Non invest financial plan

[tai chi60]

Hi Thanks for this group.
While this isn't the most logical group to ask about non invest financal
plans, can anyone suggest who to contact for it? Even CPAs and CFPs seem
unnterested if not investing in stocks and bonds. At my age, setting up
safe tax and retirement plan, is increaingly important.

[David S Meyers CFP]

The structure of compensation in the "financial advice" business is
unfortunately slanted towards two methods -- "transactional" and
"asset-based".

Transactional means commissions for the person who sold you the product
-- think, for example, a broker who puts you into load mutual funds or
an insurance guy who sells you life insurance. You can certainly get
excellent financial advice from someone who also happens to be selling
a product, but you have to be aware what's going on.

Asset-based may mean either "fee-based" -- which means a percentage of
assets *and* possibly some transactional basis as well, or "fee-only"
which usually means you need to turn over some substantial level of
assets for the person to manage in order to get financial advice as
part of the deal (and, typically, pay the person 1% or more of those
assets for the combination of asset-management plus financial planning).

There are folks out there who offer financial planning without working
only within those two models, but they are a lot more difficult to
find, and folks may be surprised at how much they charge. A financial
planner who works by the hour -- and there are such -- may charge
upwards of $200/hr. Or a fixed price financial plan -- which may
include a couple of hours of meetings plus all the research and work
that goes into writing up that plan -- may cost $2000 or more.

Of course, people getting financial advice from transactional or
asset-based models pay the same or more - they usually just don't see
the bill explicitly, since it's often hidden or just not obvious.

That all said, I am one of those last types. My practice does
financial planning and asset management and I usually charge separately
for those things, so it's always clear just what the client is paying
for.

I'd start with looking for an advisor who is a member of NAPFA, the
National Association of Personal Financial Advisors. To be a member,
one has to be fee-only (which may mean asset-based, but it also may be
hourly/project/retainer/etc). They have an advisor-search function
here: <http://findanadvisor.napfa.org/Home.aspx>

You could also try looking at the Garrett network - an association of
planners who all do hourly work: <http://garrettplanningnetwork.com>

Finally, feel free to post more details, anonymously is fine, to this
newsgroup and see what folks have to say. Bear in mind that you will
not get the level of detail or personalized advice in a forum like this
that you'd get from working with a professional, but it may be a good
start and help you know what questions to ask and how to get the most
out of such a professional should you follow up by going to one.

[I am in NAPFA, btw]

I hope that helps.

--David


--
David S. Meyers, CFP®
http://www.MeyersMoney.com
disclaimer: discussions in misc.invest.financial-plan are for
educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial
advice. For personal financial advice, please consult directly with a
professional.

[tai chi60]

Thanks for the information. It will surely help. I have an idea what I
want done, but not sure how to follow through. Your website does look
helpful and will be checked out more carefully.