Advice-Only, Fee-Only FAQ

I am.  As a CFP® professional, when providing Financial Advice, I must act as a fiduciary, and act in your best interests at all times. I must fulfill the following duties:

1. Duty of Loyalty
2. Duty of Care
3. Duty to Follow Client Instructions

Even if you don't choose me to help you, I would always work with a fiduciary and/or CFP® professionals.  For a list of CFP® professionals, please see the CFP Board's website here.

Loyalty:

As a CFP® professional I must:

1. Place your interests above the interests of me and my firm;
2. Avoid Conflicts of Interest, or fully disclose Material Conflicts of Interest to you, obtain your informed consent, and properly manage the conflict; and
3. Act without regard to my financial, my firm's or other interests, or any individual or entity other than you, which means that I have a continuing duty to act in your best interests and place your interests above mine.

Care:

As a CFP® professional I must act with the care, skill, prudence, and diligence that a prudent professional would exercise in light of your goals, risk tolerance, objectives, and financial and personal circumstances. 

Follow Instructions:

As a CFP® professional I must comply with all objectives, policies, restrictions, and other terms of our agreement and all your reasonable and lawful directions.  

FSFP is a state registered investment advisor in Maryland.  Most states recognize a de minimis standard outlined in the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 which means in most states, I can work with up to five families per twelve (12) month period.  If you reside in a state other than Maryland and need planning, please contact me to determine if I can work with you at this time. If I can't, I will gladly refer you to another firm that might be able to help you.

I provide comprehensive financial planning or one-time planning focused on specific family needs.  Please see my Advice-Only Planning page for details.

The most common compensation models in the financial services industry are commission (recommending a financial product), or AUM (Assets-Under-Management) based fees.  As a DIY investor myself, I didn't like paying an annual fee for something I could do myself.  Therefore, I charge a one-time or hourly fee for simplicity, transparency and fairness for your family and mine.  I also offer annual planning for those that wish to have an on-going relationship.  To learn more about my fees check out this Flat-Fee Pricing page.

I do provide advice and recommendations on their allocation and investments. You just need to implement them in your own accounts. 

If you need someone to manage your investments, I have worked with many investment managers over the years and I can provide you information for newsletters, investment managers and full-service firms that you can evaluate.  I can also provide information on brokerage platforms and even provide training on how to make a trade, but I will not make the trade for you nor manage your portfolio.

I do not receive a commission or referral fee from anyone, nor am I vouching for their performance or processes.  I also sit in on the meetings with some clients if desired.  

All of the software solutions used by FSFP are also used by thousands of other financial planners across the country in both smaller firms like mine and national financial services firms.  All of the vendors use industry standard security protocols to keep your data safe.  My family uses all of the tools I provide to my families.  Here is a PDF that explains RightCapital's client account security framework.  The firms I work with all have similar security frameworks.

RightCapital planning software uses Yodlee which is an industry leading solution in the aggregation space.  The value of aggregation and account linking is that this information can be uploaded once and then it will continuously be updated as long as you want.  Here a couple of documents that explain how to link your accounts in RightCapital and then troubleshoot if linking is not working for some accounts.  You do not need to use the aggregation services for me to work with you.  Instead, you can manually enter the data, or I can do it for you for a reasonable fee.