Free Professional Financial Checkup Tomorrow
Published on - January 14th, 2008 (Modified on - January 15th, 2008) (by J.D. Roth) It’s the start of a new year, and many people have resolved to improve their financial situation. Meanwhile, another tax season is close upon us. Personal finance questions abound! Sure, money forums and blogs can help you with some of your problems, but sometimes you need a trained professional.
Tomorrow — Tuesday, January 15th — Kiplinger’s Personal Finance and the National Association of Personal Finance Advisors (NAPFA) are teaming up to provide free retirement planning advice from a fee-only advisor. This is the the seventh time these two have teamed up for “Jump-Start Your Retirement Plan Days”. (There’s a second day scheduled for Friday, January 25th.) From the NAPFA web site:
Just dial 1-888-919-2345 [between 9am and 6pm Eastern] on these dates and a NAPFA member will respond to your questions. Or if you prefer, you may go to Kiplinger’s to submit your questions.
There is no charge for this service — not even the phone call. To make the most of your financial checkup, please gather together any relevant documents that you need — such as mutual fund statements or your 401(k) choices before the call. If your questions are too complex to be answered on the spot, you may be directed to the NAPFA “Find an Advisor” search to locate a NAPFA-Registered Financial Advisor in your area.
Our retirement hotline is a public service that is offered to all, not just Kiplinger’s subscribers. “Volunteer advisers from across the country are prepared to help as many people as possible,” says NAPFA CEO Ellen Turf. “It is incredibly satisfying for them to have such a positive impact on so many lives.”
This is an amazing opportunity. I do my best to provide you solid information year-round, but there’s no substitute for the advice of a professional. If you’ve been wanting to seek retirement advice, now is the time to do it. I encourage you all to try this, and to report back on your experience. Tell them Get Rich Slowly sent you!
Addendum: Forum members report mixed success with their calls. If you used this service, leave a comment here or in the forums to let us know how it went.
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Great encouraging post,
Thanks
Tracy Ho
wisdomgettingloaded
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Is this any relation to “Free Beer Tomorrow”?
sorry, couldn’t resist
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thanks for the heads up!
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Wow, that is a great opportunity. It’s not every day you can get access to the pros for no fee.
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Great find JD!
Gotta love the price!
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J.D. I haven’t used a financial adviser before. My fiance has, and when I met him, he was the kind that got paid for the funds he recommended. He came off kind of used car sales-ish. What is the best choice for useful, unbiased advice? Besides blogs, you know…
I could use a post that explains the difference, and maybe some advice on how to find a good adviser (I’m not sure my “are they busy” technique will work with FA’s).
P.S. is it adviser, or advisor? Firefox seems to think it’s adviser.
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Thanks J.D. that is a good find on your part. I am going to take a look at that now. You are right that its always a good idea to contact a professional when you can. especially if it is free.
Then all you need to do is find a way to save more and have something to plan out.
take care
joel
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Oh look, there’s a search button:
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/04/24/when-and-how-do-you-hire-a-financial-planner/
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We could all use a good financial checkup from time-to-time. It couldn’t hurt to put a call in and see what feedback you get.
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Thanks! Wish I would have known about this sooner!
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I don’t know if it’s adviser or advisor. All of the information from both Kiplinger’s and NAPFA seems to use them interchangeably. In fact, in one of the press releases, both versions are used in the same sentence.
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Awesome!!!
Hopefully they can answer some questions I have as well..
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I believe adviser and advisor are used interchangeably (advisor is generally an alternative spelling for adviser). I would think, however, that one should be consistent in using one or the other in any single document.
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Well, before I posted the question, I searched for advisor, and didn’t find the article I linked. After I posted, I searched for adviser, and found J.D.’s guest post, which was helpful.
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“Adviser” usually refers advisers registered under the Investment Adviser Act of 1940 and is spelled that way by others when referencing the law because that’s how it appears in the Act. In this case the adviser is usually an entity like a firm or practice rather than an individual but can refer to an individual in certain cases.
“Advisor” usually refers to an individual that gives advice and is much more generic (like financial advisor, or legal advisor). However, I have seen the term, Registered Investment Adviser, spelled with an “or” quite a bit.
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NAPFA is an organization of fee-only advisors. If you are looking for an advisor, you’ll want one of these, because they aren’t shilling specific products to pad their commissions. You can trust a recommendation from a fee-only advisor because they are paid for the services directly.
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There is a difference between a “financial adviser” and a “fee-only financial planner”. One is paid based on the actions you take and the other receives no compensation other than from the person receiving advice.
I recently did a market survey about objectivity in insurance among professions like accountants, lawyers, portfolio managers, and fee-only financial planners. Even if the respondent held themselves out as a “financial planner”, if they were not fee-only, their answers fell within a very close standard deviation of portfolio managers (or investment folks). There is a consistent difference in their world view.
If you are looking for advice that is free from conflicts of interest, a fee-only financial planner may be your best bet.
Oh, I’m a commissioned insurance guy, not a financial planner.
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Great info and I think I will give them a ring for the heck of it. I have my 401 set up 59 percent stocks 38 percent foreign and the rest stable value.
I have about 30 years of contributions left so probably cannot go wrong with that mix for long term strategy.
It never hurts to call though and especially if they are not going to be making any hard pitches.
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The Kiplinger financial checkup is a crock of ****. I emailed last time and got a stupid reply stating I could contact one of the NAPFA financial advisers for a fee. I had everything listed in detail in the email and thought they would come up with some basic recommendation like I should update my asset allocation or you are on track to meeting your retirement goal. Instead, I get a solicitation to pay one a NAPFA adviser.
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[...] got a great today only resource. Via GetRichSlowly, I learned that today is “Jump-Start Your Retirement Plan Day” during which time you can call a [...]
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i want to call.. but i’m not sure what kind of questions to ask
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Free Retirement Planning Advice…
Thank you to the Get Rich Slowly for posting about this. (They are my favorite financial blog and worth reading if for nothing else then the name.) Kiplinger’s and and NAPFA, National Association of Professional Financial advisers, are sponsoring two …
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“If your questions are too complex to be answered on the spot, you may be directed to the NAPFA “Find an Advisor” search to locate a NAPFA-Registered Financial Advisor in your area.”
Anyone want to lay odds on how many calls are “too complex” and/or get referred?
Sounds like a referral service to me.
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