Fee-only? say less

Let me paint a picture for you:

Imagine you need to buy a car. You walk into the car dealership and the sales-person is not really a sales-person at all, but more like a consultant. He listens to you and figures out your needs. He realizes you do not know much about cars, but instead of trying to put you in the most expensive car to capitalize on your ignorance he actually explains the things you don't know. He doesn't try to sell you an extended warranty. He actually includes the floor mats in the price of the car (most car dealerships sell you the floor mats separately after they have already sold you the car and you realize they weren't included). When the salesman realizes the car that best suits your needs isn't at their dealership at all he refers you to the dealership down the road.

This is how a car dealership would operate if the sales-people weren't paid on commission. If the sales-person in this situation were paid the same amount whether they sold a Bentley or Honda then they would probably approach there job with this attitude and people would have a lot better experience at car dealerships.

This is what it is like to work with a fee-only advisor. Because we do not get paid more based on the product you buy, we remove the conflict of interest of wanting to sell you specific products. This allows us to focus on doing what we do best: financial planning and investment advice. If you have not had the pleasure of working with a fee-only advisor... try one meeting... we bet you will feel the difference.