As you get to that magical point in your life when you're about ready to let your money work for you instead of the other way around, you might find the task of managing that nest egg a bit daunting. Even if you've never considered it before, you might realize you need the help of an investment advisor now.

You've come a long way. You've earned enough to secure your future. You don't want to risk making a wrong step now. You certainly want to take advantage of any strategies which will preserve your wealth while minimizing taxes. This is what investment advisors do. They're trained to help you navigate the complexity of managing your portfolio.

Investment advisors help you to get the most out of your money during the time of your life when your money is working for you.

If you decide to work with an investment advisor, whether a Certified Financial Planner, or any number of other professional designations, you will want to do a little research. Just as you would read an annual report or an investment prospectus for a prospective investment, you should seek out whatever information is on file for anyone with whom you are considering as an investment advisor.

Fortunately for you, there is one place where this information is on file - the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website. It is an online repository maintained by the SEC where investment advisory firms must disclose the nature of their business. This includes important things you'll want to know such as:

• How they make money - where are the fees, and
• Whether this advisory or any of its affiliates has a disciplinary history

This information, and much more, is in every investment advisory firm's Form ADV, which they must file with the SEC and with the state(s) in which they do business. At the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site you can search for an investment adviser firm and view that firm’s Form ADV. The “Investment Adviser Search” menu item you'll want to use is in the navigation menu on the left.

Unfortunately for now you can only search for investment adviser firms, and not individual investment advisors. The SEC plans to add the ability to search for investment advisors themselves in the future. It's not everything but it's a great start. You can tell a lot about a person by the company he/she keeps. The Investment Advisor Public Disclosure site will certainly give you a good start in researching candidate firms to manage your retirement portfolio.