58 yrs of age retiring on 9/30/15 after downsizing from lake home

[Jackietime]

We are not rich but with careful attention to expenses we should be fine...no debts, about $1.2M. I want my husband to retire when I do and he probably will. We sold our home on the lake with acreage a couple years ago and are now enjoying the city life....walking just about everywhere. Though I have been managing our investments for quite a while, we have been thinking about using Vanguard Personal Advisory Service to get advice and be less hands on. Anyone on here use them?

 

[Bamaman]

Congratulations on your pending retirement. You're very fortunate to live in a city with very inexpensive housing--where you can actually retire at a reasonable age and keep your current standard of living. (We left Atlanta 10 years ago after overdosing on rush hour traffic.)


I cannot help you with Vanguard. I have an advisor at Fidelity in Sandy Springs, and he's been of no help to me. I finally bought a bunch of ETF's through Fidelity to cut the commission to 1/6th of what my mutual are costing me. I still feel paying a CFP without any interest in commissions would be a better option.

 

[golfnut]

Not sure if you are aware of this but if you have $1mm or more with Vanguard, you can get an free portfolio review by a Vanguard cfp. Can get areview done by them once a year.

 

[Palmtree]

That's a twist because we just retired and moved from metro Atlanta to a lake house.

No direct experience with Vanguard Personal Advisory Service but I have heard good things about them. They are one of the few advisory services I would trust. I have a "if I get hit by a bus" letter for my wife and they are the advisory service I have in the letter to use in case I'm suddenly no longer around.

I don't know if Vanguard is still giving the free financial plans with assets over 1 mil or not. There was talk of them going away. Would not hurt to give a call and find out.

 

[DEC-1982]

Congratulations on your retiring soon.

I have had my funds with Vanguard (since 1989) but I have not used their Personal Advisory Service. Generally speaking, I have a very high opinion of Vanguard (the company) and consider them trustworthy. YMMV.

 

[Likes_to_Lurk]

I believe that Vanguard has done away with the free financial plan.

You can check the Bogleheads forum for some input on Vanguard's Advisory Services.

You could try a fee-based planner for a check-up and then use a target date fund at Vanguard. It might work out cheaper.

 

[Cooked]

I believe that Vanguard has done away with the free financial plan.

You can check the Bogleheads forum for some input on Vanguard's Advisory Services.

You could try a fee-based planner for a check-up and then use a target date fund at Vanguard. It might work out cheaper.

If you are a Flagship Client (more than $1mm) then you can get a free checkup. We expect to see our results from our first checkup early next week. This will be some sort of software generated plan. We will review it for 10 days and then get back and talk with the FP. So far there is no pressure to use their managed services.

 

[jabbahop]

we used our Vanguard CFP (free as we had over $1M with Vanguard) as we transitioned from our percentage based planner. I really appreciated the plan and the discussion as I was just getting my feet wet. It wasn't rocket science and was consistent with what Vanguard recommends on their site.


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[Markola]

Jabbahop, I was wondering about doing that too. We are Vanguard Flagship and have been assigned a guy to call. I haven't done a plan with them yet because I like picking my own investments. What we could use help with is tax optimization, which I don't think they cover. However, I would like to learn if I'm wrong about that or if they have other valuable services I'm missing out on, like estate planning, insurance advice, etc.


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[Jackietime]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for responding to my question about Vanguard's PAS (Personal Advisory Service).

The following info may help someone interested in obtaining a financial plan from Vanguard with under $1M in assets in Vanguard funds.

We have the majority of our funds in Fidelity (company 401K) so we don't have $1M in Vanguard yet... BUT we called about the PAS, set up an appt with an advisor, spoke with her for at least 45 minutes and our financial plan will be ready this Friday for our review and another phone consultation next week. We have no obligation to sign up for PAS (which by the way has a very low cost of .3% of portfolio for active management). Our advisor even told us that when we transfer the money from Fidelity (after I turn 59 1/2), we can have a dedicated CFP to help us with our plan. Until $1M is reached, there is a pool of advisors that may or may not be certified.. but if not ..very close to obtaining certification. Sounds like a Win-Win to me. .

I'll write back after we review the plan with more thoughts.

Best regards!

 

[Jackietime]

Markola,
According to their website, Vanguard's advisors do help with tax optimization. Our advisor also confirmed this.
https://investor.vanguard.com/financial-advisor/financial-planning

 

[Markola]

Thanks Jackietime. I'll look at the service more closely.


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[RoyDornoch]

Vanguard Financial Engines

Vanguard also offers its Financial Engines link to Flagship clients at no charge and that may be as good as its advisory services.

I wasn't impressed with the free financial plan that I received under the old Flagship benefit. I didn't seem any more personalized than the various online plans that once can obtain.

 

[Koolau]

Psssst! unclemick, can you help us out here?

 

[Jackietime]

We had our review with the Vanguard advisor. We were pleased with the plan and level of service. We may decide to sign up for the managed service after we roll over the 401k. I'm glad we checked it out.