Solo 401k, Self-Directed IRA, and Fee-based Financial Planners NAPFA
Figuring out your financial plan without commission-bias.
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PrintLast post I looked at the AARP site to get some ideas on
financial planning for retirement. I included a couple of links, but after
posting I went back to the AARP website and found an article called: Retirement
Planner: Money for Life by the well-known financial planning columnist Jane
Bryant Quinn. http://www.aarp.org/money/retirement/articles/money_for_life.html
The article was well done with common, but sage advice on getting out of debt, health insurance planning, and other useful ideas. The most useful one was about finding a financial planner who actually has your best interest at heart.
Now, when you stop chuckling about that last comment, please
remember that old maxim that you get what you pay for. If you don’t pay a
financial planner any money to get advice, how much did you pay that
individual? Zero, upfront money. So, how does that person make a living – on commissions
for the stocks, bonds, insurance and other financial products you buy. Now,
this is not a condemnation on that model – it works for many people.
However, if you want true advice to serve your portfolio, you have to pay for it. Upfront. And that leads me to NAPFA – the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors. Gary Anderson recently did an article for NAPFA on Solo 401k and self directed retirement pointers for financial advisors trying to serve their clients with the more advanced and client-controlled checkbook option of the Solo 401k plan that we advocate here.
At this NAPFA site, you can search your local area to find
fee-based financial advisors who can take an objective look at your portfolio
and plan. A clean and easy-to-navigate consumer page is found here and offers resources and ideas for overall financial planning. They offer downloadable PDF newsletters with
consumer tips that are worth a read.
Again, this info is not only talking about retirement or even Solo 401k plans, but I have the bias that all financial plans, all portfolios, are retirement-oriented. I have used fee-only advisors to answer questions I have, to validate if something is worth considering, and I used one to make the decision to create a Solo 401k plan for my own small company.
Financial Planners and Advisors should check out MyBusiness401k where various news updates related to self-directed retirement are posted.
