Is there such a thing as a good financial advisor?

[jay santos]

Bogleheads.org. Tremendous group of DIYers


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Agree

[cowboy]

Investing is kind of like ranching. A lot of people think they can jump into it with no experience and be successful. A lot of financial advisers are worthless, but there are good people in the industry. Without experience and discipline, investing on your own is just as likely to be a disaster as not. Choose a FA that has experience and will not be inclined to switch your money in and out of investments every time the market burps. If you must invest on your own, either throw a set amount into an index ETF every month or invest in hard assets that have minimal speculative value. Also, if you have an employer matching program use it. My advice is worth what you paid for it.

[Moliere]

I'm an index fund guy. My biggest block of retirement savings is in either small cap index funds or S&P index funds. I have a small amount that I use to play with just to keep me interested in the market.

IIRC, the term financial advisor is not a regulated title, so pretty much anyone can claim to be one regardless of experience. From what I know, which is little, is if you want a really good financial advisor (meaning one that doesn't try to market crap to you) you'll have to pay for it...but that doesn't mean the expensive guys are any better than cheap index funds.


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[taekwondave]

The bird in my avatar is called a bananaquit. Details, son. Details. And, I was talking about the Last Dragon.

Well yeah, but you used to change it like every day. It was badass.

[byu71]

Honest question. Everybody I've met so far in life who has referred to themselves as a financial advisor has really just been a salesperson of one financial product or another. Is there actually a profession out there where people really do take a look at your finances and make the best decisions on your behalf or are we all really just forever personally responsible for gaining our own education about everything related to personal finances and just going it alone?

Does everyone here do it all themselves or does anybody trust some other person/organization with all their investment capital?

Good question. One that could be asked of any profession out there. Well any profession that you could possibily use some help from.

I would say that on this board and I would include you, 90% are so brilliant that any investment advisor would seem like a dunce to them.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I have an FA that I really like. But he just helps me pick a mix of low-fee funds that match my objectives, risk tolerance, and timeline. And he is available to give advice on tax issues, etc. He does not make a penny from trades, so there is no pressure to attempt market timing. He advises against it.

[jay santos]

I have an FA that I really like. But he just helps me pick a mix of low-fee funds that match my objectives, risk tolerance, and timeline. And he is available to give advice on tax issues, etc. He does not make a penny from trades, so there is no pressure to attempt market timing. He advises against it.

This is a good model. What's your financial arrangement with him? The system is screwy because people expect advice to be free and that their advisor should make his money on commission, when it should be the opposite.

[Jeff Lebowski]

This is a good model. What's your financial arrangement with him? The system is screwy because people expect advice to be free and that their advisor should make his money on commission, when it should be the opposite.

He is a "Wealth Management Advisor" with TIAA-CREF and is paid via the brokerage fees, which are relatively low compared to the rest of the industry. Services are "free" once you have $100K or more in your combined accounts. I can PM you his contact information if you are interested. He likes to use Monte Carlo analyses, which are fun for geeks like you and me.

[falafel]

He is a "Wealth Management Advisor" with TIAA-CREF and is paid via the brokerage fees, which are relatively low compared to the rest of the industry. Services are "free" once you have $100K or more in your combined accounts. I can PM you his contact information if you are interested. He likes to use Monte Carlo analyses, which are fun for geeks like you and me.

Isn't TIAA-CREF (worst name ever) limited to medical, educational and research types?

[Jeff Lebowski]

Isn't TIAA-CREF (worst name ever) limited to medical, educational and research types?

Nope.

[byu71]

Just for information sake, there is a site I really like, morningstar.com. You can put in the symbol for an ETF or mutual fund you own or are thinking about. You will get really good information. I especially like looking at the track record and making some comparison.

You can load in another fund or etf and get a comparison. If you have the one fund in it will give you comparisons with the index and other like funds.

[Joe Public]

I'll mention that there are plenty of fee-only financial planners out there who do not sell products or earn a commission. The flip side of that, of course, is that clients need to pay that fee.

[creekster]

I'll mention that there are plenty of fee-only financial planners out there who do not sell products or earn a commission. The flip side of that, of course, is that clients need to pay that fee.

That's what we do. His fee is reasonable and we have been pretty happy.