Quentin Fottrell

Mon, Jun 2, 2025, 8:00 AM5 min read

My elderly mother has just shy of $1 million in various accounts. I am the trustee of this account. I sent the adviser a message six days ago asking him to reach out to me as multiple CDs have matured and the money is now just sitting in cash. He has not been proactive in reinvesting this cash, which amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I did not hear back from him.

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I called yesterday first thing in the morning and left a message with his assistant as he was “on the other line.” No callback yesterday, nothing today and after office hours on the East Coast.   My own adviser gets back to me within 24 hours, so I am not used to this way of doing business and, quite honestly, I am getting very frustrated.

What do you feel is a reasonable time frame for a callback from a financial adviser?

Fed Up

Related: I begged my adviser to sell amid the market turmoil. He dragged his feet and I lost $20,000. Do I have any recourse?

If he’s too busy to get back to you, he’s too busy to manage your mother’s money.

For an account this large — or any size, for that matter — you should expect a callback within one business day. Ideally, a few hours. Yes, it’s always good to give people grace. He could be in a long meeting, dealing with a family matter or putting out a fire at work. You are entrusting him with your mother’s money and, if he does not take the client-adviser relationship seriously enough to get back to you within one or two — certainly less than six days — I would seriously question his judgement and ability to manage your mother’s money. It’s a sign that he either doesn’t care enough and/or is unable to stay on top of his duties. Either way, it’s not your problem anymore. Move your mother’s account to another adviser or, if necessary, another bank.

Poor communication is one of many reasons to fire (or consider firing) your financial adviser. In fact, 12.1% of people said they left their adviser for failure to communicate, per this survey by Financial Advisor Magazine. Other reasons included cost (16.3%), the adviser’s retirement (13.5%), failure to listen (10%), disappointing performance (10%), different values (6%), ineffective advice (5.7%) and bad rapport (2.8%). Nearly a quarter of those polled gave other reasons, which just goes to show: your relationship with your adviser can be as fraught and complicated as every other relationship in your life. “People have diverse needs, and many things drive their behavior,” the magazine said.