Advisor advising
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Most of the country’s 300,000 or so financial advisors get paid via sales commissions or else an annual percentage of the assets they oversee. The planners on this list are very different. They are paid the way lawyers are paid: by the hour or by the job. They don’t collect a percentage of anything.
There aren’t very many planners with hourly rates or flat fees, but hopefully their ranks will grow. Clients with a lot of money saved up but not a lot going on in their accounts are ill-served by percentage formulas.
To get on this list, a planner must:
—aver that (s)he does not have any clients paying a percentage of assets,
—have a website, and
—publish a location.
Permitted here, besides hourly rates: project fees (for example, $3,000 for a financial plan); subscription or retainer fees (for example, $300 a month); annual fees based on the level of complexity in the client’s affairs.
The website must belong to the planner’s firm. It can’t be merely a page in the website of a planner network (like the Garrett Planning Network).
The directory now has only one planner name and one location per firm. It may be expanded at a later date to include all the planners in a firm.
If you are on the list and shouldn’t be, or aren’t on the list but should be, send a note to: forbeshourlyplanners@gmail.com.