OT/Financial Planners

[echelon_john]

I’ve enjoyed reading through the various threads around retirement and appreciate that this group has some smart folks. We’re looking for a fee-only planner to help with some strategic planning around retirement/what’s next.

Fee only because we already have investments actively managed with folks we’re very happy with but they’re not geared toward giving holistic planning advice.

I’ve gone through the CFP website and am asking friends locally as well, but I’d appreciate any leads via PM on someone you personally know/have worked with. Geo not really a factor.

Thanks!
John

[OtayBW]

I'm in the same boat and have found that everyone that I talked to wants to be compensated by managing my portfolio - e.g., few offer true fee-based planning. I'm not crazy about that idea. GL

[echelon_john]

Yep. I’m more than happy to pay very fairly for advisory/consulting. We found one guy who’s a possible but looking for someone whom I can get (somewhat) excited about working with.

Originally Posted by OtayBW

I'm in the same boat and have found that everyone that I talked to wants to be compensated by managing my portfolio - e.g., few offer true fee-based planning. I'm not crazy about that idea. GL

[Spaghetti Legs]

I just paid a planner at Schwab to review all our numbers, accounts, portfolio distribution and went through scenarios to assess likelihood of not running out of money before we die. It was very helpful. The goal of this wasn't so much planning or do this with your money and maybe that's what you're looking for. I used it, with our current portfolio and expenses, to gauge possibility of semi to mostly retiring this summer.

I have everything but one retirement account at Schwab right now so I'm not sure if this is available to everyone. Zero sales pitches during our 2 meetings.

Maybe you've looked around at bogleheads.com? Lot's of financial planning and retirement talk there, although it is mostly a do by self community.

[buddybikes]

We're on the other end of spectrum and it has worked out for us. He manages our investments, has found some interesting things this year as we near retirement. One less thing on our minds, we are fairly conservative. His approach has allowed us to buy a house for our daughter who we were concerned about after we croak and not have any debt.

[Ralph]

I know my Schwab guy is a CERTIFIED financial planner....and knows his stuff. No sales pitch. And I don't pay them a fee for account management. Though I'm kept well aware they offer that service.

[echelon_john]

Thanks-this is basically exactly what I’m looking for. Essentially 3rd-party validation of “You’re good if you draw x%/year and you should draw from here first if X” etc.

Will look at Bogleheads but agree from prior looks it’s mostly DIY and while I think I have a decent handle, my wife and I would both be more comfortable with that 3rd party perspective, a couple of different scenarios, reviewing quarterly/annually over time, etc.

Originally Posted by Spaghetti Legs

I just paid a planner at Schwab to review all our numbers, accounts, portfolio distribution and went through scenarios to assess likelihood of not running out of money before we die. It was very helpful. The goal of this wasn't so much planning or do this with your money and maybe that's what you're looking for. I used it, with our current portfolio and expenses, to gauge possibility of semi to mostly retiring this summer.

I have everything but one retirement account at Schwab right now so I'm not sure if this is available to everyone. Zero sales pitches during our 2 meetings.

Maybe you've looked around at bogleheads.com? Lot's of financial planning and retirement talk there, although it is mostly a do by self community.

[Alan]

I work with an RIA that provides comprehensive advice as most do. I have had them run scenarios w their retirement planning software that were ok but personally I don't put much of a focus on these forward thinking apps.

I am a financial person so I do mostly my own planning but if your current advisor offers any type of retirement modeling I would give it a try.

Also think about consulting with tax oriented CPA who has the correct software to work with. You can ask friends in your area who they use. I would target the mid size local and regional firms not national firms.

There is a lot of free software you can use but if you can't use it on your own then I would not pursue.

Alan

[Bob Ross]

Originally Posted by Spaghetti Legs

I just paid a planner at Schwab to review all our numbers, accounts, portfolio distribution and went through scenarios to assess likelihood of not running out of money before we die.

Might I ask what you paid for that service? Ballpark numbers are fine, just trying to get an idea of what to expect.

The un-vested financial planner we had been using for that sort of advice/insight was a free company-provided perk...provided by the company that just laid off my wife (along with 11,999 of her coworkers).

[Ralph]

I'm retired (Merrill Lynch) from the business. The problem with all these plans is the making of assumptions of future returns and inflation. if you make return and inflation assumptions, it's easy to figure out how long your money lasts. and how much you can spend. Even with good tax and successor planning. Personally....I didn't believe these numbers....or better to say I know NO ONE really knows what's coming in the future. You may or may not get expected returns. And you will have to put money at some risk to get those traditional returns. And BTW....I was a very aggressive investor during the accumulation years....that's how I got retired early.

Now I try to keep at least 5 years basic cash flow needs in cash or near cash. Just talking basic needs, utilities, groceries, insurance, that kind of thing. New cars, vacations, etc not real needs. I never want to be selling stuff when markets are down. Then keep rest broadly diversified. And even then just assume I will make maybe 3-4% max. My advisor thought I was nuts to keep that much cash or near cash available, but I'm older than he is....and not as certain we will get expected returns....even over long periods of time. No one knows the future. As a retiree since 1998, have seen lots of up and downs, and I sleep well being over conservative. It's not that I'm negative on future, it's more I just don't know. And....with small amount of portfolio....I still go for it with a few individual stocks.

[OtayBW]

Originally Posted by echelon_john

Yep. I’m more than happy to pay very fairly for advisory/consulting. We found one guy who’s a possible but looking for someone whom I can get (somewhat) excited about working with.

Agree! It's pretty much this or nothing for me....

Originally Posted by steveandbarb1

We're on the other end of spectrum and it has worked out for us. He manages our investments, has found some interesting things this year as we near retirement. One less thing on our minds, we are fairly conservative. His approach has allowed us to buy a house for our daughter who we were concerned about after we croak and not have any debt.

The problem with that approach - for me - is that I just don't see the need to monkey with buying and selling too often, and so paying a CFP by assets under management seems like a big cost for ~little activity. Like Echelon John said, I'm happy to pay for consulting/advisory, but the asset management seems like a big outlay.

Originally Posted by echelon_john

Thanks-this is basically exactly what I’m looking for. Essentially 3rd-party validation of “You’re good if you draw x%/year and you should draw from here first if X” etc.

Will look at Bogleheads but agree from prior looks it’s mostly DIY and while I think I have a decent handle, my wife and I would both be more comfortable with that 3rd party perspective, a couple of different scenarios, reviewing quarterly/annually over time, etc.

I have a great relationship with a Fidelity planner, and the advice is good, but no way is she going to be as comprehensive as I need in preparing a substantial retirement plan....but that is hard to find...

[Spaghetti Legs]

Originally Posted by Bob Ross

Might I ask what you paid for that service? Ballpark numbers are fine, just trying to get an idea of what to expect.

The un-vested financial planner we had been using for that sort of advice/insight was a free company-provided perk...provided by the company that just laid off my wife (along with 11,999 of her coworkers).

Ouch - sorry to hear that and best of luck on the landing from that.

$300 - yep two zeroes; I was a little surprised, there was about an hour and half to two hours of face to face time, not sure how much time he spent outside of our meeting.

echelon John, yes, we also discussed and modeled different scenarios for drawing social security and effects of a couple different portfolio allocations. Mine is still pretty aggressive.

[rccardr]

We’ve used an independent (small firm) CFP since 2012, two years before I retired. I was a very agressive investor for 30 years before that and fairly tuned in to the market as a whole. Also managed my employer’s $80MM 401(k) plan. In other words, not a professional or certified guy but well educated about finance stuff.

Our guy charges a very small percentage of invested total but is well worth it. And that’s all he gets from us- he does not receive any other fees related to our account. Has helped us with estate planning - found a great attorney- as well as tax planning stuff -and also found a great tax gal when my guy of 35 years retired. We meet twice yearly for about two hours per, lots of discussion about where things are headed in the short term and suggestions on changes- some subtle, some not- based on changes in fund direction, Morningstar rating, etc. He’s also a fiduciary, which to me is very important.

IMHO, he earns his buck. We live well and sleep well, hard to beat that.

[veloduffer]

One thing to consider is splitting your money for someone to manage with something like a robot-advisor or yourself. I have a financial advisor for a portion of our savings and I manage the rest. I'm in finance, but more credit oriented, rather than equity focused but still look at various drivers and risks. I make sure that I'm not overlapping/doubling up with what the FA is doing, and we have quarterly discussions.

There are times when I may override or adjust some of his decisions - I went more to cash during this volatility and with rates up, cash now earns a nice 4%. In case we do hit a recession, some pundits approximate a 35% probability, I have some dry capital to deploy and in the mean time, earning a decent return.

So besides having a diversified portfolio, you can diversify (avoid all eggs in one basket) your advice. If you decide to manage some of your own money, it does give you some capital to speculate on.