Have you ever used a financial planner?

[MaryAnnDVC]

We met with one tonight, and discussed some things, and he told us what he would charge to work on doing a thorough plan for us. He's my mom's financial advisor. He's familiar with all of us kids (5) because mom made a small distribution of her holdings (which has taken a beating in the stock market ) to all of us after dad passed away several years ago.

So, if you've used one, was it worth the expense? Are you glad you did it? What do we need to know about the process? Even meeting with him tonight got me thinking about how we handle things...or DON'T handle them...and what we need to consider for the future.

Well Dan? What do you think of financial planners?

 

[WebmasterAlex]

I know there are different kinds. A lot of insurance salespeople use the term "financial planner" to push their products. If I was going to use one I would want to make sure they were independent and not influenced by how much they were going to make.

 

[NHAnn]

Ditto what Alex said. Be careful who you pay and to whom you give all your personal details! A lot of the "planning" you can do yourself with guidelines that are available through research for free.
Having said that though, to answer your question, no I've never used one......

 

[helenabear]

I use one. Right now there isn't much to go through with us since we are young and don't have children. Mine usually just helps us secure funds and helps to transfer things like 401K and things like that. I trust mine more than I would with someone at my bank and with mine I don't even see how much is made off of our dealings because there are no upfront fees or anything like that. I know my financial planner personally (it's my dad) and honestly I can say he is not in it for the money (he only does it part time)... only to help people. He loves doing that and dealing with the rules and all that he runs into with being a financial planner.