How to find a Fee-Based, One-Time CFP Reviewer

[MikeD]

My wife is about to retire. I am already retired and on social security. She would like to get a one time review of our situation before committing to quitting her job.

I have been tracking our expenses for ten years at least. Our expenses are pretty accurate. When I subtract social security payments from our expenses, we are at 3.52% WR. I, especially, do not expect to live longer than 20 years.

We have some questions that she would like to hear an opinion about from someone other than me.

She wants to know if she can retire and when to take her SS. Also she would like to know which to spend down first, 401k or ordinary money.

We will use Vanguard's advice for asset allocation.

So, the actual question of this post is: How to find a CFP-type of financial planner who is a fiduciary who would give us a one-time fee-based review.

We are Googling but do not know how to interpret the results and find such a person.

Thanks,
Mike D. in Virginia

 

[Scrapr]

https://www.garrettplanningnetwork.com/

Try these people. Sometimes it's hard to find a planner with room in their schedule though

We did the same thing a couple years ago. Mrs Scrapr wanted a 2nd opinion on my work. aka: doesn't believe my line of patter

 

[joeea]

Start here:

Financial Advisors & Planning Professionals | CFP - Let's Make a Plan

 

[braumeister]

Just read their websites carefully when looking to choose one. I went through this drill a few years ago and every single "fee based" planner in my area actually had a "percent of assets" fee. Some of them were so weasel-worded that it was hard to find that information. I remember one in particular that insisted on a percent of every single asset of every kind, not just the ones he would be managing. So this is definitely a "caveat emptor" situation.

Best of luck.

 

[SumDay]

We found ours years ago through Napfa.org

She is truly fee only,and would be giddy if someone gave her 10 years of expenses. We go about every other year for a tune up. It helps me sleep.

 

[donheff]

I did this when I retired years ago. I handed the planner a financial plan that I drew up that listed all of our holdings, our expenses by category, our expected income (pension, SSS), our planned changes to AA, our planned SWR, including which funds we would tap first (taxable equities in our case). This allowed me to get the most efficient use of her time since she did not have to help me gather the data she would need. After review she blessed my plan and suggested some tweaks to AA. And, of course, she suggested we establish an ongoing relationship so she could help us stick to our plan.

 

[Toocold]

Can also try this:

https://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/

 

[ncbill]

I paid $200 for a recommendation of 3 advisors (Harry actually found 4)

https://adviceonlyfinancial.com/how-to-find-advice-only

 

[braumeister]

I paid $200 for a recommendation of 3 advisors (Harry actually found 4)

What was your impression of the advisors he recommended?
Did you go with one of them?

 

[haha]

If in doubt, don't

Since the "advisor" knows nothing that you don't know or could learn in a few hours online, but the advisor will cost money, do the smart thing and stay put.

An extra years work will beat the best advisor you might ever find.

Ha