the Price of a Financial Planner

The total price included a two hour analysis of our investment portfolio by a Certified Financial Planner working in conjunction with a major investment bank, fees for the planner to periodically update us quarterly on the performance of our portfolio throughout the subsequent year, a personally developed planning guide for saving for our retirement and other goals (buying a house is the top priority right now) and how we should change our portfolio over time to reach these goals as we have determined.

The quality of the service was top notch, as I would have expected from a professionally certified financial planner. The planner worked with us to provide simple explanation for my significant other and I, which was more important for her due to my finance background, of our needs and what our current investment goals should be in terms of return and amount of principal we should be contributing to our retirements on an annual basis. The planner also provided us with service that we have been receiving through the year where our quarterly performance of our portfolios and retirement accounts are analyzed with some feedback based on newer information. The ability of the planner to provide updated insight and direction on a quarterly basis for us is crucial to ensuring our investment goals are met.

For someone in need of financial planning services, make sure you use someone that is a Certified Financial Planner. They are difficult to find in some areas (in our case, we were lucky that we had one in town that was easily accessible,) but the certification ensures that their motives are driven by the desire to put the customer in the best position in terms of their retirement or their investment goals. In addition, ensure that your planner will offer you follow up service, whether it be scheduled like ours or as an on demand service (where you can call the planner as needed.) Because of the dynamics of the market, you also need to have a planner that can be current with their information, so ensure that the planner you choose is always up to date with the latest facts and figures. With the latest knowledge, they can better advise you.