Navigating Life Transitions With a Fee-Only Financial Advisor
By Net Worth Advisory Group
Imagine hiring a tour guide with an up-front fee, only to discover extra charges along the journey. You wouldn’t tolerate that—so why settle for anything less than a fee-only financial advisor?
A fee-only model is straightforward: you pay a set fee for the advisor’s services, without worrying about hidden commissions or extra costs. This is particularly valuable during major life transitions like divorce, receiving an inheritance, changing careers, or entering retirement because these events often involve complex financial decisions and require unbiased advice.
Here’s how fee-only advising works and why it’s essential for your financial well-being.
What Is Fee-Only Advisory?
There are a few different ways fee-only advisors get paid. Some popular methods include:
- Hourly: You pay a fixed amount based on the number of hours your advisor spends meeting with you.
- Flat fee: This is similar to the hourly method, but you pay one flat fee no matter how many hours you spend meeting with your advisor.
- Percentage of assets under management (AUM): You pay a percentage-based fee depending on the value of your investments. This fee is typically around 1%.
The Benefits of Fee-Only Advisory Services
Why might you pursue a fee-only advisory service? For many of the same reasons as you would choose a fee-only hiking guide. You’ll gain benefits such as the following:
Transparent Pricing & Impartial Guidance
With a fee-only advisor, you’ll never have to worry about hidden fees, commissions, or “surprise” charges. The transparent pricing structure allows you to know exactly what you’re paying for, making it easier to compare advisors. Additionally, fee-only advisors have a fiduciary responsibility to act in your best interest, without the pressure to sell products that involve commissions or extra fees. Their advice is focused solely on what’s best for you.
Tailored Advice
If an advisor receives a commission on the service they offer, there’s little incentive to actually understand the needs of the client. Fee-only advisors are completely different. Fee-only providers can take the time to listen to the needs of their clients and provide personalized advice rather than simply seeking to sell additional services.
Clear Pricing During Major Life Transitions
Clear and predictable pricing is essential during critical moments like navigating a divorce, managing an inheritance, changing careers, or transitioning into retirement. These situations require unbiased financial advice, and a fee-only model helps to avoid conflicts of interest.
- Divorce: Divorce can involve intricate asset division and adjustments to financial plans. A fee-only advisor provides transparent, impartial guidance, keeping the advice you receive directed solely toward your best interest.
- Inheritance: An inheritance can bring both opportunities and challenges. With a fee-only model, you get straightforward advice on how to best handle and invest these new assets, free from any sales commissions or hidden fees that could skew recommendations.
- Career Change: A career transition, whether a job change or retirement, often requires strategic planning to align with your long-term financial goals. A fee-only advisor helps you plan effectively without worrying about additional costs based on the services provided.
- Retirement: Transitioning into retirement involves complex decisions like managing retirement accounts, Social Security, and distribution strategies. A fee-only advisor offers objective advice on how to pursue your ideal financial future without hidden fees or pressure to buy financial products.
Navigating the Financial Landscape With a Fee-Only Advisor
The right “tour guide” can take the stress out of planning your financial future. Here’s what you can expect when working with a fee-only advisory service.
Understanding Your Goals
An advisor is your financial guide, but you’re still in the driver’s seat. Where do you want to go? The right advisor can listen to your financial goals and help you articulate your future plans. That’s important in an age where over half of Americans are uncertain about retirement. The right advisor can help you define your goals and envision the future with greater confidence.
The Stress Test
Just how realistic are your goals? How comfortable are you with risk? These are the sorts of questions that an advisor can help you navigate as you plot a course for the future. Your advisor can help you align your financial strategy with your goals while also accounting for the shifting dynamics of the American economy.
Allocating Your Assets
Once your advisor understands your goals, they take the steps necessary to implement your financial plan. You confirm your plan before it’s executed so you retain total control over your strategy and goals.
Monitoring Your Progress and Adjusting Over Time
The final step is the most important. An advisor should stay with you through every step of the financial journey, helping you monitor your progress and make adjustments to keep you in the “sweet spot” of your goals and priorities. And your advisor keeps you updated on your progress as frequently as you want.
Stability Through Transition With a Fee-Only Advisor
Fee-only advisory services offer the clarity and assurance needed to tackle complex financial situations and transitions as you pursue your long-term goals. At Net Worth Advisory Group, our commitment is to support by guiding you through these challenges with personalized advice tailored to your needs. Our team is here to walk with you every step of the way.
Call us at 801-566-6639 or schedule a complimentary, no-obligation consultation to see if we are a good fit to help you pursue your goals. I look forward to connecting with you!
About Net Worth Advisory Group
Founded in 2003, Net Worth Advisory Group is an independent, fee-only, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® and investment advisory firm located in Salt Lake City, Utah. We specialize in helping people transition from the workplace into retirement and ensuring that those who are already retired will not outlive their nest egg. Our top priority is to have clients experience a greater sense of ease with diligent, personalized wealth care and the implementation of customized financial plans and ongoing personalized asset management. We equip all clients with a comprehensive financial plan, meeting every six months to update as needed and review investment performance. Our team is passionate about providing comprehensive financial planning with the fee-only model, and we love feeling like we’re making a difference in our clients’ financial lives.
As a NAPFA-registered fee-only advisory firm, our recommendations are untainted by a hidden agenda to sell financial products paying large commissions. Unlike our competitors at brokerage firms, insurance companies, and banks, we are compensated solely by our clients, so we are financially motivated to provide objective advice that is always in our clients’ best interests. Anyone can call himself or herself a financial planner, but only an advisor with the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER®, CFP® designation has met the education, examination, experience, and ethical requirements mandated by the CFP® board. According to the CFP Board, there are 97,000+ CFP® professionals in 2023, representing about 1 in 3 financial advisors in the U.S. Net Worth advisors are also members of NAPFA, which only has about 4,600 advisors, and are either CFP® professionals or CFP® professionals in training.
Net Worth Advisory Group’s mission is to significantly improve the lives of our clients by delivering exemplary financial planning and wealth management advice that enables them to live the lives they have imagined.
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