If you’re approaching retirement or have already stopped working, it may have occurred to you that saving for retirement was the easy part.
Most likely, you had contributions to a 401(k) or other employer-provided retirement savings account automatically deducted from your paycheck. Target-date funds, which automatically adjust your investments as you approach retirement, have taken the guesswork (and hopefully the stress) out of investing those contributions. For investments outside of your workplace plan, many brokerage firms have harnessed digital tools to provide low-cost investment advice. (We've evaluated the online services that many major brokers provide.)
But once you retire and need to start withdrawing from your nest egg, the task of managing your money becomes more difficult. Fewer than half of retirees say they’ve estimated how much they’ll need to withdraw from their savings and investments to cover their expenses, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s 2024 Retirement Confidence Survey.
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Even if you’ve nailed down the amount of income you’ll need each month to retire comfortably, you’ll have to wrestle with a host of decisions that can’t be put on autopilot, such as which accounts you should tap first, how to lower taxes on your withdrawals and when you should sign up for Social Security. Add to the mix concerns about long-term care, estate planning and charitable giving, and you may start to feel as though managing your savings is a full-time job.
With the stakes so high, you’re probably going to want some advice. For many retirees, that means hiring a financial planner. A qualified certified financial planner can manage your portfolio and provide advice on a range of other subjects, from withdrawal rates to legacy planning.
To earn the CFP designation, an individual must complete a course of study, pass a rigorous exam, have 6,000 hours of experience related to financial planning and commit to continuing education. In addition, CFPs are required to act as fiduciaries, which means they must put their clients’ interests above their own.
Many CFPs provide excellent advice, but their guidance doesn’t come cheap. Compensation structures vary, but a common one is an assets under management (AUM) model, in which the planner bases his or her fees on a percentage of your portfolio. For example, if you have a $1 million portfolio and your planner charges a 1% fee, you would pay the planner $10,000 a year.
The percentage typically decreases as your portfolio grows. On average, advisers charge 1.12% per year for a portfolio of $100,000, 1.02% for a portfolio of $1 million and 0.98% for a portfolio of $2 million, according to a 2023 survey by Advisory HQ, a marketing organization. Supporters of this model, a longtime standard for the advisory business, say it gives advisers a strong incentive to perform well, because as your portfolio grows, so does their compensation.
Increasingly, though, brokerage and financial services firms such as Charles Schwab, Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price and Vanguard are offering financial advice to retirees and preretirees at a lower cost. Depending on the amount you have invested, you may be able to get advice on account-withdrawal rates, taxes, estate planning and more, often from a dedicated financial planner, for a fee of 0.5% or less of assets under management. The firm may limit advisory services to assets it manages — so it may not include your former employer’s 401(k), for example, or a taxable brokerage account you inherited that’s with another brokerage firm.
If you’ve accumulated a significant amount of assets with a particular financial services firm, you’ve likely already received promotions for its financial-planning services. Enrolling in one of these programs could give you the confidence to spend money you’ve worked so hard to save. That’s not easy for many retirees: A 2018 survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that retirees with at least $500,000 or more in savings had spent down less than 12% over 20 years.
Here are some questions to ask before signing up.
How much do I need to have invested to qualify for advisory services?
The amount required to be eligible for guidance from a dedicated adviser varies. For example, Schwab Wealth Advisory provides a dedicated financial adviser and personalized wealth-management strategy to clients with $500,000 or more in assets. Through Fidelity Wealth Management Services, you can get a dedicated financial adviser and portfolio management if you have at least $500,000 in assets.
T. Rowe Price, a relative newcomer to wealth-advisory services, will provide a dedicated adviser to clients with at least $250,000 in assets. For customers with a minimum of $100,000 in assets, Ally Invest Personal Advice offers a personalized financial plan from a dedicated adviser using portfolios of exchange-traded funds (ETFs); Ally will also provide withdrawal strategies for retirement accounts, but it doesn’t offer tax advice.
Some firms have expanded services for wealthier clients — typically those with $2 million or more. For example, Vanguard’s Wealth Management program, available to clients with $5 million or more in Vanguard mutual funds and ETFs, provides investment-advisory services, wealth and estate planning, tax strategies, and other services through a dedicated CFP.
Fidelity’s Private Wealth Management Services, available to clients with investable assets of at least $10 million — with $2 million or more managed through Fidelity — provides investment management, trust and estate planning, and other services.
How much does the service cost?
Fees range from 0.3% to more than 1% of assets, typically depending on the amount you have invested and the services provided. Vanguard’s Personal Advisor Select, which provides access to a financial adviser, a customized financial plan and ongoing investment advice to customers with at least $500,000 in Vanguard IRAs, brokerage accounts and trusts, charges 0.3% of assets, or $3,000 a year for an account with $1 million in assets. The fee for Schwab’s Wealth Advisory service starts at 0.8% of assets and decreases at higher asset levels.
When considering costs, though, it’s also important to look at the expense ratios imposed by the underlying mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in the firm’s recommended portfolio. Although index funds and ETFs typically have low fees, your adviser may recommend actively traded funds — emerging-markets funds, for example, or small-company stock funds. While these funds may offer the potential for higher returns, they tend to come with higher expense ratios than ETFs and index funds.
When inquiring about advisory services, ask whether you’ll qualify for any breaks on fees. T. Rowe Price, for example, caps fees so that its combined investment-advisory service fee and fund expense ratio doesn’t exceed 1%, says Lindsay Theodore, a thought leadership manager at T. Rowe Price.
For example, if the client’s portfolio has a weighted average expense ratio that exceeds 0.5%, the advisory service fee of 0.5% will be reduced. And depending on the amount of assets invested in Vanguard funds, participants in Vanguard’s advisory program may be eligible for Admiral class shares, which have an average expense ratio of 0.14%, or institutional shares, which have an average expense ratio of 0.08%.
What’s available for free?
Before you agree to pay a percentage of your assets, look into what’s offered at no cost. For example, Fidelity’s advisers will help clients create a financial plan that covers everything from withdrawal rates to Social Security claiming strategies for no extra charge, and clients can contact a member of Fidelity’s advisory team at any time to update the plan, says Ryan Viktorin, a CFP and financial consultant for Fidelity. The service is particularly valuable for clients who are retired or approaching retirement, she says.
“It can be a mental shift when you get to retirement, and it’s scary for a lot of people,” she says. There’s no investment minimum for this service, but clients with a large amount of assets may qualify for a dedicated financial adviser at no cost, Viktorin says. If you want an adviser to manage your portfolio, however, you’ll have to use one of Fidelity’s paid services.
For clients with at least $250,000 in assets, T. Rowe Price provides a complimentary financial plan that includes a recommended portfolio of investments, analysis of Social Security benefits, proposed spending adjustments and a score showing the likelihood they won’t outlive their savings.
Schwab clients with at least $1 million in assets are automatically enrolled in Schwab Private Client Services, which provides them with a dedicated consultant who will direct them to resources at Schwab in areas such as income, tax and estate planning. This service is primarily designed for self-directed investors; clients who want ongoing investment management will need to enroll in Schwab’s Wealth Advisory service and pay the fee.
In addition, most financial services firms provide a range of tools you can use to estimate income and expenses, analyze your Social Security benefits, determine whether you should convert to a Roth IRA and more. Even if you eventually decide to hire a financial planner, these tools will help you get a handle on your finances and figure out where you need help.
Will the advice be comprehensive enough?
One of the upsides of paying for advice from your financial services firm is that the firm already knows a lot about you — and you know a lot about it. If you’re comfortable with the company’s customer service and investment offerings, paying for a dedicated financial adviser and other features could make sense.
But if the advice is limited to assets you own within the firm, the adviser — or team of advisers — may not have a complete picture of your financial health. Many retirees have multiple retirement, taxable and savings accounts with different banks and brokerage firms. Your net worth may also include life insurance, a pension and home equity, all of which will contribute to your retirement security.
While some advisory services “are great for DIY investors who want a little bit of help, it’s not holistic financial advice or planning,” says Pam Krueger, chief executive officer and founder of Wealthramp, which connects investors with vetted, fee-only advisers.
Most CFPs will provide a free consultation, which should give you an opportunity to ask about their skills, specializations and fees before you commit to what could be a long-term relationship. You can search for a CFP in your area at the Financial Planning Association’s website.
Look for a fee-only planner. These individuals are compensated for giving advice, and they don’t earn commissions by recommending specific products or services. They’re also required to act as fiduciaries, which means they must put your interests above their own.
Be wary of any adviser who declines to discuss their fee structures upfront. If you’re paying a percentage of assets under management, you should expect to receive, along with investment advice, help with estate planning, insurance and other aspects of your financial life.
If you’re not comfortable paying a percentage of your assets, it’s easier than ever to find CFPs who use different — and possibly less expensive — compensation methods. Some Wealthramp advisers charge by the hour or work on retainer, Krueger says. Planners in the Garrett Planning Network are fee-only CFPs who charge by the hour, typically at hourly rates ranging from $100 to $300.
Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine, a monthly, trustworthy source of advice and guidance. Subscribe to help you make more money and keep more of the money you make here.
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