Issue with Financial Planner--looking for thoughts/input

[Hisgirl]

Wow, that is incredibly scary and frustrating!

I have a masters in financial planning and have worked as a financial counselor for 25 years and I'll share what I tell all of my clients...
Stay on top of your balances.

Every day.

Each and every morning I get a text/email stating the balance of my accounts, each one. If there has been any fraud, I want to know about it immediately, not when a statement comes out in 30 days. It would behoove you to be able to alert the bank or financial institution right away. Within a day or two.

I did this for my parents also. Every credit card charge also sends a text.

If there ever IS fraud, it is brought front and center immediately, as it should be.

I know you say you don't like online banking, but be aware....all of your accounts are online and everyone who has an interest in your account can see those accounts, except you.

If you want to continue only using bank statements, I would at the very least, set some alerts that send you a text or email stating your transfer was deposited and indicating the amount.

And definitely follow up with that FA, I don't like the sound of that. Glad you caught it.

 

[wabbott]

I will try to keep this short. Figures have been changed for privacy...

Happened across this thread this morning. How's your rejiggered financial planning system working? I still LOL at your "spreadsheet of phenomenal cosmic power."

 

[QueenIsabella]

Happened across this thread this morning. How's your rejiggered financial planning system working? I still LOL at your "spreadsheet of phenomenal cosmic power."

So far, so good. We do have some major life events coming up, we're going to see how it goes. Kid #4 (last in line) starts college this fall, and our oldest got engaged the other day, after a whirlwind 5 1/2 year courtship, so we saw that coming. But, $$ events, for sure.

DH plans to retire at 65 (he'll be 62 this year), and is looking at his options for pensions. The financial planner told him, there's no way to screw it up--even if he chooses "wrong", I'll be fine if he dies first. So, that's a load off his mind--he won't leave me destitute.

 

[QueenIsabella]

P. S. I had to use the "spreadsheet of phenomenal cosmic power" just the other day--DD20 needed her net worth for her FAFSA.

 

[longboard55]

That is one of the reasons I do not use a planner, I want to know what is going on.

 

[Marrila]

That is one of the reasons I do not use a planner, I want to know what is going on.

I like our planner, I can log in and look anytime.
I would never hire a financial planner who kept me in the dark.

 

[longboard55]

The one we tried pretty much picked out high fee mutual funds. I figured I could do that on my own

 

[wabbott]

P. S. I had to use the "spreadsheet of phenomenal cosmic power" just the other day--DD20 needed her net worth for her FAFSA.

Honest question. Did your level of "money stress" actually decline after y'all started using online banking and did periodic monitoring of accounts, etc?

 

[QueenIsabella]

Honest question. Did your level of "money stress" actually decline after y'all started using online banking and did periodic monitoring of accounts, etc?

Yes and no...

I do find it helpful to check my banking on the regular. OTOH, January was a tough "money month" for us, but we got through it, and now we're flush.

I don't think my money anxiety will ever completely go away, it's just too hard-wired. I try to keep it at bay--we're doing fine, even in a "tough" month, it just means nothing extravagant, NOT "ramen again". My husband splurged on a pricey item for my birthday last week--I'm excited, NOT stressed, so that's a good sign. Although the item (and the bill) haven't arrived yet, so who knows?

 

[wabbott]

Yes and no...

I do find it helpful to check my banking on the regular. OTOH, January was a tough "money month" for us, but we got through it, and now we're flush.

I don't think my money anxiety will ever completely go away, it's just too hard-wired. I try to keep it at bay--we're doing fine, even in a "tough" month, it just means nothing extravagant, NOT "ramen again". My husband splurged on a pricey item for my birthday last week--I'm excited, NOT stressed, so that's a good sign. Although the item (and the bill) haven't arrived yet, so who knows?

As the routine becomes more familiar and your forecasting skills increase, the anxiety will lessen even more. You'll never be able to predict everything (our latest was a dead water heater), but you'll know better how to prepare.

 

[tvguy]

That is one of the reasons I do not use a planner, I want to know what is going on.

Not sure how not having a planner would make a bit of difference if there is a glitch in the system like OP noted. With, or without a planner, you can always check your accounts as many times a day as you like online. I check everything first thing in the morning.
I have a good planner. In the 10 years before we retired we met face to face once a year to make sure we were on track for retirement. Since we retired, he calls once a month to update us on our investments, and make sure everything is good. I can e-mail or call him anytime and usually get a response in less than 30 minutes.

 

[MillauFr]

That is one of the reasons I do not use a planner, I want to know what is going on.

The lucky people have a "planner". The unlucky ones have a crook who is only interested in lining their own pockets.

 

[MillauFr]

Not sure how not having a planner would make a bit of difference if there is a glitch in the system like OP noted. With, or without a planner, you can always check your accounts as many times a day as you like online. I check everything first thing in the morning.
I have a good planner. In the 10 years before we retired we met face to face once a year to make sure we were on track for retirement. Since we retired, he calls once a month to update us on our investments, and make sure everything is good. I can e-mail or call him anytime and usually get a response in less than 30 minutes.

If you monitor your accounts yourself a few times a week this issue they were having would have been identified sooner.

 

[MillauFr]

The one we tried pretty much picked out high fee mutual funds. I figured I could do that on my own

Yes you can. I keep all of my management fees on my index funds < 0.10%.

 

[tvguy]

If you monitor your accounts yourself a few times a week this issue they were having would have been identified sooner.

My practice is to check whether deposits have actually happened before writing them in my check book and spending the money.
My other practice is to deduct all my auto payments on the first of the month, even though none of them is actually deducted before the 15th. Not a fan of auto pay, but some things I had no choice. Thankfully, my Medicare is not longer coming out of my checking account. It is deducted from my Social Security deposit since I started drawing Social Security last month. Later this year, the same will happen with my wife's Medicare. But I still will have 4 auto pays I have to remember.

 

[dvcgirl67]

That is one of the reasons I do not use a planner, I want to know what is going on.

We don't have a financial planner that works with us, but we've had a couple of "check-ins" over the years just to confirm we were where we needed to be, but that was some time ago. And honestly, that was more for me than for my husband. He's a computer science guy....meaning....math nerd. And so for me it was helpful. After time, I can see that we were obviously ok, and so it wasn't necessary.

I definitely believe that saving and investing are the easiest parts of retirement planning. Things can get a bit more tricky as you approach retirement and in those first years. We're approaching and there are lots of different strategies to consider. Like....should we go for ACA subsidies, do Roth conversions or both. When to take Social Security...etc. So I think that can really benefit a lot of people.

There's lots of great software out there to help model different scenarios. We have Projection Lab and New Retirement. I've been fooling around with Projection Lab lately, and it's really capable of doing everything a planner would do. There are also different clubs/organizations online where there are really smart people who can answer any questions you may have.

But, if I was someone who didn't have a math nerd for a spouse, I'd use a CFP and have them do an analysis of the plan, once or twice as you're saving/investing and then again as you approach retirement. I'd never pay a planner an "assets under management fee" based on my portfolio balance. But again, that's just me.

 

[QueenIsabella]

We don't have a financial planner that works with us, but we've had a couple of "check-ins" over the years just to confirm we were where we needed to be, but that was some time ago. And honestly, that was more for me than for my husband. He's a computer science guy....meaning....math nerd. And so for me it was helpful. After time, I can see that we were obviously ok, and so it wasn't necessary.

I definitely believe that saving and investing are the easiest parts of retirement planning. Things can get a bit more tricky as you approach retirement and in those first years. We're approaching and there are lots of different strategies to consider. Like....should we go for ACA subsidies, do Roth conversions or both. When to take Social Security...etc. So I think that can really benefit a lot of people.

There's lots of great software out there to help model different scenarios. We have Projection Lab and New Retirement. I've been fooling around with Projection Lab lately, and it's really capable of doing everything a planner would do. There are also different clubs/organizations online where there are really smart people who can answer any questions you may have.

But, if I was someone who didn't have a math nerd for a spouse, I'd use a CFP and have them do an analysis of the plan, once or twice as you're saving/investing and then again as you approach retirement. I'd never pay a planner an "assets under management fee" based on my portfolio balance. But again, that's just me.

I think it really depends on a person's personality, interest level, and other factors. DH and I are both engineers, but I'm more the math nerd. But, I get money anxiety. Among our kids:

DD28 is engaged (!!!just happened this week!) to a finance guy. They'll be fine, even if she ignores my advice about a pre-nup (she brings low-six-figures to the table. Mostly, I want her to be protected in case of divorce, but she's confident. And he's a great guy, divorce is unlikely...but not impossible.)

DS26 is autistic and has very little concept of money. It's possible he'll never launch. His funds are in a trust--not a special-needs trust, just one that requires my signature for withdrawal. Which he can cancel at any time. He likes to look at his quarterly statements and see how much he earned while sitting on his butt. That's the extent of his interest. But, he could easily be swindled.

DD20 will turn 21 in a couple months, and takes over managing some of her assets. This scares the snot out of her. We'll help her set it up and leave it alone. She has zero interest in active management.

DS17 follows stocks, asks for specific investments, and can't wait to control his own assets.

I worry more about #2 and #3 than I do about the oldest and the youngest.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Reviving this thread because we had another incident...

First off, I do have my bank's app, and I typically check first thing every morning. I didn't this morning--nothing should have been going on, and I woke up late. I couldn't sleep--we had to put a cat down yesterday, which was traumatic for all of us, even though he was 15 and frail and we knew it was coming.

Anyway, yesterday I'd talked to my financial advisor--actually, his underling. We wanted to take $20k out of our brokerage account and move it to our money market account. This is wedding money for our oldest--she indicated that she'd like us to pay the venue (I understand installments are customary), so we wanted to have the money earmarked and available. In addition, we wanted to move money from the boys' UTMAs to their Roth IRAs as deposits for 2023. (As an aside, we didn't do this for our daughters because (a) oldest manages her own money and has retirement accounts through work, and (b) younger DD also has Roth and regular 401ks through her job that she contributes to. We're not playing favorites!)

So, I'm checking email this morning, and I get an alert from our bank. We're overdrawn by thousands of dollars. Naturally, I freak out, but I knew what happened--instead of taking the $20k from our brokerage account, the financial guy took it from our checking!

I called the financial guy, who acknowledged the error and apologized profusely. He's trying to get the trade stopped at his end, but it's kind of in limbo because it hasn't gone through yet. On his advice, I call my bank, and they put a stop payment on the transaction and waived the fee. Hopefully that works. Our bank has a 1-day grace period on overdrafts, so if it's all straightened out today, we should be fine.

I also found errors in the Roth paperwork--I wanted the deposits to be for 2023, and they were for 2024. I didn't sign the papers, they've been fixed. It was just kind of the icing on the cake.

My DH has been in meetings all day, so he and I haven't had a chance to discuss things. Mostly, I'm concerned with the sloppiness and lack of oversight. It seems like our main planner has hired on some new staff that maybe doesn't have a sharp enough eye (or maybe they're being overworked, or whatever--I don't really care). I'm sure we're not their richest clients, but our net worth is 7 figures, so we shouldn't be dealing with amateur hour. The irony is, we seemed to get much better service back when we were young and had simpler finances (i.e., didn't have much). Maybe it was because we weren't moving around thousands of dollars at a pop, I don't know.

We've been with the company for decades, so I hate to move our assets, but we may have to.

Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?

 

[AgentMama]

Reviving this thread because we had another incident...

First off, I do have my bank's app, and I typically check first thing every morning. I didn't this morning--nothing should have been going on, and I woke up late. I couldn't sleep--we had to put a cat down yesterday, which was traumatic for all of us, even though he was 15 and frail and we knew it was coming.

Anyway, yesterday I'd talked to my financial advisor--actually, his underling. We wanted to take $20k out of our brokerage account and move it to our money market account. This is wedding money for our oldest--she indicated that she'd like us to pay the venue (I understand installments are customary), so we wanted to have the money earmarked and available. In addition, we wanted to move money from the boys' UTMAs to their Roth IRAs as deposits for 2023. (As an aside, we didn't do this for our daughters because (a) oldest manages her own money and has retirement accounts through work, and (b) younger DD also has Roth and regular 401ks through her job that she contributes to. We're not playing favorites!)

So, I'm checking email this morning, and I get an alert from our bank. We're overdrawn by thousands of dollars. Naturally, I freak out, but I knew what happened--instead of taking the $20k from our brokerage account, the financial guy took it from our checking!

I called the financial guy, who acknowledged the error and apologized profusely. He's trying to get the trade stopped at his end, but it's kind of in limbo because it hasn't gone through yet. On his advice, I call my bank, and they put a stop payment on the transaction and waived the fee. Hopefully that works. Our bank has a 1-day grace period on overdrafts, so if it's all straightened out today, we should be fine.

I also found errors in the Roth paperwork--I wanted the deposits to be for 2023, and they were for 2024. I didn't sign the papers, they've been fixed. It was just kind of the icing on the cake.

My DH has been in meetings all day, so he and I haven't had a chance to discuss things. Mostly, I'm concerned with the sloppiness and lack of oversight. It seems like our main planner has hired on some new staff that maybe doesn't have a sharp enough eye (or maybe they're being overworked, or whatever--I don't really care). I'm sure we're not their richest clients, but our net worth is 7 figures, so we shouldn't be dealing with amateur hour. The irony is, we seemed to get much better service back when we were young and had simpler finances (i.e., didn't have much). Maybe it was because we weren't moving around thousands of dollars at a pop, I don't know.

We've been with the company for decades, so I hate to move our assets, but we may have to.

Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?

The fact that you're posting this, I think you've made your decision. Definitely seems like your current group has lost your trust. Seems like at this point it is probably worth the headache to move funds. Sorry you're having to manage that on top of dealing with the loss of a beloved family pet.

 

[dvcgirl67]

You've had this firm for year, and I can't remember if anyone asked you in this thread.....are you not comfortable doing this yourself? The kinds of transfers you're describing are really pretty simple to handle yourself.

If not, I'm in the "time to find a new firm" camp. I'd be concerned any time I asked them to do something that they were going to screw it up. And while we all need to check our accounts often....etc, you're going to have to be right behind them double checking every transaction. If I was *paying* people to handle my finances....and they screwed up on something so incredibly simple....I'd be looking elsewhere. There are way bigger mistakes that they could make in the future that cost you lots of money. No thanks.