"anoop" <ghanwani[at]gmail.com> wrote
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That's a nice list that Forbes provides. I personally was already acquainted
with Fidelity's (good only for Fidelity account holders) and Vanguard's
(free to all), so I applaud Forbes listing those two. For the first time, I
tried the T Rowe price one it lists at http://www3.troweprice.com/ric/RIC/
and, I really like what I'm seeing as far as guidance, quickness of the
online calculator, clarity of assumptions used, etc. are concerned.

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There's a lot of time and information necessary to get the right information
to make the decisions the OP is asking.

It is like the difference between doing small repairs around the house and
doing a major rehab project. Both can be do-it-yourself but the later may
not be practical.

R Palino wrote:

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Here are some tools for that:
http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/20...92sidebar.html

Anoop

Why not use some of the free software out there and do it all yourself? You
would probably save considerable time. I'm probably going to be reprimanded
by all of the for fee pros out there --but hey, you said mutual funds. It
isn't like you have 50 individual stocks and put and call options. Besides,
I would think the pros use the same software (do you really think the pro's
have some secret software that is better than the free stuff--probably not).

Advice is free-may not be worth anything, but it is free.
"R Palino" <r.palino[at]*NO.SPAM*mailandnews.com> wrote in message
news:8uWdnTdKMbTXjgnfRVn-og[at]comcast.com...
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R Palino wrote:

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Lurker here.

I signed up a fee-based planner a few months ago to do the things you
list above. I pay him in installments, and when it's done, I'll have
paid him a total of $3500. Yes, I thought that was a lot, too, but it
has been worth it.

For that price, he meets with me every other week for 2-3 hours for 4-5
months. I know he's also spending more additional hours outside our
meetings because the next time we meet, he's got a 20-page write up, a
spreadsheet, or a checklist of action items all set to hand to me.
Everything is well documented & organized in case I forget the logic
behind why he advised me to do certain things. Some of these action
items are to be done before 2005 is out; others are more long-range.
This plan should get me through the next 10 years, and includes how to
help get two kids through college, as well as contingency plans in the
event I lost my job, became disabled, or had to take a paycut.

Initially I had no desire to go through the checklist stuff (wills,
insurance, etc). I just wanted asset allocation & rebalancing. I
figured I'd pay him the first installment, get that done, then be
finished with it. I was viewing it as one of those things where you
write the guy a check, ask your question, and he spits out an answer
for you. But no. That's not how it works!

This guy is *extremely* thorough, looking at the big picture and asking
tons of questions to understand the state of my finances as well as my
investment goals, as well as raising "what if" questions that I may not
have thought about. And he is patient in his explanations. I think
once it's over I'll know why we've created the plan we've created, and
what to do from here on out.

However, if your gut is warning you that you might be taken for a ride,
then I'd heed it. Don't sign on with someone unless you feel right with
them. My adviser spent 2 hours with me at our first meeting - for free.
He went into a lot of detail about the process, and let me ask him tons
of questions. He also gave me references that I could check. I left
feeling confident enough about him that I was willing to write an
initial installment check. By the time the next check was due, I was
feeling very good about spending the full $3500.

As for "do it yourself," I've been doing that for years, but my
finances and situation have been getting increasingly complicated. I
was getting frustrated because it seemed the more I'd read in forums
such as this or other financial advice sites, the more confused I'd get
trying to extrapolate the principles to my own unique situation. What
I'm paying for is to have someone sit down and dig into my financial
picture at great depth, learn about my priorities and my investment
style, look at the big picture and not just one aspect of it, and then
show me how to specifically apply those principles to my situation. It
has been a highly customized experience.

For me, it's been worth every penny, and I only wish I'd had done this
sooner!

jen

On Thu, 26 May 2005 06:56:39 CST, "Andy"
<ineverevercheckthismailbox[at]yahoo.com> wrote:

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My (admittedly limited) experience has been that although the rate
charged does not seem unreasonable that I also found that the number
of hours billed seemed excessive for the work done, at least by a
professional for whom this kind of work has to be routine. All in
all, my experience with a couple of planners is that they charged too
much money to tell me less than I already knew.


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As a fee-only planner, yeah, that seems a little steep to me. Tell her
that and she what she says. It can't hurt. If she needs the business
she might come down some. If you can afford that and want to pay it,
tell her you want an audit of the amount of time she actually spends on
your plan. But, she can always fudge the numbers. That's probably why
she gave you the ballpark estimate.

JLP

http://allthingsfinancial.blogspot.com

"R Palino" <r.palino[at]*NO.SPAM*mailandnews.com> wrote
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Are you averse to learning how to do this yourself?

If you wish, I can send you links to four, free online asset allocation
tools. They are pretty quick and IMO quite informative. They tend to give
similar results, as one would expect. Typically one inputs age and
information about risk tolerance, and the program spews out recommended
allocations of stocks and bonds, breaking these down further between, say,
international stocks and domestic stocks, high grade bonds and junk bonds,
etc.

About "what funds are good and such": I think the consensus of this
newsgroup is that low expense ratio, no load index funds are pretty clearly
the safest bet, and anything else is gambling where some will lose and some
are bound to win. I for one agree with this. I have citations on this
(thanks to others here, in large part) on the subject.

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I also know of a few free, online sites that will help with this.

snip
- quote -

I don't know, but I do agree that looking at some of the sites I suggest
above will help you be better prepared for any meetings you have with her,
thus likely shortening the time you spend with her, and so saving you money.

R Palino wrote:
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<snip
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<snip
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I agree with you that 20 hours seems like a lot for what you want done
(though I am not a financial planner, so what do I know?). I feel like
I could do the same tasks you describe for myself in probably 20 hours,
and that is as a complete amateur doing everything from scratch.

My personal rule is that whenever someone proposes to charge me a lot
of money (which for me is anything over $300) I always get a second
quote from someone else. I would go to another financial planner and
outline the same tasks and ask for an estimate. If the second
financial planner says basically the same thing then maybe thats just
what its going to be. If the second person says a lower number, then
maybe you should go with them rather than trying to beat down the woman
who estimated 20 hours.

An alternative approach would be to have the planner do just one
relatively minor task to start and see (a) how much she charges you,
and (b) how happy you are with what you get. If you feel like she
gives good value for the money, then proceed with the rest of the
tasks.

I personally don't think it would be useful to try to badger her into
lowering her estimate, but thats just my personal preference to move on
to other providers if I feel like someone is charging too much. If you
are good at badgering people you might be able to dicker your way down
to a lower number.

I personally don't think that any of the tasks you outline are
particularly complicated, and it would be a valuable educational
experience to research/analyze them yourself.

Andy

I am engaging the services of a fee-only (hourly) financial planner.

It seems like the planner is asking for too much money. (As an estimate,
since they haven't done any work yet.)

Here's what I was looking for:

1.) Asset allocation and rebalancing. (I haven't kept up to date on what
funds are good and such. The last time I did was about 4 years ago...so I
want a planner to "rebalance" me.)

2. I would like to run some "retirement scenarios", to see if I am on track
to retire...and if I have enough to retire at what age in light of pensions,
SS, 401k, savings, etc. (And whats the plan for getting me there.)

...and to find out if I can spend some money on travel and home improvements
in the coming years without throwing my 'plan' off the tracks.

3.) A basic 'check-up', checklist. (Do I have enough insurance, wills,
etc.)

The planner said she charges $136/hr. (Which seemed reasonable).

THEN...she said the estimated bill/fee would probably be a little under
$3,000.

On the ride home I was thinking....that is like 20 hours!

I don't think she is really going to spend 20 hours on me. (She was
probably testing the number on me.) And I don't think with my simple
questions/answers that I am seeking (above) should require 20 hours, right?

Am I paying too much?

What should I expect to pay?

How do I approach the subject of lowering her estimate? (Saying something
like" I need that estimate to be closer to half that, or, Can we do what's
necessary for XXX amount?, etc.)

I would like this experience to be as fruitful AND pleasant as possible. I
don't want to feel like someone took me for a ride.

This is not a mahogany laden old time brokerage/financial/legal firm. This
is a woman in a suite of a few planners.

Any thoughts or opinions?

Thanks!