As someone who went through a hellish scenario, THIS.

I'm going to use this thread rather than start a new one.

My wife and I are in early 50's, never used a financial planner. I would like to pay a flat fee to have someone review our savings and current financial state and tell us what we are doing wrong, things to consider pre and post retirement. I don't want them to manage our investments, I just want a review and advice - at a minimum stating "you are on track given your goals" or "you need to do X to achieve your goal". If they made us commit to annual meetings for 5 years and a fairly high per visit amount, I'd be fine - I just don't want them to manage our money and take a fixed percentage or fee based on portfolio amount.


Perhaps I would most need advice in the year or 2 before retirement (Can I do it?) and then advice in how to take distributions and when to take SS and how to best manage tax burden.

Does such an option exist? While the savings have grown fairly large we have it pretty basic - my 401K (70%), her 401K (15%), some Roth IRA's (5%), cash account (10%). Own a house, still with some mortgage. That's it.

Check out "The Money Guys" over on YouTube.
One of their recent videos is their annual net worth by age video but they lay out a lot of their milestones and the rational being them. Also be able to see where you stand in their "Financial order of operations" (similar to Ramsey's Baby Steps, but debt and CC friendly).

They've also got a a decent number of free look for yourself type stuff on their website. Theyll want an email address to download some of it, but they don't hound you.

You may have read my post in this thread.

Tomorrow, at the urging of my Fidelity Advisor, I am meeting with an Attorney that specializes in estate planning and taxes. I think it's appropriate to say that a Financial Advisor is going to advise you on the securities you should hold. Not being cute, by my CPA does my taxes and shares the good/the bad/the ugly.

What I've never had, until now, is an attorney who has a Master's Degree in tax. I'm meeting with him tomorrow, and he's going to enlighten me on all the tax hits/landmines that lay before me. Hoping I have some positive news.

https://facet.com

Flat fee financial advisors. I have never used them but I hear Tyler Gardner advertise for them.

I appreciate each of the replies - 2 sources of free or flat fee advice that I can look into. I like the note about a tax attorney providing advice that is specific to optimizing tax burden and helping to avoid situations where I may cost myself due to lack of knowledge.

Thanks to all 3 of you.

Wow, quite the meeting with our new attorney today.

To sum it up, learned that our wills and revocable trusts have so many holes in them that we'll need to essentially start from scratch. Holes in the sense that our heirs will not be protected from the tax implications we hoped to avoid.

Thank you Fidelity for suggesting we consult with an attorney with a Masters in Tax (LL.M.).

Just for conversation and curiosity: what kinds of taxes were you hoping to avoid?

We're looking at the taxes that would hit our heirs, primarily the Inherited IRA. Trump changed the law during his first administration. The monies in an Inherited IRA must be depleted over a ten year period (it used to be based on one's age and could be depleted over several years). That's the biggest issue we presently have.

Also, if we merged our brokerage accounts, the surviving spouse gets a step-up cost basis, which is huge (in our case anyway).

That's just a couple of the things we discussed...I'm sure they'll be more.

And just to be fair to the attorney that originally drew up our wills...we didn't share anything about our finances. We made the dumb assumption that a Will and a standard Revocable Trust would work for us. It doesn't. Like I said, we didn't share anything about our nest egg, and he never asked. At the end of the day the responsibility ultimately fell on me.

neutics said:

---

YouBet said:

---

Quote:

---

Thanks, and that was part of my point in that fee structure simply doesn't exist nor would it be sustainable for a firm.

---

I would say I disagree with this because I have it and I know of others who also have this arrangement, but I haven't personally researched the options in several years to actually know who is out there doing it. Maybe it has become less common over time. I don't know.

I'll also add that the fee I'm charged is negotiable.

---

Fees are always negotiable, but the only way that arrangement works is if there are other hidden fees for products or funds, which is very likely at Goldman Sachs though their AUM fees are actually quite high

---

Not that I've seen. I have them actively managing select portions of our portfolio. Anything I've had them actively manage or that I have considered having them manage have been 0.5-0.8. But maybe you consider that high.

We have a muni bond ladder and that is 0.5 which I absolutely let them manage because it's a constant churn. No way I could keep up with it.

ToddyHill said:

---

We're looking at the taxes that would hit our heirs, primarily the Inherited IRA. Trump changed the law during his first administration. The monies in an Inherited IRA must be depleted over a ten year period (it used to be based on one's age and could be depleted over several years). That's the biggest issue we presently have.

Also, if we merged our brokerage accounts, the surviving spouse gets a step-up cost basis, which is huge (in our case anyway).

That's just a couple of the things we discussed...I'm sure they'll be more.

And just to be fair to the attorney that originally drew up our wills...we didn't share anything about our finances. We made the dumb assumption that a Will and a standard Revocable Trust would work for us. It doesn't. Like I said, we didn't share anything about our nest egg, and he never asked. At the end of the day the responsibility ultimately fell on me.

---

This is very basic stuff and you don't need a trust to take care of any of it

We use one. Moved wife's old company 401k to them. Not a lot of money and a low % of our wealth. Nice to follow how they are investing the funds to gather some insight from them.

Another reason we did it is to build a relationship with them so that my wife has some support if something was to happen to me. She would have someone to ask questions. Did it when we were older and getting closer to retirement. If i died earlier, she could handle the limited money we had then. She is comfortable with their advice.

Now do they want to manage all my money? YES.
Do I let them? NO
When I die, will my wife move all the money to them and just pick up monthly checks from their office (then go to a nice lunch and shopping)? Probably.

Whether yall believe it or not the majority of people just don't like to or don't want to take the time to deal with their investments, retirement planning, tax planning, or estate planning on their own and would rather pay to have professionals handle it for them.

You can certainly do all of this yourself and save money. Just like you can mow your own lawn or build your own house.