Banks or independent advisors provide investment advice to individuals about which funds to invest in.

The most important steps of the investment consultation are:

- Establishing a client profile,
- Making a recommendation;
- Documenting the recommendations. 

To create a complete client profile, a lot of information needs to be collected. This includes information about the client's financial goals, financial situation, previous experience, and risk tolerance.  Based on this information, advisors match the client's needs with the products they offer and record their recommendation process in a suitability statement. This process might seem complex, but it is necessary in order to ensure customers can make informed decisions.

In the European Union, the guidelines for investment advice are mainly determined by the Financial Markets Directive MiFID II.