Posted: 2/20/2026 12:57:49 PM EDT
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“Financial Planners/Advisors” all want to “manage my funds” and only seem able to thoughtlessly plug my numbers into scenario modeling software. I can do that myself. I want to hire expertise and am mainly trying to avoid spending my days immersed in IRS code to inform decisions on, for example, if/when to move money from one bucket to another. Am I overcomplicating things? Seems like I should have expert help with a more thoughtful plan but I don’t even know who I’m looking for. |
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If you want objective advice find a "fiduciary" financial planner. ie. you pay him by the hour for his services so you have reassurance that his only priority is keeping you happy by meeting your needs. It's not complicated, but the unknown unknowns are the problem - ie. things you didn't even know about. The transition from working into retirement has enormous opportunities to save 6-figure dollar amounts in taxes so it's worth time/effort/money to satisfy yourself that you've done everything possible to maximize your position. You can get a really good rough cut of your situation and some great advice if you share some basic info here. |
| An accountant might be better than an advisor. |
Posterity! You will never know, how much it cost the present Generation, to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make a good Use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it.---John Adams
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Originally Posted By KILLERB6: It’s really not that complicated. I couldn’t believe how easy ours came together. The hard part was not buying cool toys I had the money for, for 30 years and plugging that Money into investing. We did it all ourselves. |
If life was easy nobody would quit.
| Planning the early days of retirement is critical to reducing required minimum distributions as you age. I think if you have $500k or more in a 401k or other pretax account you at least want to do the software modeling thing and maybe even hire an accountant to walk through your options. You definitely don't want an advisor that takes a percentage of your assets as fees. |
Scepticism is an exercise, not a life; it is a discipline fit to purify the mind of prejudice and render it all the more apt, when the time comes, to believe and to act wisely. -- George Santayana
Never mistake a clear view for a short distance.
Never mistake a clear view for a short distance.
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I retired in November and have met with six or more advisers. I ended up doing it myself. None of them could tell me anything I didn't already know. |
N&MEM, SSDR, NRA Life Member
Epstein Scalia did not kill himself.
Gun control is literally Hitler.
Trump's actions? Watergate does not bother me, does your conscience bother you?
Gun control is literally Hitler.
Trump's actions? Watergate does not bother me, does your conscience bother you?
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Originally Posted By Morgan321: If you want objective advice find a "fiduciary" financial planner. ie. you pay him by the hour for his services so you have reassurance that his only priority is keeping you happy by meeting your needs. It's not complicated, but the unknown unknowns are the problem - ie. things you didn't even know about. The transition from working into retirement has enormous opportunities to save 6-figure dollar amounts in taxes so it's worth time/effort/money to satisfy yourself that you've done everything possible to maximize your position. You can get a really good rough cut of your situation and some great advice if you share some basic info here. This is exactly where we’re at. Also, the latest advisor I’m vetting is fiduciary (though % of funds rather than hourly) and I’m not getting any indication that it’s what I’m looking for. Married, mid 50s Type A engineers. No debt and we saved enough 401k/IRA to maintain current low-six-figure income solely on growth if we retire tomorrow. I do not need help with math, and I have no interest in talking to a salesman or a data entry clerk. We need to understand the medical insurance options and how they interact with financial options (vis-à-vis government regulation). We primarily seek expertise in tax strategies for us and our heirs. In general, I want expertise in navigating the arcane government rules to guide our decision making. |
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Originally Posted By RugHead: Also, the latest advisor I’m vetting is fiduciary (though % of funds rather than hourly) and I’m not getting any indication that it’s what I’m looking for. Married, mid 50s…. No debt and we saved enough 401k/IRA to maintain current low-six-figure income solely on growth if we retire tomorrow. We need to understand the medical insurance options….. We primarily seek expertise in tax strategies for us and our heirs. In general, I want expertise in navigating the arcane government rules to guide our decision making. What ages are you planning to retire at? That is likely your biggest near-term driver - if you’re retiring years before starting SS and your savings are in pretax accounts I would plan for significant roth conversions while you have very low income during those years. Filling up the low tax brackets with roth conversions is the key to minimizing taxes. Roth is also the best/easiest way to leave money to heirs because they get stepped up basis, no RMD, and no tax bill. It’s also effectively immune to litigation (kid gets divorced, sued, etc). Medical is just something you have to budget for if you don’t have it. Given the numbers you mentioned it shouldn’t be a big deal to budget for it up until you start Medicare. I’m dumb on health insurance because I don’t have to worry about it, others here are smart on it. |
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Originally Posted By DVCER: I couldn’t believe how easy ours came together. The hard part was not buying cool toys I had the money for, for 30 years and plugging that Money into investing. We did it all ourselves. Depends on the toys. Now if, 30-years ago, I would have bought that 1965 GT350 Cobra Mustang for $7000..... But , yes, always watch your expenses. |
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Originally Posted By DVCER: I couldn’t believe how easy ours came together. The hard part was not buying cool toys I had the money for, for 30 years and plugging that Money into investing. We did it all ourselves. Depends on the toys. Now if, 30-years ago, I would have bought that 1965 GT350 Cobra Mustang for $7000..... the one that auctioned at $450k in 2023...... But , yes, always watch your expenses. |
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Most of them charge around 1% and, I agree, that is a tough pill to swallow. That's $10,000/year on a $1,000,000 portfolio that is generating roughly $40,000-$50,000 per year. And why would it cost twice that amount to manage a $2,000,000 portfolio? The industry fee structure reminds me of real estate agents. With that being said, according to this study by Vanguard most people fare better financially when they do have an advisor. Tax planning during the distribution phase can help with IRMMA avoidance and other traps that affect retirees. Understanding what risk you can tolerate vs what risk you need to take is an important part of their job. Having an advisor can take away a lot of the worry. Also, if you are the one who handles all of the finances and something happens to you would your spouse know where to begin? As previously stated, make sure you find a true fiduciary that isn't trying to sell you ANYTHING other than advice because many advisers are not truly 100% fiduciaries. |
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Originally Posted By Morgan321: Charging a percentage of your balance is not a fiduciary arrangement in my opinion. You can only get truly objective input when you pay a fixed dollar amount. What ages are you planning to retire at? That is likely your biggest near-term driver - if you’re retiring years before starting SS and your savings are in pretax accounts I would plan for significant roth conversions while you have very low income during those years. Filling up the low tax brackets with roth conversions is the key to minimizing taxes. Roth is also the best/easiest way to leave money to heirs because they get stepped up basis, no RMD, and no tax bill. It’s also effectively immune to litigation (kid gets divorced, sued, etc). Medical is just something you have to budget for if you don’t have it. Given the numbers you mentioned it shouldn’t be a big deal to budget for it up until you start Medicare. I’m dumb on health insurance because I don’t have to worry about it, others here are smart on it. This is precisely the type of discussion I want to have. The above is about the extent of what I think I know, but there must be some sort of expert out there who I can pay to correct the details I have wrong and add the things I don't even know about. What is this person called? Hourly fiduciary financial planner? Tentative plan was to retire in about 2 years but once I know I have the plan nailed down I may see no point in waiting. Thank you to all who have replied in this thread. I really appreciate it. |
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Originally Posted By RugHead: This is precisely the type of discussion I want to have. The above is about the extent of what I think I know, but there must be some sort of expert out there who I can pay to correct the details I have wrong and add the things I don't even know about. What is this person called? Hourly fiduciary financial planner? If it’s anything other than a fixed rate (hourly, quarterly, annually, etc) then I would continue looking. There’s plenty of great planners who simply charge a fixed percentage and expect to manage your investments, but you can’t tell if they’re any good until after you commit. I would only use such services if the person came recommended by people I trust and I wanted my money to be managed hands-off. Many such services will also include tax filing, estate planning advice, etc. and that 1-ish percent becomes a much more reasonable cost. |
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Both engineers? So math is no issue… Go hit Bogleheads, hit all the online formulas, calculators, and so forth. You’ll never know if someone you are paying is any good unless you educate yourself, but once you have done that, why pay them? Most of it is not that complicated for the typical person. I did it all pen/paper before retiring, and 5 years in, it has held up very well for accuracy. |
a loaded gun won’t set you free, so you say…
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What you really need is an understanding of taxes around retirement. Find a lawyer that knows tax law that deals with retirement accounts. A lot of times they go by estate planners. My two cents, that is the only way you are going to start learning where the financial traps are (aka taxes). |
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IMO, a lot depends on your base knowledge. I have enough knowledge to do things myself BUT, I chose to still use a Financial Planner. We did this for a couple of reasons. 1. We have experts managing our portfolio and are now taking a "salary" off of it. They also help us unwind the IRA's etc... in a tax efficient manner. Their services includes them doing my taxes. We are paying them a little less than 1% as a fee. 2. It's seemless for us. 3. The Financial Planner has investment options available to them that I can't access otherwise. This allows for further diversification of the portfolio, lowering the overall Beta of the portfolio. We have quarterly meetings with our planner and can "fire" them at any time. We found ours after interviewing the two choices or "outside planners" that our Fidelity rep sent us. Fidelity has a couple of national firms that offer this service for the fee I discussed above. It's the same or less than the Fidelity based advisors they have. I'm old school enough that I want to be able to sit down with my advisor in person on most occasions and this option allows that to happen as well. All of our money stays in our Fidelity accounts, the Planner just has access to make the investments. My Fidelity advisor still monitors things and stays in contact with us. Our portfolio is invested at a Beta of about 55 and is projected to earn a 8%-9% ROR net the advisor fees. I'm pretty comfortable with that especially since I really don't have to do anything to make it happen. Others mileage may vary. |
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Originally Posted By VegasEggus: We found ours after interviewing the two choices or "outside planners" that our Fidelity rep sent us. ..... My Fidelity advisor still monitors things and stays in contact with us. Our portfolio is invested at a Beta of about 55 and is projected to earn a 8%-9% ROR net the advisor fees. They don't provide detailed and comprehensive services for free, but their smart people will talk to you, paint a picture of your situation, and will point you in directions that you might not have known even existed. This is great for someone like OP who is intelligent but has limited knowledge - a simple "you're a prime candidate for XYZ, you should look into that" can save you enormous amounts of money. Fidelity also has a very good basic retirement planner for free on their website if you have any Fidelity account. Since vegus mentioned beta - I've made a couple threads here about risk parity investing. The executive summary of that is that you sacrifice some amount of average growth in exchange for significantly reduced volatility (ie. smaller losses during a down market). ie. instead of 10% average return you get 8% and, in exchange for giving up that amount of average growth you might only be down 10% when the markets are down 20-30-40%. If you could choose to have a 99% chance of getting 8% average growth or 90% chance of getting 10% average growth, which would you plan for? I found a local CFP and used his services for 2024. Ironically, he was a civil engineer who got tired of the 9-5 office work and became a financial planner on his own. I went with him because I was an engineer who got tired of the 9-5 office work, joined the Army, and had just retired from the Army and started working as an engineer again. He charged flat rate and it was just over $3k for the year. It was the best money I've spent in a very long time. I would recommend anybody do the same, esp. if they are nearing or thinking about retirement. |
| As with many things in life….some people have a lot of interest and possibly natural ability in finance and investing….and many do not. I suspect some simply lack the ability and will never be able to do it even if they studied it. So, money paid to a financial advisor, even a percentage, will EASILY be money well spent for those people. |
"It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things."
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
| I have to agree with those saying just do it yourself. I made the mistake of going to a financial planner. They got me invested on some awful stuff that only made them money. I have since taken our finances over myself and am slowly undoing the shit they did. At the very least if you do feel you need help go to a fee only planner as they only have your best interests not their own. |
| I read a lot of the Bogleheads forum, and early-retirement.org to learn about basic things. I don’t currently use a financial advisor, but if I did it would be a registered investment advisor (RIA). I’ll be using one soon and I’ll tell you why: I don’t know what I don’t know, plus my needs are a little more than ‘I need advice on where to invest’. A wealth management firm is probably what I’m looking for. Plus, I don’t wanna make a mistake that’s gonna cost me and my wife a lot of money in the future as far as tax strategy. SS, laws regarding withdrawal minimums, Medicare, tax brackets, etc seem to be changing constantly. My dad is somewhat like you-engineer from Ga. Tech, army pilot, and when he left the Army, became a stockbroker and went to Wall Street for 3 months. Left that after he realized that you’re not making enough money by cold calling clients. He and my mom retired very comfortably. He still checked in with an RIA every once in a while ‘for a checkup’, as he called it. You can find someone you trust that’s gonna address your concerns, at the frequency you want. Maybe every year, or every 2, 3, etc. Me and my wife’s situation is little more complicated than theirs was-several pensions, social security, investment income, own our house and a timber farm with income and expenses. Things can be fluid at times and I need to know the best way to handle them. Good luck. You’ll find what you’re looking for. |
peach fuzz
| I'm in the "do it yourself" club, but some people aren't comfortable doing that. You've got to be careful looking for advisors, just like any other profession, they're not all created equal. I had a professor in graduate school that had his own consulting business. I'm sure he was very knowledgeable, but he had the reputation in the industry for always shifting his clients' money around, buy, sell, etc. He received a fee for all this trading, so he never seemed to let money sit in one investment very long. My brother in law lets his bank handle his investments. They take a cut of course, but he doesn't mind paying the fees for the peace of mind of not having to handle it. |