• Welcome to the FREE TUGBBS forums! The absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 31 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 32 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 32st anniversary: Happy 32st Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    All subscribers auto-entered to win all free TUG membership giveaways!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $24,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $24 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    Tens of thousands of subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Advice for choosing a financial planner?

mentalbreak

mentalbreak

TUG Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2011
Messages
983
Reaction score
1,489
We need to hire a financial planner.

Looking to move some old 401(k)s that are sitting with previous employers and start actually planning across all of our accounts. Expecting about 10-12 years until retirement.

Any recommendations on how to start and what to look for are appreciated!
 
Just stay away from anyone who makes their money on commission's. Fidelity, Vanguard, Schwabe and TD Ameritrade all offer planning services. Some will charge you a % of the assets invested, others will charge you a fee for specific services. Personally I prefer to pay a set fee for any advice/planning.
 
We use Vanguard but do most of our planning ourselves. We're big on putting money into Vanguard funds with low costs and then just letting it sit there. They have target funds like Retirement 2030 or 2035 that make it pretty easy to choose where to put things.

Vanguard Target Retirement Funds | Vanguard

Vanguard Target Retirement Funds give you a complete retirement portfolio in a single fund. Explore funds that fit your retirement timeline.
investor.vanguard.com
 
kanerf said:
I use Fisher and have found them to be fair and honest. They have made a ton of money for me.
Click to expand...
Does Fisher charge a financial planning fee or get paid through their products?
 
If you have a 401k with your current employer and are happy with the investment options, fees, etc., consider rolling those old 401k accounts into your current one (if your plan allows). It gives you more options for early retirement with the IRS "Rule of 55". Just food for thought.

Kurt
 
kanerf said:
The are paid out of one of the funds they set up for me. As a Fiduciary they only get paid if their performance warrants it.
Click to expand...
I agree with using a Fiduciary. I've had both and REALLY prefer the Fiduciary. The one I've stuck with is with Wells Fargo. The first thing he did was to discuss Risk Tolerance with both my wife and myself. He has tailored each account to our personal risk tolerance. Calls us each month to go over what's happened in the past month and discuss direction for the coming month.

Also annually reviews our risk tolerance to see if anything has changed.
 
PigsDad said:
If you have a 401k with your current employer and are happy with the investment options, fees, etc., consider rolling those old 401k accounts into your current one (if your plan allows). It gives you more options for early retirement with the IRS "Rule of 55". Just food for thought.

Kurt
Click to expand...
Most 401Ks will not allow you to roll over funds from another 401K, thus the need for an IRA.
 
kanerf said:
Most 401Ks will not allow you to roll over funds from another 401K, thus the need for an IRA.
Click to expand...
That's why I qualified my advice with "if your plan allows". My employer's plan does allow this. You might be surprised at how many do.

Like I said, it is just food for thought. Once you roll that 401k into an IRA, there generally is no going back. There are some definite advantages of keeping it in a 401k, especially if you are looking into doing backdoor Roth contributions, if you are in a tax situation where that would be a tax advantage for you.

Kurt
 
PigsDad said:
That's why I qualified my advice with "if your plan allows". My employer's plan does allow this. You might be surprised at how many do.

Like I said, it is just food for thought. Once you roll that 401k into an IRA, there generally is no going back. There are some definite advantages of keeping it in a 401k, especially if you are looking into doing backdoor Roth contributions, if you are in a tax situation where that would be a tax advantage for you.

Kurt
Click to expand...

I would recommend this approach as well. My employer actually allows you to roll in an IRA that was created as the result of rolling over a prior 401K.

Working at a large company, we have super inexpensive investment options. But you have to be careful, as not all plans have great options.
 
This came up during my working years, and while I was acting as my mother's caregiver- basically overseeing her financial affairs. She had fallen prey (as many seniors do) to unscrupulous salespeople in a local investment office. When I went through her records, there was evidence of 'churning' where just a few shares were bought or sold- not enough to really shift the investment aims of the portfolio, but (as far as I could see) to generate commissions for the brokerage and agents as income. BOY, did they squawk when I sold all their few shares of this, few shares of that, and put the whole mess into no load, diversified funds that matched the investment style we felt was best for long term financial health.

Because my employer at the time was endorsing (and matching} my Fidelity 401(k), so along with an advisor with whom I kept in fairly steady contact, we set up various Rollover IRAs and monitored holdings and suggested timely modifications as life's inevitable changes come along.

Cheapest? Who knows. But I haven't drawn a paycheck in 13 years, there's enough to provide a nice living, and there's more in it than when I retired.

Jim
 
My first adivce for a specific planner is to ask friends/relatives.

Also know there are financial planner and investment advirsors. Financial planners could be someone that you pay that has no stake in your investment accounts. Investment advisors will haeve their hands in your investments.

I like you am "maybe" some time until retirement, but I realized this year that my investments today are where they need to be to retire (thanks to the market the last couple of years). So, just this week I moved a bulk of investments and 401K into low risk options to presure this gain. Could be right, could be wrong. But, my piece of mind is knowing already that retirement (could be early retirement) is a bit more secure.
 
Over the past 14 years, we have paid about $300K in FA fees. In September, we finally decided to take back control because the last firm was incurring 6 digits capital gains up until August with unnecessary buy/sell in our taxable accounts. That was our last straw. We are much happier having full control. If you want to learn more about how to invest etc, go to boggleheads.org and early-retirement.org. You will find lots of helpful members who can make you feel confident that you can manage your own investments. We now have our investments in Fidelity and I highly recommend using Fidelity. Their application (laptop/desktop) site can help you be self-sufficient as well. For instance, if you say you want to DIY, it will suggest the etfs that you ought to purchase. It also has a tab which analyses your investments against benchmarks. With every etf which you own, it will also show performance against benchmarks and bond quality/risk ratings, etc. We love Fidelity. We are also assigned a CFP in the local office where you can get help with investments and inputs, all free of charge.

If you need overall help, then hire a fee-only (ad-hoc fees) for a couple of thousand dollars.
 
VacationForever said:
Over the past 14 years, we have paid about $300K in FA fees. In September, we finally decided to take back control because the last firm was incurring 6 digits capital gains up until August with unnecessary buy/sell in our taxable accounts. That was our last straw. We are much happier having full control. If you want to learn more about how to invest etc, go to boggleheads.org and early-retirement.org. You will find lots of helpful members who can make you feel confident that you can manage your own investments. We now have our investments in Fidelity and I highly recommend using Fidelity. Their application (laptop/desktop) site can help you be self-sufficient as well. For instance, if you say you want to DIY, it will suggest the etfs that you ought to purchase. It also has a tab which analyses your investments against benchmarks. With every etf which you own, it will also show performance against benchmarks and bond quality/risk ratings, etc. We love Fidelity. We are also assigned a CFP in the local office where you can get help with investments and inputs, all free of charge.

If you need overall help, then hire a fee-only (ad-hoc fees) for a couple of thousand dollars.
Click to expand...
@VacationForever The CFP is thru Fidelity?
 
mentalbreak said:
We need to hire a financial planner.

Looking to move some old 401(k)s that are sitting with previous employers and start actually planning across all of our accounts. Expecting about 10-12 years until retirement.

Any recommendations on how to start and what to look for are appreciated!
Click to expand...
I worked for the same company for 35 years, but shortly after I retired, Vanguard made it easy to move all my 401K into a Vanguard Rollover IRA. I also opened Vanguard Roth IRA's for both me and my wife. I manage my Rollover IRA (just by rebalancing 4 different mutual funds), and Vanguard's financial advisor manages my wife's Rollover IRA and both Roth's. The financial advisor's fee is only 0.3%/year of the market value of the funds. You're not likely to find a better rate than that. Some places charge fees 10 time that. Our planner has been very helpful at determining or needs, our risk tolerance, and has prodded us to talk to an estate planner and think about long term care plans. We do a teleconference once a quarter to discuss performance, and to see if our projected outcome scenarios meet our objectives. We're both glad we signed up for their service.
 
With all the free services of the big Mutual Fund Companies, I find it rather a waste of money to hire someone to do what is a fairly simple and easy process to use those free resources.

Cheers
 
Last edited:
VacationForever said:
We now have our investments in Fidelity and I highly recommend using Fidelity. Their application (laptop/desktop) site can help you be self-sufficient as well. For instance, if you say you want to DIY, it will suggest the etfs that you ought to purchase. It also has a tab which analyses your investments against benchmarks. With every etf which you own, it will also show performance against benchmarks and bond quality/risk ratings, etc. We love Fidelity. We are also assigned a CFP in the local office where you can get help with investments and inputs, all free of charge.
Click to expand...
We use Fidelity as well, and have the same experience: assigned a CFP at our local office who is a VP (I think they are kind of fast and loose with a "VP" title though, as every local office seems to have at least 3-4 VPs). Our guy has been a great help in getting us ready to retire next year -- he has spend several hours with us working on different scenarios and has given us some great ideas for our retirement plan. If we want more service, there is an option for Fidelity to manage our portfolio, but for now we are comfortable with just using our CFP for advice.

Kurt
 
We consolidated all our investments under Vanguard umbrella shortly after we retired and we use assigned Vanguard advisor. We teleconference three times a year and are very happy with this simplified system. Their fee is reasonable and they are accessible when needed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top