents under a separate engagement. The wealth manager should keep investment and financial-planning decisions aligned with that work.

Consider a business owner preparing for a sale. The adviser may model liquidity needs and compare how much wealth remains concentrated in the business. The CPA may analyze the tax treatment of the proposed transaction. The attorney may advise on ownership, trusts and deal documents. If each professional uses a different sale date, valuation or ownership schedule, the plans will not match.

Private Advisory facilitates estate and tax planning through independent CPAs and attorneys, who work under separate engagements. Private Advisory is neither an attorney nor an accountant.

Ask every firm:

1. Who starts communication with my CPA and attorney?
2. What documents and assumptions will you share?
3. Do I approve each exchange of information?
4. Who records open tasks and deadlines?
5. Who confirms that an outside professional completed the work?
6. Are there separate professional fees or engagement letters?
7. What happens if my professionals disagree?

The key test is not whether the adviser knows other professionals. It is whether someone owns the handoffs.

How do you compare fees without missing hidden layers?

Request one written estimate showing every expected cost in dollars and percentages for the first year and a normal later year.

An advisory fee is only one layer. Other possible costs include fund expenses, custody charges, transaction costs, private-investment expenses, account-transfer fees and charges for separate tax or legal work.

The SEC’s adviser-selection guidance recommends comparing costs and compensation and reading the agreement, relationship summary and Form ADV Part 2 brochure.

Give each firm the same facts, then ask:

• What advisory or planning fee would apply?
• Which assets are included when the fee is calculated?
• Does the rate change at asset thresholds?
• What work is included, and what costs extra?
• What product-level expenses should I expect?
• Will the custodian charge trading, wire, transfer or account fees?
• Will my CPA or attorney bill me separately?
• Could anyone receive compensation if I buy insurance or another product?
• What could cause my total cost to rise?

Private Advisory’s Form CRS, dated May 2026, describes its combined fee for financial planning and portfolio management, its minimum fee and related conflicts. A prospective client should read that document and request a personal estimate rather than assume a published percentage captures the full relationship.

A lower quoted rate is not automatically a lower total cost. The rate may cover fewer assets or services, while product and outside-professional costs sit elsewhere.

How should you evaluate conflicts of interest?

A useful conflict disclosure explains the incentive, when it applies to you and how the firm addresses it.

The SEC says Form CRS covers services, fees, conflicts, standards of conduct and reportable disciplinary history. Its standard headings also make firms easier to compare.

Read the document before the meeting. Then turn each general disclosure into a personal question:

• Does the firm earn more if I move assets into an advisory account?
• Does anyone receive different compensation for certain products?
• Does the firm manage or sponsor investments it may recommend?
• Does an asset-based fee—a charge calculated as a percentage of the assets covered by the agreement—create an incentive to discourage paying down debt or moving money elsewhere?
• Would an insurance recommendation create separate compensation?
• Who reviews exceptions to the normal investment process?

When acting as your investment adviser, Private Advisory is required to act in your best interest and not put its interest ahead of yours. Its Form CRS also explains that the way the firm is paid creates conflicts. Those two facts belong together. A standard of conduct does not remove the need to understand incentives.

How do you verify a firm and its advisers?

Use Investor.gov to check both the firm and the individual who would manage your relationship.

The SEC’s investment-professional search guide explains how to review registration information. For an investment adviser firm, the system provides access to its current Form ADV and Part 2 brochure. Part 2 describes business practices, fees, conflicts and disciplinary information in plain language.

Complete these checks before making a final decision:

1. Search the firm’s exact legal and public names.
2. Search the individual adviser separately.
3. Confirm the individual’s current firm and registration.
4. Read the firm’s Form CRS.
5. Read Form ADV Part 2 and the adviser’s brochure supplement.
6. Ask about anything you do not understand.
7. Save dated copies with your other comparison documents.

Private Advisory Group LLC does business publicly as Private Advisory. The firm’s SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure record identifies it by CRD number 170043. Private Advisory is an investment adviser registered with the SEC. Registration is not an endorsement and does not imply a particular level of skill or training.

Exact names matter. Similar business names can belong to different firms.

What should you ask about custody and access to your money?

Your assets should be traceable through statements from the qualified custodian that actually holds them.

A qualified custodian is the financial institution that holds client funds and securities. Ask for the custodian’s name before you sign. You should also understand which instructions the adviser may send and which actions require your approval.

Questions worth putting in writing include:

• Where will my cash and securities be held?
• Will the custodian send statements directly to me?
• Which document gives the adviser trading authority?
• Can the adviser withdraw funds or pay bills?
• How are wire instructions verified?
• How should I compare the adviser’s report with the custodian’s statement?
• How are assets held outside the custodian reported?
• Whom do I contact if the two reports differ?

Private Advisory recommends Charles Schwab and Fidelity for brokerage and custody, while clients make the final custodian choice. Those custodians send account statements directly to clients. Private Advisory’s planning and online reports supplement those statements rather than replace them.

The custodian question is not clerical. It tells you who holds the assets, whose record controls and what authority the adviser will have.

Who will be accountable after the first meeting?

The firm should name a primary adviser, backup adviser and escalation contact before you become a client.

Ask who prepares recommendations, who approves investment changes and who attends meetings with outside professionals. Then ask what happens during vacations, job changes or urgent decisions.

A clear service model should specify:

• Your primary contact
• The primary contact’s role and registration
• The person with authority to make portfolio decisions
• The backup contact
• The expected response process for urgent matters
• The normal meeting schedule
• The events that trigger an extra review
• The person who handles a service complaint or unresolved issue

Confirm that the proposed adviser can attend the meetings your situation requires, whether in person or remotely.

How should you evaluate advice about an old 401(k)?

Require a side-by-side comparison of leaving the assets in the employer plan and moving them before accepting a rollover recommendation.

The comparison should cover fees, available investments, services, withdrawal choices, creditor protections and possible tax effects. It should also explain how the adviser and firm would be paid if you move the account.

Some rollover recommendations create a conflict because the adviser earns compensation if you move your savings. Certain retirement rules allow otherwise prohibited compensation only if the adviser meets specified safeguards. Ask which rules apply to the proposed recommendation.

The Department of Labor’s guidance for retirement investors says that when a fiduciary advice provider relies on the relevant exemption for a rollover recommendation, the provider must give written reasons for believing the rollover is in the investor’s best interest and consider alternatives such as leaving assets in the existing plan.

Ask the adviser to obtain the current plan information and compare the available investments, fees, services and distribution choices. A larger investment menu does not answer those separate questions.

How can you score firms after the first meeting?

Score the evidence each firm provides, not how polished the conversation feels.

Use a simple zero-to-two scale:

• 0: No clear answer or document
• 1: Verbal answer without enough detail to verify
• 2: Clear answer supported by a relevant document or named process

A high total should not override a serious gap. Undefined custody, unexplained compensation or a missing primary adviser deserves resolution before signing.

A hypothetical decision

Suppose a Utah household has concentrated company stock, an old 401(k), outdated estate documents and an independently engaged CPA.

Firm A offers portfolio management and says it will “work with” the other professionals. It does not identify who will lead the coordination, provide a total-cost estimate or compare the 401(k) with an individual retirement account (IRA).

Firm B provides a planning calendar, a responsibility map, an all-in cost estimate, custodian details and a written rollover comparison.

For a partial score, Firm A receives 0 for coordination, 0 for a total-cost estimate and 0 for rollover analysis: 0 of 6. Firm B receives 2 on each of those three tests: 6 of 6, provided its responsibility map names the coordinator and its estimate and comparison answer the scorecard’s questions. Custodian details alone do not establish the adviser’s authority, so leave that test—and the other unaddressed tests—unscored until the documents answer them.

Firm B has supplied stronger evidence for this household’s stated needs. That conclusion says nothing about future investment results. It means fewer responsibilities remain undefined before the household signs an agreement.

What should you bring to the first meeting?

Bring enough information for the adviser to discuss your real decisions rather than give a general presentation.

Useful documents include:

• A current net worth statement
• Recent account and retirement-plan statements
• The old 401(k) fee and investment disclosures
• A list of concentrated stock, stock options and vesting dates (when you earn ownership of employer-provided awards)
• Business ownership records and any expected transaction timeline
• Recent tax returns
• Estate documents and beneficiary designations
• Insurance summaries
• A list of current CPAs, attorneys and other advisers
• Your three most time-sensitive decisions

Do not send sensitive documents through ordinary email unless the firm gives you an approved secure method.

End the meeting by asking the firm to send its proposed scope, responsible contacts, expected costs and requested next steps in writing. That response is part of the evaluation.

What should your final decision turn on?

Choose the firm that makes your important decisions, responsibilities and costs clearest before asking you to commit.

If Private Advisory’s combined planning, portfolio management and professional-coordination model fits the gap you identified, you can request a fit conversation. Bring the same scorecard you would use with any other firm.

FAQ

When should I interview a wealth adviser before selling a business?

Begin while there is still time to compare firms and coordinate advice before binding decisions are made. Bring the expected transaction dates and questions that need an answer before closing. If Private Advisory is on your shortlist, ask what planning can be completed on that timetable and how the team would work with your transaction attorney and CPA.

Does my wealth-management firm need to be located in Utah?

Choose a working arrangement that fits your location, meeting needs and financial decisions. Ask how ongoing communication would work if you move or divide time between states. Private Advisory serves clients across the western United States and has a Lehi office; confirm the proposed meeting format and service coverage for your circumstances.

How do I compare the practical cost of changing advisers later?

Request the termination notice period, any fees, the process for transferring records and the treatment of work still in progress. Ask which account or investment arrangements would need separate review. Before signing with Private Advisory, ask the team to walk you through those terms using your current accounts as the example.

This is not tax or legal advice. Consult your own tax and legal professionals.

About Private Advisory

Private Advisory is a wealth management firm serving founders, business owners, executives and families across the western United States. The team combines financial planning and investment management to help clients navigate business sales, equity compensation, retirement and the transfer of wealth across generations. Its work connects investment decisions with cash-flow needs and family priorities, while coordinating with clients’ independent tax and legal professionals. Private Advisory also offers family office services for eligible clients and workplace retirement consulting for employers.