Financial Planner - Fee to Create Financial Plan

[tmm99]

What I did recently was to sign up for PlanVision. It was cheap (around $260 in 2023. It looks like it's $299 now, plus $8/mo after one year.) I signed up for a cross-border (Canada/US) fee-only CFP for $400/mo with a one-year commitment ($4,800) a year ago, and he was useless. (I asked the contract to be terminated earlier, at the 6 month-mark, and he agreed so I was glad about that.) PlanVision is much cheaper, and for me, it's definitely worth it.

I recommend that you may give PlanVision a try although I haven't utilized their service much yet (been too busy/too lazy) because I was pleasantly surprised by the responsiveness of the founder Mark Zoril. They use eMoney and you need to go through their instruction videos and enter all your information the way Mark wants it - I believe this tool is the same tool Fidelity provides on their website. I could link most of my accounts except for my Canadian accounts but I could still specify holdings in my Canadian brokerage firms so the values would update automatically. (The videos showed how to do all that.) Interestingly, Mark Zoril is the founder and he's the person who has responded to me every time. He even followed up on my to-do list asking for updates. I was amazed!

Anyway, once I was done, I let them know and they tweaked my SS values, changed the spending models per my request (I wanted to use my 401K before Roth IRA) and they asked me to set up an initial meeting after I sent over what I wanted to know. Mark (via online meeting) was succinct, knew exactly what I wanted and made appropriate recommendations. I had a 30-minute consult after that and we went over some other things. He records all our meetings and sends them to me. Any subsequent questions I emailed, he responded very quickly in a video format. His asset allocation recommendations were very very basic stuff which I wanted (only a few for each account I had) and I think that's his style anyway, from his videos I've watched. I imagine I could utilize him more, but I have been side-tracked with other things, and I haven't. He has already done much more than what I paid for IMHO.

My advice is to utilize someone like that that is much cheaper first and see where you may want to go next. I've used a fee-only CFP decades ago and I found him helpful because I knew almost nothing then. It's hard to pay $4,800 (for example) for mediocre advice at this point, as I know a whole lot more now and not many people would look/sound brilliant.

 

[Koolau]

You might try https://www.napfa.org/.

Do we know if folks who are NAPFA certified refrain from selling? I would want a true "fee only" person if I were to ever hire a financial planner.


Regards.

 

[ncbill]

$200? That seems outrageous. The link contains this statement:
“If you only want a local advisor, the Advice-Only Directory isn’t a good choice for you. “

…so I am not sure who would use this service, maybe a regional or small national broker?

You'll be paying around 10x that fee for the advisor's plan itself, so it's a small finder's fee in comparison.

You can get a 'free' plan from a broker who charges 1% or more AUM fee.

Remember that's $10,000 per $1,000,000...in perpetuity.

 

[jpjr]

Final Review prior to retirement

We have always been proactive when it comes to self-managing our finances. We took courses together, utilized several different calculators and thought of ourselves as pretty astute about our plans. However, a year before we took the dive into early retirement, we went to an advisor to give us a final check up. In our case, we found the person who was a local advisor who had been a regular on a PBS show that highlighted different opinions on finances by different moderators. She gave us several different options regarding taking pensions vs lump sum payments as well as anticipating the effects of taking SS at different dates, and even anticipated what different AA might look like. She projected our net worth for 30 years utilizing the different options. We did learn some things that were reassuring as well as identified some pitfalls that some of the scenarios might incur. That was 15 years ago, and every once in awhile I take the report out and see how we currently stack up. (we are better) We did not follow every piece of advice, but the outline was sufficient for us to feel comfortable with our decision to retire early. I believe we spent around 3k for the reports.

 

[RetiredHappy]

Instead of paying someone for a plan, I have a spreadsheet that runs out about 30 years, with more granularity for the first 15 years. It has all anticipated investments (and growth), income and spending by year. I have another one that is by month for the next 10 years. We also know when we each take our SS.

I also use the free Fidelity Retirement Planning tool to plug in all our expenses and income to confirm that we are in great shape.

I spend a few minutes on my spreadsheets everyday.

 

[Alchemist253]

Two sets of eyes

I am an engineering consultant. One lesson that I have learned is that it pays to have two sets of eyes to look at anything that goes to a client. An educated second opinion on your financial plan just makes sense. Hiring a fee only certified financial planner is the way to go, IMHO. [Mod Edit]

 

[rayvt]

Our experience was quite different.

We went to one FA after a seminar, showed him all our accounts, 401K, IRA, etc. He looked it over and said, "You don't need me, you are doing just fine and you can safely retire."

Another one, we just found in the phone book and made an appointment for $200 or so for an hour. He went over all our stuff and said, "I cannot in good faith take your $200, there is nothing I can do for you that you are not already doing."

 

[meleana]

We used a guy affiliated with the Garrett Network. The plan was something like $1200 if I remember correctly. He then had different plans for ongoing assistance. We chose to do a yearly retainer for unlimited guidance for our first few years of retirement. $1000 annually. We are at a point now where we pay hourly as needed . $250.

 

[SDHiker]

Go to https://www.letsmakeaplan.org/ to find a Certified Financial Planner. Ours is worth every penny we paid him. We do not worry about our finances or our income, have yearly status meetings, and often get calls when they want to change investments.

 

[Lstansbury]

I've been looking for this service for 2 years. Every single time it's become a pitch for AUM. Or an Annuity. Every.Single.D**n.Time. Or the people who my CPA recommended who supposedly might still do it for a fee only? They don't return my calls.

Definitely following this thread.

 

[I am He]

Every form advisor's ADV I've read states that fees are negotiable. But they're going to ask you for a full fee every time. They won't get it unless they do.

Your job is the opposite: to ask for a plan for a reasonable fee. Let's say you think $1000 is reasonable. They shouldn't need to take more than 4-6 hours and be happy to take your thousand bucks.

What I've seen and read is that all their fancy dancy software will do is to see if your plan is feasible (in other words, you're over funded, barely funded or underfunded)? From there, they're going to draft a 5-10 year detailed spreadsheet which any of us here are capable of. For that, you've paid your $1000 or more...in the case of Roger, the Retirement Ans. Man, $8,000.

Just like up until a few hours ago, all RE brokers asked for a standard (6% sales) fee. But from now on it's going to be negotiated separately. All CFPs ask for 1-1.5% of AUM because that 's what they all do. But the good ones separate the fees to make a plan and to manage your assets. Some only do the plans for a set fee but often they're around $5k. I think they're worth something but more in the $1-1.5k range.


My thoughts are to hire a CPA for an hour or two to get tax savy advice and skip the rest.

 

[Koolau]

Every form advisor's ADV I've read states that fees are negotiable. But they're going to ask you for a full fee every time. They won't get it unless they do.

Your job is the opposite: to ask for a plan for a reasonable fee. Let's say you think $1000 is reasonable. They shouldn't need to take more than 4-6 hours and be happy to take your thousand bucks.

What I've seen and read is that all their fancy dancy software will do is to see if your plan is feasible (in other words, you're over funded, barely funded or underfunded)? From there, they're going to draft a 5-10 year detailed spreadsheet which any of us here are capable of. For that, you've paid your $1000 or more...in the case of Roger, the Retirement Ans. Man, $8,000.

Just like up until a few hours ago, all RE brokers asked for a standard (6% sales) fee. But from now on it's going to be negotiated separately. All CFPs ask for 1-1.5% of AUM because that 's what they all do. But the good ones separate the fees to make a plan and to manage your assets. Some only do the plans for a set fee but often they're around $5k. I think they're worth something but more in the $1-1.5k range.


My thoughts are to hire a CPA for an hour or two to get tax savy advice and skip the rest.

I haven't found CPAs (my tax accountants) to be particularly good at financial planning. They know TAXES and I've occasionally got some good advice on tax issues from a CPA who does taxes for a living. Actual financial planning - not so much. BUT YMMV.