Vanguard Financial Planning Services

Vanguard Financial Planning Services offers fee-only investment recommendations, which are actually free for some clients.

Services
A Vanguard financial plan includes asset allocation and fund recommendations, as well as a retirement savings analysis. The client fills out an online questionnaire and receives an initial plan. After about a 45 minute telephone conversation between the client and a planner, an updated plan is generated. While the plans typically include only Vanguard funds, a client's request to incorporate some other existing holdings will be honored.

Flagship and Voyager Select clients are entitled to complimentary plans, including free annual checkups. The fee for Voyager clients is $250, and it's $1,000 for clients with less than $100,000 in Vanguard funds. Investors with portfolios of overall value less than $100,000 are ineligible.

Advantages
Vanguard planners do not receive commissions for selling financial products. A client can be assured of receiving a well-diversified portfolio recommendation, consisting of low-cost Vanguard funds. A plan is inexpensive or free for many clients, and it likely represents a large improvement over a typical investor's self-designed portfolio.

Criticisms
A minor conflict of interest exists in that the planners are beholden to Vanguard.
 * Their default recommendations are restricted exclusively to Vanguard funds.
 * They could be instructed to include particular funds Vanguard management wishes to promote.