But sometimes it may pay to hire somebody to help. Big life events, for instance, may change your financial picture in a way that technology can’t tackle. Milestones such as marriage, the birth of a child or an impending retirement are often a reason to meet with a financial adviser since your money and tax situation may change. Other self-directed investors might find themselves unsettled by inflation or volatile markets and could use an adviser to help them craft a plan to navigate the unfamiliar.

The advice doesn’t come cheap—a traditional fee equal to 1% of your managed assets means you’re paying $5,000 a year on a $500,000 portfolio, though there are an increasing number of lower-fee alternatives. Still, whether you’re new to investing or are a longtime saver, there may be times when you could benefit from a financial adviser, as a sounding board for your own plans if not outright guidance.

Here are four questions to help you decide whether to hire an adviser.

1. Am I where I need to be with my retirement savings?

If the answer is no and you’re not sure how to get on track, then a financial adviser could be in order. A professional planner can look holistically at your contributions, asset allocation and spending and map out a good long-term strategy and calculate what annualized return you may need over time so you take an appropriate amount of risk.

A financial adviser also can review other financial-wellness offerings at your workplace that may help you tackle multiple goals, such as juggling how to pay off debt and other savings goals.

Taking advantage of a workplace retirement plan like a 401(k) and saving enough to receive matching contributions from an employer may not be sufficient to reach a long-term savings goal like retirement, says Marni Gibson, president of the North American Securities Administrators Association.

In addition to looking at your personal contributions and spending, a financial adviser may also look at the impact of other investments on your total portfolio, such as company stock. Many people have too much of their employer’s stock in their portfolio, and a financial adviser may suggest a different savings and investment strategy to bolster long-term growth while cutting risk.

“Maybe there are other opportunities within your workplace plan that you’re just not aware of because you have done the same thing for so long and it’s worked,” Gibson says.

2. Am I ready to retire?

While saving money isn’t always easy, it is straightforward; you have years to accumulate wealth, and small mistakes made along the way won’t necessarily wreck your chances of long-term success. However, when you get close to retirement, there are complicated questions that arise and making mistakes can wreck your financial outlook.

A financial adviser can work with preretirees to map out spending, when to claim Social Security, how much to withdraw in both up and down markets, which assets to tap first and how taxes figure into all of that.

Christine Benz, director of personal finance and retirement planning for investment-research company Morningstar, says one area where DIY investors often struggle is with portfolio-drawdown strategies. Many people often rely on popular guidelines such as withdrawing 4% of your portfolio annually, but that isn’t a plan, she says.

“This is not back-of-the-envelope time,” Benz says. “You really need someone who is going to put some precision around how much you can reasonably spend, and ideally your retirement spending would change a little bit throughout your retirement time horizon.”

Another reason to see a financial adviser before you retire is to plan a strategy on how to manage the annual withdrawals known as required minimum distributions—taken from traditional individual 401(k) or individual retirement accounts—and mitigate tax burdens in retirement, says Gerri Walsh, senior vice president of investor education at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Those mandatory withdrawals become taxable and depending on how much other income you receive, you may inadvertently push yourself into a higher tax bracket.

“Thinking ahead to map that out is best done in advance, before the first actual withdrawal,” she says.

3. Will I always be able to manage my investments?

If you have a high level of investment knowledge and dedicate time to research and manage your investments, you may not need a financial adviser initially. As investments become more complex, you’ll need to ask yourself if you can continue to pay attention to the fees you’re paying and the risks involved, Walsh says.

“If you are thinking of more complex strategies, [do you know] the tax implications, and do you have a strong enough grounding and understanding of long-term capital gains, short-term capital gains,” she says.

For others, there may come a time when you can no longer handle your portfolio due to age, cognitive decline or a hectic schedule.

Even if you plan to be fully engaged with managing money into retirement, a financial adviser could be a fail-safe if you can no longer make sound decisions. Benz says her adviser has all of her and her husband’s documents and plans and can temporarily take over handling finances if needed.

4. Am I ready to listen to the advice?

Sonya Lutter, a financial psychologist and founder of the Institute for Systemic Financial Professionals, says before seeking financial advice, ask yourself a two-part question: How important is it to change your behavior, and how confident are you that you will change?

Rate your answers on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the most important, she says. That will determine how likely you are to benefit from the advice. “Unless the answer is five or higher in importance…you’re wasting your time and money” seeing an adviser, she says.