Choosing a Financial Advisor in the Netherlands: Expat Checks

What to check and where

These checks tell you whether an adviser is allowed to advise you, what you will pay and where you can go if it goes wrong. Each one is on a public website.

The AFM’s own advice is simple: do not do business with a firm the AFM has warned about, because you risk being defrauded and losing money (AFM, checked 31 October 2026).

Which adviser for which question?

“Financial advisor” covers several different professionals in the Netherlands. Pick the one that matches your question, because the licence, the fee rules and the comparison card differ per product.

If you mainly want to invest in ETFs yourself and do not need advice, the platform comparison in our investing guide for expats sets DEGIRO and other platforms side by side, with Box 3 tax explained.

How to check an adviser in the AFM register

Financial advisers and financial firms must hold a licence when they offer you advice or products (AFM, checked 31 October 2026). The AFM’s Check je aanbieder search shows whether a provider, intermediary or adviser has a licence and whether the AFM has issued a warning about it.

Can’t find the firm? The AFM gives four possible reasons:

1. The search does not yet contain every firm. All warnings are in it, but not every licence registration; the AFM’s separate licence registers (vergunningenregisters) cover all types of firm.
2. The name is spelled differently. Ask the firm for the exact name under which it holds its licence, or for its AFM licence number.
3. The provider uses an exemption. Ask the firm to explain, and contact the AFM’s Meldpunt Financiële Markten if in doubt.
4. It is an illegal firm that should have a licence and does not. You can report it to the AFM.

Look in the right register. In the AFM’s licence registers, mortgage advisers, insurance advisers and consumer credit advisers sit under financial service providers (financiële dienstverleners), while firms that help you invest individually sit under investment firms (beleggingsondernemingen). The investment firm register also lists firms with a European passport and from countries outside the EU, which matters if you are looking at a wealth manager with offices in several countries: check that the firm appears in that register for the Netherlands (AFM vergunningenregisters, checked 31 October 2026).

Fee-based or commission: how you pay a Dutch adviser

Before the commission ban (provisieverbod) took effect on 1 January 2013, clients usually paid for advice through commission or a surcharge built into the product price (AFM, uitgangspunten provisieverbod, checked 4 November 2026). Today, for the products below, the provider may not pay the adviser and the advice cost may not be built into the product.

The ban now covers advice and mediation on a payment protection policy, a complex product, a mortgage, individual disability insurance (arbeidsongeschiktheidsverzekering), term life insurance (overlijdensrisicoverzekering), a premium pension product and funeral insurance (Besluit Gedragstoezicht financiële ondernemingen Wft, article 86c). For investment services to retail clients, a separate rule says an investment firm gives or receives no commission, unless the client pays it directly or one of a few narrow exceptions applies (article 168a of the same decree).

Commission from the provider is still allowed for a limited group: savings accounts, non-life insurance (schadeverzekeringen) and consumer credit (AFM, checked 31 October 2026).

What that means for you in practice, according to the AFM:

• You pay the adviser directly, by the hour, at a fixed fee or through a subscription.
• You pay even without a product. Once you sign the agreement on the adviser’s fee, you owe it, also if you decide not to take out a product.
• The fee may not be “manifestly unreasonable” (kennelijk onredelijk). What is reasonable depends on the service, including how many hours the adviser works for you and how much preparation you can do yourself.
• A first orientation conversation does not have to be charged to you directly.
• A service subscription is optional. An adviser can offer aftercare through a periodic subscription, but cannot make you take one. Without it, you may pay separately for later services, or the adviser may end the relationship.

The FFP gives the same picture for financial planners: there is no single price for a financial plan, it depends on how complex your situation is, and you agree the price in advance, either a fixed amount or per hour (ffp.nl, checked 4 November 2026).

The vergelijkingskaart: your comparison card

For products under the commission ban, the adviser must give you a vergelijkingskaart before giving advice, and must publish it on their website if they have one (Bgfo article 86f; AFM, checked 31 October 2026). All advisers use the same standard document, so you can lay two side by side. There are four types: for a mortgage question, building up wealth, employer pension and covering risks.

The card tells you, among other things:

• whether the adviser advises, and whether that advice is on an independent basis;
• whether they advise only on their own products or also on those of other providers;
• whether they are contractually tied to one or more providers;
• for an adviser who does not also sell products: the average fee they charge for the service and how they charge it;
• whether they can do other work for you after the contract is signed, and how that is charged.

Ask for the vergelijkingskaart of two or three advisers before your first meeting. The average fee on it is an average; the AFM notes that your own bill can come out higher or lower, so ask.

What “independent” means under Dutch rules

An adviser cannot call any advice independent. Under article 86f of the Bgfo, advice is on an independent basis only if the adviser assesses a sufficient number of products available on the market that are diverse enough in type and provider, and those products do not come only from the adviser itself or from providers it is closely linked to (for example through a qualifying holding). For investment firms giving advice on financial instruments, article 58a sets a comparable test, and the firm must tell you beforehand whether its advice is independent, whether it is based on a broad or a more limited analysis, and whether you will receive a periodic suitability assessment.

A bank or insurer usually advises only on its own products, while an independent adviser includes products from several providers (AFM, checked 31 October 2026). Neither is wrong; just know which one you are talking to.

Wealth management or advice: who decides?

The search terms vary (wealth manager, wealth strategist, private banker), but the legal question is who makes the investment decision.

• Portfolio management (vermogensbeheer): the investment firm decides, within a mandate you and the firm agree in advance. The AFM’s view is that the investment decision must always lie with the firm.
• Investment advice: you make the decision. As soon as you decide on a transaction yourself, even once, the AFM no longer treats that transaction as portfolio management but as investment advice, order execution or both.

Each of these is a separate investment service, and the AFM expects a firm to hold a licence for each service it provides (AFM sector letter on the scope of individual portfolio management, 3 February 2021, checked 4 November 2026). So if a firm offers both, check that its registration covers both.

Choose portfolio management if you want to hand over day-to-day decisions and are comfortable with a mandate. Choose advice if you want to keep the final say. Choose neither if you are happy to build a simple ETF portfolio yourself; then the investment platforms for expats are the place to compare costs.

Financial planners and the CFP title

For “holistic” or family wealth questions, such as retirement, a house for your children, starting a business or an inheritance, the Netherlands has financial planners. According to the FFP, a certified financial planner looks at all aspects of your finances rather than one product, includes long-term wishes, risks and goals, and brings in specialists from their network where needed, for example for pension, investments, divorce or inheritance (ffp.nl, checked 4 November 2026).

The FFP keeps the public CFP register. A planner in it carries the title CFP after their name and may use the CFP logo. To qualify, a planner must complete the CFP training, meet permanent education requirements every year and follow the FFP’s code of conduct. The FFP says around 3,000 planners are registered as CFP; they work at independent advisory firms or at banks, insurers, asset managers, accountancy firms and financial advice firms. You can check a name in the register through ffp.nl.

The FFP calls CFP a quality mark (keurmerk); it is not an AFM licence. If the planner also advises on or arranges financial products, the AFM licence check above still applies.

If something goes wrong: Kifid

Kifid (Klachteninstituut Financiële Dienstverlening) handles complaints about financial products and services, such as insurance and mortgages. The route, according to Kifid (checked 28 October 2026):

1. Complain to the firm first, through its internal complaints procedure.
2. You can go to Kifid if the firm does not respond within 8 weeks, or if you are not satisfied with its answer.
3. File with Kifid within one year of first reporting the complaint to the firm, or within three months of its final rejection.
4. Kifid only handles complaints against affiliated firms; check this in its dienstverlenersregister before you sign.

For consumers, filing a complaint and treatment by Kifid’s Geschillencommissie are free. An appeal to the Commissie van Beroep costs €500. The ruling is usually a binding advice that both you and the firm must follow.

Changed your mind after signing?

If you took out a financial product away from the firm’s premises or at a distance (online or by phone), you often have a cooling-off period: 14 calendar days to cancel without penalty or reason, and 30 days for life insurance. Cancel in writing and on time. The cooling-off period also applies to a product taken out during an advice meeting, but the advice costs can still be charged (AFM, checked 31 October 2026).

Tax advice is a different profession

Tax questions, such as your first Dutch return, the M form or the 30% ruling, belong with a belastingadviseur. The AFM licence requirement is about financial services and products such as mortgages, insurance, investments and credit (AFM, checked 31 October 2026). The Register Belastingadviseurs (RB) states that belastingadviseur is not a legally protected profession and that anyone can practise it (rb.nl, checked 31 October 2026). Membership of a professional body is what you check instead. Our guide to choosing a tax advisor as an expat covers when you need one, the NOB and RB, and the fees two expat tax firms publish.

How to choose, in short

• Buying a home: an AFM-licensed mortgage adviser; compare vergelijkingskaarten and pay a fixed fee you agreed in writing.
• Investing with help: a licensed investment firm; decide first whether you want advice (you decide) or portfolio management (the firm decides).
• A full plan for retirement or family wealth: a CFP-registered planner, plus the AFM check if they also arrange products.
• Tax: a belastingadviseur who is a member of the NOB or the RB.
• In every case: AFM licence, Kifid affiliation and the fee in writing before the work starts.

One mistake to avoid: skipping the register check because an adviser was recommended in an expat group or works in English. Neither tells you whether the firm holds a licence.