Financial Advisers?

[treylane]

I’ve been a loyal piggingtons reader for a few years now, and you guys helped me keep my resolve to dig myself out of my lovely financial hellhole and actually make it into positive territory. yay! 🙂

So now that I’m on solid ground, I’m looking to move forward. I’m in my mid-20’s and planning to start a family in the next 2-3 years, send yon brats to college, hopefully, EVENTUALLY own a home, and retire before my fingers fall off: the usual, I suppose. I’m not a complete financial newbie, I understand the basics of taxes, returns, risk, etc. And that along with the usual 401k/IRA investments, I need to be investing / saving some $ for shorter term returns.

So this is where you guys come in – can (should?) I be trying to manage my investments on my own, or should I be looking for a good financial adviser to help me out? What does one look for in a financial adviser? Is it best to find one that works for some big investment firm, or try to find a more independent one, if they even exist? Any insight?

[Coronita]

When I started out, I never found a decent/capable financial advisor that was good AND willing to manage/help if "workable asset" was less than $300k.

Where I would see a financial advisor may help you initially is to put a financial plan together. But what they do isn't really earth shattering, and you could probably read about how to it and/or get one from the web. Beyond just planning,

The real question is how financially disciplined are you AND your wife? You don't have to answer that question here. Just think about it. If you +spouse have issues investing/savings on a regular basis, perhaps you need any advisor to just keep your financial health in check. If you or your wife don't want to spend time doing this, then there may be some value in a FA too (time is money).Questions you may want to ask yourself: do you/wife buy things spontaneously. Over the past year or two, what were your biggest expenses, what's your savings/investment percentage. If you invest, do you gamble alot on stocks or mutual funds (speculative buying). Was your portfolio beating boring index funds (if not, you're better off doing just indexes) etc. How much time do you really want to spend doing tis yourself?

The landscape of financial advisors is large. I would say that you would be hard pressed to find a good one without having a lot of working assets for them to work with. The ones that I ran into from brokerage houses are just that.brokers. They try to sell me stock tips, etc and charge hefty commisions. Pretty useless for me, because they're most of the time wrong imho. If you are well disciplined, I would just do it yourself.

For me, I use a gentlemen from Wachovia. Mainly because my wife wants a safety cushion in case me and her (mainly me) does something stupid. At the same time, my financial advisor wants to take more control of our assets. I don't want him to for the same reason that I feel we need a safety cushion in case he screws up.

Based on his performance, he does better than me when we're in a bear market, and worse than me when we're in a bull market. Also, he charges about a 2% commision per year over a majority of the asset he manages. I'm wouldn't say he's great, I wouldn't say he's bad. Just normal conservative returns.

 

I guess I'm not estatic about financial advisors because it seems my family's access to "great" financial advisors is limited because we don't really have "a lot" to really be on the radar of great advisors. Or at least, I haven't seen them. Multi-multi-millionaires on this board might want to chime in. Because their experience may be different. And of course, you may run into one that is good.

That said, there's a lot i think you can do for yourself, and there's plenty of information on how to. Skip the infomercials about getting rich quick deals though. Also, although plenty would disagree, skip Suzie Orman. Nothing wrong with her per se, just I find her hellishly annoying..Not what she says, I guess more about the people that ask her the dumb questions.

 

 

 

[Coronita]

When I started out, I never found a decent/capable financial advisor that was good AND willing to manage/help if "workable asset" was less than $300k.

Where I would see a financial advisor may help you initially is to put a financial plan together. But what they do isn't really earth shattering, and you could probably read about how to it and/or get one from the web. Beyond just planning,

The real question is how financially disciplined are you AND your wife? You don't have to answer that question here. Just think about it. If you +spouse have issues investing/savings on a regular basis, perhaps you need any advisor to just keep your financial health in check. If you or your wife don't want to spend time doing this, then there may be some value in a FA too (time is money).Questions you may want to ask yourself: do you/wife buy things spontaneously. Over the past year or two, what were your biggest expenses, what's your savings/investment percentage. If you invest, do you gamble alot on stocks or mutual funds (speculative buying). Was your portfolio beating boring index funds (if not, you're better off doing just indexes) etc. How much time do you really want to spend doing tis yourself?

The landscape of financial advisors is large. I would say that you would be hard pressed to find a good one without having a lot of working assets for them to work with. The ones that I ran into from brokerage houses are just that.brokers. They try to sell me stock tips, etc and charge hefty commisions. Pretty useless for me, because they're most of the time wrong imho. If you are well disciplined, I would just do it yourself.

For me, I use a gentlemen from Wachovia. Mainly because my wife wants a safety cushion in case me and her (mainly me) does something stupid. At the same time, my financial advisor wants to take more control of our assets. I don't want him to for the same reason that I feel we need a safety cushion in case he screws up.

Based on his performance, he does better than me when we're in a bear market, and worse than me when we're in a bull market. Also, he charges about a 2% commision per year over a majority of the asset he manages. I'm wouldn't say he's great, I wouldn't say he's bad. Just normal conservative returns.

 

I guess I'm not estatic about financial advisors because it seems my family's access to "great" financial advisors is limited because we don't really have "a lot" to really be on the radar of great advisors. Or at least, I haven't seen them. Multi-multi-millionaires on this board might want to chime in. Because their experience may be different. And of course, you may run into one that is good.

That said, there's a lot i think you can do for yourself, and there's plenty of information on how to. Skip the infomercials about getting rich quick deals though. Also, although plenty would disagree, skip Suzie Orman. Nothing wrong with her per se, just I find her hellishly annoying..Not what she says, I guess more about the people that ask her the dumb questions.

 

 

 

[Coronita]

When I started out, I never found a decent/capable financial advisor that was good AND willing to manage/help if "workable asset" was less than $300k.

Where I would see a financial advisor may help you initially is to put a financial plan together. But what they do isn't really earth shattering, and you could probably read about how to it and/or get one from the web. Beyond just planning,

The real question is how financially disciplined are you AND your wife? You don't have to answer that question here. Just think about it. If you +spouse have issues investing/savings on a regular basis, perhaps you need any advisor to just keep your financial health in check. If you or your wife don't want to spend time doing this, then there may be some value in a FA too (time is money).Questions you may want to ask yourself: do you/wife buy things spontaneously. Over the past year or two, what were your biggest expenses, what's your savings/investment percentage. If you invest, do you gamble alot on stocks or mutual funds (speculative buying). Was your portfolio beating boring index funds (if not, you're better off doing just indexes) etc. How much time do you really want to spend doing tis yourself?

The landscape of financial advisors is large. I would say that you would be hard pressed to find a good one without having a lot of working assets for them to work with. The ones that I ran into from brokerage houses are just that.brokers. They try to sell me stock tips, etc and charge hefty commisions. Pretty useless for me, because they're most of the time wrong imho. If you are well disciplined, I would just do it yourself.

For me, I use a gentlemen from Wachovia. Mainly because my wife wants a safety cushion in case me and her (mainly me) does something stupid. At the same time, my financial advisor wants to take more control of our assets. I don't want him to for the same reason that I feel we need a safety cushion in case he screws up.

Based on his performance, he does better than me when we're in a bear market, and worse than me when we're in a bull market. Also, he charges about a 2% commision per year over a majority of the asset he manages. I'm wouldn't say he's great, I wouldn't say he's bad. Just normal conservative returns.

 

I guess I'm not estatic about financial advisors because it seems my family's access to "great" financial advisors is limited because we don't really have "a lot" to really be on the radar of great advisors. Or at least, I haven't seen them. Multi-multi-millionaires on this board might want to chime in. Because their experience may be different. And of course, you may run into one that is good.

That said, there's a lot i think you can do for yourself, and there's plenty of information on how to. Skip the infomercials about getting rich quick deals though. Also, although plenty would disagree, skip Suzie Orman. Nothing wrong with her per se, just I find her hellishly annoying..Not what she says, I guess more about the people that ask her the dumb questions.

 

 

 

[stansd]

I’d go see a fee only planner that doesn’t have all the hangups of a “broker” discussed above. You can probably do it once every 3-4 years. Initially it will cost you 2K or so.

http://www.napfa.org/

You can find them here, but hopefully some one on this board will give a personal recommendation (I handle my own stuff). On another note, preferably now, but certainly when you have kids, get a will (preferably a trust) together with all your wishes spelled out…will cost you $1,500 or so to do it with a competent lawyer and assuming your situation isn’t complicated, but the peace of mind is worth every penny.

Stan

[stansd]

I’d go see a fee only planner that doesn’t have all the hangups of a “broker” discussed above. You can probably do it once every 3-4 years. Initially it will cost you 2K or so.

http://www.napfa.org/

You can find them here, but hopefully some one on this board will give a personal recommendation (I handle my own stuff). On another note, preferably now, but certainly when you have kids, get a will (preferably a trust) together with all your wishes spelled out…will cost you $1,500 or so to do it with a competent lawyer and assuming your situation isn’t complicated, but the peace of mind is worth every penny.

Stan

[stansd]

I’d go see a fee only planner that doesn’t have all the hangups of a “broker” discussed above. You can probably do it once every 3-4 years. Initially it will cost you 2K or so.

http://www.napfa.org/

You can find them here, but hopefully some one on this board will give a personal recommendation (I handle my own stuff). On another note, preferably now, but certainly when you have kids, get a will (preferably a trust) together with all your wishes spelled out…will cost you $1,500 or so to do it with a competent lawyer and assuming your situation isn’t complicated, but the peace of mind is worth every penny.

Stan

[Coronita]

If you need a living trust lawyer, I can recommend one that did one for our family for about $1500.

 

Also, another thing. If you work for a big company, they often have these financial planning seminars. Companies will come in and help you put a plan together for free. They deal is they are hoping to get your business (which you don't have to feel obligated to do). 

[Coronita]

If you need a living trust lawyer, I can recommend one that did one for our family for about $1500.

 

Also, another thing. If you work for a big company, they often have these financial planning seminars. Companies will come in and help you put a plan together for free. They deal is they are hoping to get your business (which you don't have to feel obligated to do). 

[Coronita]

If you need a living trust lawyer, I can recommend one that did one for our family for about $1500.

 

Also, another thing. If you work for a big company, they often have these financial planning seminars. Companies will come in and help you put a plan together for free. They deal is they are hoping to get your business (which you don't have to feel obligated to do). 

[zk]

For managing/investing my assets, I use Rich (That’s Rich Toscano, who developed this website, for the uninitiated.) His strategies make a lot of sense, his communication is great, and I trust him totally to have my interests at heart. You can find links to his firm’s website in the upper right corners of the Piggington pages.

[zk]

For managing/investing my assets, I use Rich (That’s Rich Toscano, who developed this website, for the uninitiated.) His strategies make a lot of sense, his communication is great, and I trust him totally to have my interests at heart. You can find links to his firm’s website in the upper right corners of the Piggington pages.

[zk]

For managing/investing my assets, I use Rich (That’s Rich Toscano, who developed this website, for the uninitiated.) His strategies make a lot of sense, his communication is great, and I trust him totally to have my interests at heart. You can find links to his firm’s website in the upper right corners of the Piggington pages.

[34f3f3f]

I echo going with a fee only FA. A little knowledge can go a long way, but if you want to be your own FA, it can also cost you dearly. I once told my FA that I try to resist becoming “informed” in investment matters to avoid becoming “opinionated”, and therefore forging views that may conflict with his. Since I am paying him to advise me and not the other way round, that makes sense to me. I got the feeling from his reply that his life would suffer less angst, if other clients were similarly disposed. I do however look at the bottom line, and form an opinion as to his performance, and that seems to keep priorities on an even keel. The trouble with brokers and commissions is that charges can be opaque and can bite into your portfolio’s performances.

[34f3f3f]

I echo going with a fee only FA. A little knowledge can go a long way, but if you want to be your own FA, it can also cost you dearly. I once told my FA that I try to resist becoming “informed” in investment matters to avoid becoming “opinionated”, and therefore forging views that may conflict with his. Since I am paying him to advise me and not the other way round, that makes sense to me. I got the feeling from his reply that his life would suffer less angst, if other clients were similarly disposed. I do however look at the bottom line, and form an opinion as to his performance, and that seems to keep priorities on an even keel. The trouble with brokers and commissions is that charges can be opaque and can bite into your portfolio’s performances.

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