the Price of a Financial Planner

Our decision to use a financial planner to help us organize our finances and our future was a wise and profitable choice. This is the price we paid for a two hour inventory and discussion of our current financial situation. Our financial planner then developed three separate plans (an aggressive model, a conservative model, and a moderate model) designed specifically to meet our goals. He then met with us again for a one and a half hour session where he explained the different plans and helped us decide on the one that best met our needs. The financial planner we chose was referred to us by our banking institution.

Since our first meeting, our financial planner calls us every month to see if we are still happy with our choices and to see if there is anything he can help us with. I think that is pretty amazing considering the fact that we are not wealthy; we are just ordinary people. However, he has never made us feel like our financial planning wasn't "worthy" of his services. In fact, his helpful, friendly manner has made us trust him whole-heartedly! Our investments and retirement savings has done extremely well, even during the recent hard times. We could not be more happy with our financial planning service.

Ask your friends and family if they use a financial planner. Are they happy with their investment returns and customer service? Also, ask your bank's branch manager. Ours was very honest and told us not to use our bank's financial planning because it was too expensive.