Received a cold call from a financial advisor. Would you recommend using (or not using) one? They charge 1% of assets under management which seems expensive, so wondering if they are actually worth it.

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No (I am an advisor)

The only time when I think it might be worth it is if the alternative is you wouldn’t invest yourself. Then ya sure it could be worth it. There are plenty of people who are just convinced they don’t know anything about investments and don’t want to learn. And then there are those who truly don’t have the time to manage.

Depends on what type of advisor. But when you put the money in we don’t even think about you more than a couple of times a year to adjust things. If that. Maybe just once a year.

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In some situations there’s value added if you have a demanding career and family commitments. Not everyone wants to or can self manage. But in that case shop for an advisor and compare a few. I would never throw money at someone and say there you handle it without being informed, asking questions, and still participating in the decisions. Also when speaking to someone they should be asking YOU questions to get a good gauge of your life stage, goals, existing commitments, etc. Only then can they give tailored advice.

Not under most circumstances, and certainly not one that calls you to solicit business. Generally good advice is to not use advisers who charge assets under management fees or commissions. You want transparent flat fees.

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Thank you!

No. Seek advice for estate and tax planning when you already have some wealth under your belt. Ideally on a fixed/hourly fee basis.

When accumulating just stick it in some combination of a 3 fund portfolio (domestic, international, bonds) and seek out funds with diversity and low fees.

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1. Absolutely Not from any advisor calling to solicit business.

2. I am a big fan of fee-only CFPs. They are a slightly more expensive upfront, but there is no bias or conflict of interest. There is no incentive for them to tell me wrong.

I am a fan of CFPs for periodic check-ups, tax structuring, confirming budget/plans, etc.

For my personal situation, my wife and I make more money then anyone in our family (1st gen all the way around). Then we realized that we reached a ceiling of knowledge from our normal source so people we trusted (parents, etc). We were blessed to surpass their experience. So we hired a CFP and read a ton of books and expanded our knowledge. Our CFP gave us a full-day breakdown of our finances and a semester worth of financial knowledge. It was a very long day (a legit 9+ hours) but it was well worth the high upfront cost. She very likely changed our life. She gave us the foundation + taught us how to teach ourselves

If you dont need the foundational instruction or a periodic checkup, I would say - No, you dont need one. IMO, everyone serious about finances could use an "audit" from an unbiased 3rd party who knows what they are doing. In my family, we aim for once every 5 years, unless something major happens, then we go sooner. This helps us catch gaps, lifestyle creep, etc. But if you do this, please for the love of things great, Do A FEE-ONLY professional (pref. CFP)

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Will do. I assume what you mean by fee-only is a flat fee, rather than an Assets Under Management fee.

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A cold call? Did you fill out a form online somewhere? How did they get your information? I’m not opposed to using a financial advisor, but I wouldn’t use one that just randomly called me one day.

I’m an attorney and my information is on some list that recruiters likely pay to have aggregated. My guess is it was eventually sold to folks that target attorneys for business. For example, aside from daily cold emails/calls from recruiters, I get cold calls from random suit tailors, attorney software businesses, other financial/wealth advisors, expert witness businesses and so on. So, I wouldn’t be shocked to find out they’re legit, but also can see strong arguments not to hand them control of my life savings if I didn’t initiate contact in case they’re not.

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Why do you think you need one?

The intended benefit would be maximizing profits, liquidity, risk management and retirement planning.

To answer your question, I posted this to see what people’s experiences are and to inform myself of the measure of those benefits relative to cost and perhaps sus out any pitfalls.

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Definitely you don’t find them by them cold-calling you. If you think you may benefit from one ask others in your area for one they consider both skilled and trustworthy. Pretty much like any high end professional.

Ya, agree. Thanks for the advice. And even setting aside the point of how to source a competent professional, I had the worry in the back of my mind that if I trust someone that initiated contact with me, I would be leaving the door open to a sophisticated scam, potentially.

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Go with Vanguard or someone reputable. They charge .08% for a team.

Who still cold calls these days?

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