the Price of a Financial Planner

We decided to hire a financial planner to help us organize our finances, plan for the future of both us and our children, and to give us a general sense of security that we were on the right track. For the flat fee of $900, he spent 2 hours with us reviewing all of our financial accounts and documents, and then he spent an hour on his own to develop a comprehensive plan before spending one more hour with us to discuss it and to make final decisions. He provided us with an overview of our current situation and two plans that we could follow going forward: one aggresive and one conservative.

We were really very satisfied with the services provided by the financial planner and we felt like he gave our situation the right amount of time and attention for us to get the sense that he understood where we are at financially and where we would like to go. He was patient with us and asked us good questions to know us better and develop a plan that we could follow realistically. The peace of mind that we got from completing the review and the solid advice that he provided make us satisfied with the high cost.

Get a referral from a friend or coworker; it is very hard to blindly find someone who is reliable and qualified. Make sure they have some experience working with people in your situation (age, kids, etc.) and make sure that they will dedicate enough time to really understand what you have and what you want for the future.