Not all investing decisions work out. A good Advisor is forthcoming about mistakes, able to learn from them, and willing to discuss them. It’s wise to ask about plans that fell short or flat-out flopped. The explanation should be more than “it just didn’t perform as expected.” There is no one suitable answer. Investment Advisors are the captains of your investing team. Sometimes the other players don’t do their jobs. The managers of a mutual fund he purchased years ago may have changed, affecting the fund’s results. Or a fund manager might say he follows a certain strategy but doesn’t do so faithfully, which results in “style shift.” So that investment manager who was supposed to be investing in large cap U.S. equities now owns the stocks of smaller international companies.