I was reading an article online about how to research a good financial advisor, where a reader posed the question, “I want an advisor who puts their money where their mouth is. I want an advisor who believes in the portfolio they’re recommending so much that they invest their own money in it. Where can I find an advisor like this?”

I was instantly intrigued because this is me to a tee. This is a sentiment I couldn’t agree with more.

The solution offered by the writer was to reach out to SmartAsset, a business that connects investors with financial advisors.  And then I read the comment section to see how readers responded. One comment said, “No advisor does this. It doesn’t exist. Just buy index funds like Warren Buffett says, and you’ll be better off than hiring an advisor.”

There’s so much inaccurate information online that I’m used to it, and I’m usually better at accepting the internet for what it is and moving past it, but this article and the comments got under my skin, so I made the mistake of trying to clarify some things in the comment section. There were three errors to address:

1. This kind of advisor does exist, and I am one of them.
2. SmartAsset is only connecting you to advisors who are paying to be recommended.
3. Investing in index funds will not leave you better off than hiring a good financial advisor.

The moderator deleted my comment and informed me that I cannot market my own business on their platform without paying to market there. That’s when I realized SmartAsset paid them to recommend SmartAsset. The whole article may have been made up just as an advertisement for SmartAsset. Now there was even more I needed to disclose to the readers, but that platform was adamant to silence me, so I had to remind myself that this is how the internet works, and that’s why I have my own platform where I can share my own honest perspective.

So here is what I want you to know:

SmartAsset reached out to me and let me know that if I pay them enough, they will say nice things about me. My response was that I only want people saying nice things about me because they believe it, not because they were paid to. I’d prefer to let the quality of my services speak for themselves.

If you want an advisor who puts their money where their mouth is, I’m your huckleberry. The primary reason I opened my firm was so that I could invest my clients’ money for them exactly how I invest my own. I turned my personal investment portfolio into the flagship growth portfolio model at Northshore Wealth Management, and any updates I make to that model are made to all investors mirroring that portfolio in real time.

Is that front running? No. I make updates to the model, and all investors in that model see those updates reflected in their own portfolios in unison. I am an investor in the model just like my clients, so my portfolio updates when everyone’s does.

Is that the only model I recommend? No. I’m still in the growth phase of my wealth-building journey, so a focused growth strategy is where I belong, but not every investor is in the growth phase. A growth strategy doesn’t suit everyone. I’ll help you determine what a suitable strategy and portfolio are for the phase you’re in, the goals you have, or how seaworthy your legs will be when the sailing gets rough.

Will you be better off buying index funds on your own? No. Warren Buffett says index investing is good for people who don’t have a better option. Using in-depth fundamental analysis to uncover which stocks are poised to outperform the others and concentrating your portfolio into those stocks is the better option, in Warren’s own words, and that was Warren’s own strategy that made him wealthy, not index funds. That is the strategy that I learned from studying Warren Buffett, and that is the strategy I have had much success with, and that is the strategy I recommend to my clients who are seeking growth. I’m investing their money where I’m investing my own. I’d like the quality of my work to speak for itself without anyone being paid to say nice things about it.

SmartAsset isn’t going to recommend that you talk to me because I’m not paying them to. I recommend that you research advisors to find out on your own who is good, not just who has paid people to say they are good.