Looking for Financial Planner in Boston area

[PassivePanda]

Hello Bogleheads, this is my first post. I recently finished reading Larrimore's The Bogleheads' Guide to the Three-Fund Portfolio, The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing. I am now reading Rick Ferri's All About Asset Allocation, Swedroe's Your Essential Guide to Sustainable Investing, and Bernstein's The Four Pillars of Investing. Have spent a while lurking and reading the Wiki. This has become one of my favorite websites. What a great resource this place is.

I'm trying to help my soon-to-be in his eighties father get out of Fidelity Wealth Management because they have been charging him way more than he is comfortable with over the last 7 years. He has assets in the seven figures with Fidelity. The asset allocation is 82/10 with 7% MM which we don't think is appropriate for his age and situation. Can anyone recommend a financial planner in the Boston area who is willing to work on a one-time financial plan for him? I've already reached out to several people I found on NAPFA, Garrett, Fee-Only Network, ACP. I don't want AUM. I've heard back from 11, all either CFP, CFA or ChFC but it's hard to know if they're any good. And I don't know how to figure that out before meeting with any of them. He's got a rollover IRA, taxable account, annuity, whole life insurance. The IRA we have the flexibility to reposition without tax consequences, but the taxable account is loaded with so many different funds that I'm thinking we need some guidance on how to extricate ourselves while minimizing taxes. My mother also has a taxable account at Schwab with many expensive funds I want to get her out of. The fees are lower there but still thousands more than she could be paying with cheaper funds like VTI. He has already worked with an estate planning attorney, and has everything in trusts, so at least that part has been taken care of. I would appreciate hearing any suggestions or advice you might have. Thank you.

[retired@50]

... I've already reached out to several people I found on NAPFA, Garrett, Fee-Only Network, ACP. I don't want AUM. I've heard back from 11, all either CFP, CFA or ChFC but it's hard to know if they're any good. And I don't know how to figure that out before meeting with any of them...

Thank you.

Welcome to the forum.

You may or may not be able to figure it out before a meeting, unless there are some obvious red flags in FINRA. https://brokercheck.finra.org/

Once you choose someone to meet with, take along a copy of this article from WSJ columnist Jason Zweig.

The 19 questions to ask your financial adviser. It even comes with the answers - as Jason sees it.
https://jasonzweig.com/the-19-questions ... l-adviser/

Regards,

[student]

Hello Bogleheads, this is my first post. I recently finished reading Larrimore's The Bogleheads' Guide to the Three-Fund Portfolio, The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing. I am now reading Rick Ferri's All About Asset Allocation, Swedroe's Your Essential Guide to Sustainable Investing, and Bernstein's The Four Pillars of Investing. Have spent a while lurking and reading the Wiki. This has become one of my favorite websites. What a great resource this place is.

I'm trying to help my soon-to-be in his eighties father get out of Fidelity Wealth Management because they have been charging him way more than he is comfortable with over the last 7 years. He has assets in the seven figures with Fidelity. The asset allocation is 82/10 with 7% MM which we don't think is appropriate for his age and situation. Can anyone recommend a financial planner in the Boston area who is willing to work on a one-time financial plan for him? I've already reached out to several people I found on NAPFA, Garrett, Fee-Only Network, ACP. I don't want AUM. I've heard back from 11, all either CFP, CFA or ChFC but it's hard to know if they're any good. And I don't know how to figure that out before meeting with any of them. He's got a rollover IRA, taxable account, annuity, whole life insurance. The IRA we have the flexibility to reposition without tax consequences, but the taxable account is loaded with so many different funds that I'm thinking we need some guidance on how to extricate ourselves while minimizing taxes. My mother also has a taxable account at Schwab with many expensive funds I want to get her out of. The fees are lower there but still thousands more than she could be paying with cheaper funds like VTI. He has already worked with an estate planning attorney, and has everything in trusts, so at least that part has been taken care of. I would appreciate hearing any suggestions or advice you might have. Thank you.

I would also avoid AUM model. However 82/10 with 7% MM is not automatically bad. It depends on whether your father has other sources of income. For example, if he has other income such as a pension, SS and rental income that cover his expenses, then he is investing for heirs and the asset allocation is not unreasonable.

[normaldude]

I've already reached out to several people I found on NAPFA, Garrett, Fee-Only Network, ACP. I don't want AUM.

If you want to avoid AUM financial planners, you may want to look for a hourly CFP on https://adviceonlynetwork.com .

As Clark Howard mentioned, some of the financial planners on Garrett may offer hourly rates, but over time, they may encourage clients to move over to AUM.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb1cPqM2tq8

[PassivePanda]

@retired@50: Thanks for that list of questions. I'll bring it along.

@student: He does have several other sources of income and doesn't need to dip into the investments for now. That may change in the future, and he is not comfortable with large drawdowns. 15-20% is his preference which would put the AA at between 40/60 and 20/80.

@normaldude: I checked that network as well. Not many people locally though.

What are people's thoughts on doing this remotely? Are there any financial planners elsewhere in the country you would recommend?

[GypsyHome]

We hired John Luskin a couple of years ago for a consultation. He was very helpful. He learned a lot of his craft from Rick Ferri. They both have waiting lists but you could get on the list and in the meantime, you could start asking questions on this forum, just to get started.

We currently use Mark Zoril's Plan Vision. It's DIY with the capability of email questions and periodic video consultations.

[glitchy]

I've heard (personally) a couple of recs for https://www.financiallyintune.com/ out of Stoneham, and there is some stuff on their web site I feel positive about. They will happily work hourly, and the people I know that use them work that way, but they will also do AUM arrangements. I have no business relationship with them.

Personally I wouldn't have a problem working with somebody remotely as long as their data security practices seems reasonable. (I do not consider "email me all your financial data" reasonable.) That's a lot about personal comfort, though--you be you!

ETA since I just saw this:

We hired John Luskin a couple of years ago for a consultation. He was very helpful. He learned a lot of his craft from Rick Ferri. They both have waiting lists but you could get on the list and in the meantime, you could start asking questions on this forum, just to get started.

I don't think there's much point in getting on Rick Ferri's waitlist--I recently heard him say publicly (one one podcast or another) that his client backlog is longer than his retirement window and he's sure he won't get to all of them.

[student]

@retired@50: Thanks for that list of questions. I'll bring it along.

@student: He does have several other sources of income and doesn't need to dip into the investments for now. That may change in the future, and he is not comfortable with large drawdowns. 15-20% is his preference which would put the AA at between 40/60 and 20/80.

@normaldude: I checked that network as well. Not many people locally though.

What are people's thoughts on doing this remotely? Are there any financial planners elsewhere in the country you would recommend?

Since you don't want AUM model, I assume you are willing to help your dad in managing investments. Talk to Planvision. They may not be able to give you everything you want but you can try them out. It is $299 the first year and $8 a month after that. If you search the forum, you will see others giving their experience on Planvision. I use them. (To me, having access to eMoney is worth $50 a year.)

[cjcerny]

Can’t your father just demand that his advisor make his portfolio 40/60 or 20/80?

Additionally, why does he need an advisor at all? It’s fine if he wants that security blanket, but definitely not easy to find one that will work for his best interests. Lots of sharks in the water. I would just DIY it. He already knows his what he would like his stock to bond ratio to be and that’s about 95% of the battle in DIY.

[tibbitts]

Can’t your father just demand that his advisor make his portfolio 40/60 or 20/80?

Additionally, why does he need an advisor at all? It’s fine if he wants that security blanket, but definitely not easy to find one that will work for his best interests. Lots of sharks in the water. I would just DIY it. He already knows his what he would like his stock to bond ratio to be and that’s about 95% of the battle in DIY.

I think you're missing the point that the OP is looking for someone to possibly unwind a very complex array of investments, many of which are in a taxable account. While Boglehead's instinctive reaction is that any problem can and should be solved by spending dozens or hundreds hours constructing a d-i-y spreadsheet, surprisingly not everyone wants to take that approach. Actually maybe at least two spreadsheets since the OP seems to want to pursue the same strategy with the Schwab portfolio as well. Also maybe surprisingly some of us have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars of our own money by making what we now know - at least in retrospect - were poor decisions over the years, and we might not be eager to take responsibility for doing the same with someone else's money. I disagree with the approach of "demanding" anything, partly because you run the risk of being fired as a client, and partly because the OP didn't even say whether anyone has had a discussion with the adviser about the concerns being discussed. We have posts here where people are satisfied and have had good results from Fidelity Wealth Management, and some have even had returns better than a reasonable benchmark, despite the fees, so it's not like you're dealing with a Madoff situation here.

[PassivePanda]

@GypsyHome: Jon Luskin looks okay, but his sample plans seem a little thin. I think my dad may need a little more guidance. Same for Planvision. I do like the eMoney application though. That might be worth getting. Thanks for the suggestions.

@glitchy: I did get in touch with Financially In Tune and have heard back from them. I'll add them to the short list. Thanks. I think Rick Ferri is a lost cause as well. I'm liking his book.

@student: Another vote for Planvision. Good to know. Thanks.

@cjcerny: I tend to agree, but with so many moving parts (rollover IRA, 2 taxable accounts, TIAA annuity, 2 trusts for him and my mother, a bunch of individual stocks, something like 40+ overlapping positions in the taxables that are mostly long term, but some short, and he has rental income and works on his own), I think he does need some guidance at least initially. Thanks.

@tibbitts: We just met with our advisor today, and he was very helpful. Doesn't change the fact that Fidelity charges a lot. Performance-wise he hasn't done badly since he started using them. He is leaning towards leaving them, but we need to have a solid plan before we do. Thanks.