Change To My Practice

In my New Years post I promised I would explain what has recently changed in my practice which kept me so busy at the end of the year.

For many years I resisted implementing fees for financial planning, but the financial services marketplace of today is very different than it used to be. The very nature of the economy coupled with the complexity of modern products requires increasing regulation and tougher standards than ever before. To ensure my clients experience nothing less than excellence in my fiduciary standards, there needs to be a distinction between my roles as a financial planner and product provider. The best way to accomplish this is through implementing fee based financial planning services. At the same time it was very important to me to make this transition with as little impact to my existing clients as possible.

 

As of the beginning of this year, I am now charging to provide a written financial plan (see complete fee schedule). In most situations I will provide complementary complimentary annual updates to the plan keeping it up to date. To minimize the effect on my existing clients I have been writing financial plans for everyone who wanted before the fees went into effect.

 

I am very excited about this new facet to my practice. The fee itself should not be a barrier to most potential new clients and provides an avenue to work with clients who already have product relationships with an insurance agent or stock broker which they do not want to terminate.

So far the reaction from my clients has been very positive.

I do not even want to count the plans I have written in the last eight weeks except to know that it has been both busy and productive.

Numbers by mollycakes

Comments

[Angela]

Out of curiosity - do you do any financial plans for people located in different states?

[Art Dinkin]

@Angela - The short answer is yes, but it depends on the state. I am not registered in every state.