A Plethora of Planners
A generation ago there were stock-brokers, life-insurance agents and, for the wealthy, bank-trust officers. Nowadays, the U.S. is swarming with planners and advisers of every stripe: financial planners, retirement planners, life planners, independent investment advisers, wealth-management advisers and so on.
In any city or retirement haven, you'll probably run into any of the following purveyors of financial assistance:
Certified Financial Planner: The retired Army officer who decided late in his military career to study financial planning. He passed the exam to become a certified financial planner and now rents a Spartan office, furnished with a shelf full of Morningstar publications and a computer with software on mutual funds and asset allocation. It's a one-man shop, and you and your spouse may be among only a handful of clients.
From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance
Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just $107.88 $24.99, plus get up to 4 Special Issues
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
There are also more experienced number crunchers who enter this field later in life. A corporate CPA who took an early-retirement package and works from home as a financial planner. Her clients want to manage their 401(k) and IRA withdrawals so that they can enjoy retirement and help pay for their grandchildren's education. She'll charge $150 or more an hour, or at least $3,000 a year, to create a plan and be a sounding board. You'll get an excellent computer-generated road map, but it will be out of date if inflation creeps up and tax laws change.
Wealth Management: A local firm that specializes in trusts, estates and bequests and calls its business "wealth management." The partners could be lawyers, so you'll pay dearly. But they'll plan your estate so that after your death the charities and heirs of your choice will get your money. Just don't ask them to talk about investments. That's not their thing, so they'll outsource your money to an investment manager who might not be particularly successful.
Independent Broker-Dealers:A trio of former stockbrokers who got sick of pitching stocks and sicker of Wall Street's reputation. They quit to set themselves up as independent advisers and representatives of an unfamiliar "broker-dealer" firm that holds your accounts and executes recommended trades.
The brokers and their eager, young staff will charge a fee of 1% of your assets (maybe less, maybe more) to manage your money personally. But they also sell mutual funds and prepackaged, "wrap" investment accounts, which generate fees for a minimum of work.
Any of these people may be right for you. Or they may charge you thousands of dollars for something you can do yourself, possibly with the help of an accountant or some other lower-cost specialist.
Mass Merchants: If an independent adviser doesn't appeal to you, you might consult a big firm, such as Fidelity Investments, Vanguard, Charles Schwab or TD Ameritrade, because that's where you have your IRA and they offer planning services. But look into what you're getting: Schwab and TD Ameritrade, for example, may simply refer you to a list of independent advisers that the company has vetted.
-
Quiz: How Much Do You Know About How Social Security Benefits Are Taxed?Quiz Social Security benefits often come with confusing IRS tax rules that can trip up financially savvy retirees and near-retirees.
-
Are You Ready for 65? The Medicare Initial Enrollment Period QuizQuiz Turning 65 soon? Test your basic knowledge of Medicare's Initial Enrollment Period (IEP) rules in our quick quiz.
-
3 Ways to Stretch the 2026 Social Security COLA For Your BudgetThree steps retirees can take to stretch the Social Security COLA to fit their budgets.
-
Best Banks for High-Net-Worth Clientswealth management These banks welcome customers who keep high balances in deposit and investment accounts, showering them with fee breaks and access to financial-planning services.
-
Stock Market Holidays in 2025: NYSE, NASDAQ and Wall Street HolidaysMarkets When are the stock market holidays? Here, we look at which days the NYSE, Nasdaq and bond markets are off in 2025.
-
Stock Market Trading Hours: What Time Is the Stock Market Open Today?Markets When does the market open? While the stock market has regular hours, trading doesn't necessarily stop when the major exchanges close.
-
Bogleheads Stay the CourseBears and market volatility don’t scare these die-hard Vanguard investors.
-
The Current I-Bond Rate Is Mildly Attractive. Here's Why.Investing for Income The current I-bond rate is active until April 2026 and presents an attractive value, if not as attractive as in the recent past.
-
What Are I-Bonds? Inflation Made Them Popular. What Now?savings bonds Inflation has made Series I savings bonds, known as I-bonds, enormously popular with risk-averse investors. How do they work?
-
This New Sustainable ETF’s Pitch? Give Back Profits.investing Newday’s ETF partners with UNICEF and other groups.
-
As the Market Falls, New Retirees Need a Planretirement If you’re in the early stages of your retirement, you’re likely in a rough spot watching your portfolio shrink. We have some strategies to make the best of things.
