A plain guide to finding financial advice in Boise.

The options

More advisors in Boise than ever. They’re not all the same.

Boise’s population has grown a great deal over the past decade, and its financial services sector has grown with it. There are more advisors, more firms, and more options than there were five years ago. But “financial advisor” is a broad term that covers a wide range of business models, compensation structures, and levels of obligation to the client.

Before choosing anyone, including Koinos, it pays to know what you’re actually choosing.

Key terms

What the words actually mean.

Doing your homework

Questions worth asking any financial planner in Boise.

Before working with any financial planner, including Koinos, these are reasonable questions to ask. A good advisor will answer them directly. Tap any question for what to listen for in the answer.

• Are you a fiduciary? Will you confirm that in writing?

  A good answer is an immediate, unhedged yes, and they should be willing to put it in writing without you having to ask twice. Hesitation, a qualifier like “I’m a fiduciary when...,” or a pivot to vaguer language about always acting in your interest is worth pressing on. Koinos’s own answer to this question, and what the fiduciary standard actually requires, is on the FAQ page.

• How are you compensated? Do you earn commissions or referral fees from any source?

  Listen for a complete, specific answer: exactly how they’re paid, by whom, and whether anything beyond what you pay directly changes hands. “Fee-based” or “mostly fee-only” leaves room for commissions; a fee-only planner will say so plainly and can point you to where the fee schedule is published. See what fee-only rules out, and Koinos’s own published fee schedule, on the FAQ and services page.

• What is your minimum to work with a client?

  A direct number, or a direct “no minimum,” is a good answer. If it takes several questions about your situation before a number comes out, that’s usually a sales conversation rather than a straight one. Koinos, for comparison, sets no asset minimum for ongoing planning.

• Are you registered with the SEC or a state regulator? What is your CRD number?

  They should give you the CRD number on the spot, not after checking. You can then verify it yourself at adviserinfo.sec.gov in under a minute, so there’s no reason this should be hard to get. Koinos’s own CRD number and registration are listed on the About page, verifiable the same way.

• Have you had any disciplinary actions or client complaints? (Check IAPD.)

  The honest answer is verifiable independently on IAPD or BrokerCheck regardless of what they tell you, so treat any reluctance to have you check for yourself as an answer in itself. Koinos answers this same question on the FAQ page, with a direct link to its own record.

• What does a typical client engagement look like? What do I actually get?

  A good answer describes concrete deliverables and a timeline: what you’ll receive, how many meetings, what happens after the first one. A vague description of “an ongoing relationship” with no specifics is harder to hold anyone to later. Koinos lays out exactly what each of its own engagements includes, from a single question to full ongoing planning, on the services page.

• Who will I be working with? Will I ever be handed off to someone else?

  A good answer names the actual person you’ll work with, says plainly whether that changes as your account grows or your point of contact gets promoted, and doesn’t dodge the question. It’s also why every Koinos client works with Mathew directly, with no hand-off to an associate as the relationship grows.

• What is your fee structure, and where is it published?

  It should already be written down somewhere you can read before you ever pick up the phone, not delivered verbally in a way that’s hard to compare or remember later. If it isn’t published anywhere, that’s useful information too. Koinos’s own fee schedule is published in full on the services page.

About Koinos Financial

What Koinos offers, specifically.