Fee Based Financial Planner

[thefarside]

Has anyone used one before? What is your experience of them? I am considering getting one to provide a 3rd party view to my amateurish attempt at insurance/retirement/estate planning.

Hope someone could share their experience.

[Musicwhiz]

I do know of one such fee-based financial planner - Wilfred Ling. I am not advertising for him though - he happens to be one of the bloggers on IM$avvy at CPF Website (where I also post my blog articles). He writes well and seems very knowledgeable.

I've checked out his rates before and it's not cheap, but then again I guess you do get quality service and personalized attention and you know the guy isn't going to sell you anything for commissions since it's purely fee-based (charged by hour).

His website - http://www.wilfredling.com/

Oh yes, I almost forgot to add - I have never used a fee-based planner before. Perhaps other forumers can share their views?

[Bibi]

Wa, i took a look at his website and comprehensive planning requires 20-59 hours. Which translates to S$2000 to S$5900. So expensive i wonder whether they provide guarantee in the event things didnt turn out as plan or the consumer can sue them for it.

I think for simple planning (based on his description) some ethical non-fee based life planner can do it.

[brattzz]

problem is.. "ethical"??

how do u define that? :O

[thefarside]

Wa, i took a look at his website and comprehensive planning requires 20-59 hours. Which translates to S$2000 to S$5900. So expensive i wonder whether they provide guarantee in the event things didnt turn out as plan or the consumer can sue them for it.

I think for simple planning (based on his description) some ethical non-fee based life planner can do it.

To be fair, if the guy only does fee-based planning, and the work entails a certain amount of time, it is natural that the work should be compensated. However, there is no agreement on what is fair. Personally, if I have two to three million dollars, and I don't want to ask a private banker to do it (because to have private banker means you are buying things from them, or parking money for them to "manage"), a proper independent financial advice costing 2-5k is no big deal. For those who are unwilling to pay, then any amount would be considered large.

For simple planning as defined by him, we could actually do most of it ourselves. In fact, there are large elements of comprehensive planning, that we could probably do, or are already doing. The benefit I hope to get is a competent third party view, and being in the advisory business myself, some things are worth paying for. But these things are subjective, of course to one's own personal beliefs.

[wj888]

For most people (even HNWs), DIY is actually very easy for Insurance. Term Insurance, H&S and whatever the govt CPF 'forced' me to buy in CPF.

As for retirement planning , you sure you want to consult them? They will retire happily thanks to you no doubt . I'm not so sure they have planned for yours as well. :p

For estate planning, I believe most will go thru' their lawyer friends and get a referral fees (if you want those will draft out).

[chang]

for me, i diy and keep it real simple.
insurance, no term, hospital, life or whatever except the medishield from cpf. i decided if one day i can't afford medical fee, i will just let nature take its way on me.
for investment, 100% of my fund are in companies under SGX. in fact 90% are in just a few companies. that's all about my investment.
retirement planning, already retired few years ago. just need to watch the expenses.
estate planning, there is intestate law to take care of this.

[sefoo]

My personal response is it boils down to whether one needs a financial planner

1)your personal knowledge and how confident you are about financial planning

2)time. it takes a lot of time to plough through the various insurance plans from different companies and then the investments options

3) personal styel - u like to take things into your own hands or prefer someone to do it for you

For me, I use a financial planner to take care of my insurance needs. As part of their output ( because they try to ask u to invest with them, on top of insuring with them), they will definitely arrive at a figure of how much u need to save per month in order to achieve your retirement needs based on an assumed investment rate of return. With this figure in mind, and the target rate of returns, I do the investments on my own. I used to use them for my investments too. Then i compared my own stock portfolio against the basket of funds ( ok la, its not apple to apple pdt comparison, but the essential thing is the rate of return) and i found that they do no better than myself. So i do the investments on my own.

My Financial Planner is not pushy at all and what he told me at first meeting is, insure first, investment come later.Which i fully agree in a weak social net country like in Singapore.

The other side of your question you are wondering about( if i am not wrong) is whether FPs are worth their salt. They have different charging structures ( wilfred for eg is per hour, whilst some are annual fee etc) and obviously depends on the specific FP that you meet. So its really a difficult question to give a proper response. I would suggest that given your particular situation - since u already have a plan - u can set up a obligation free meeting with any of those financial planners and see how their advice fit against yours. There is no fee involved unless you choose Wilfred's type of set up. Just make sure you choose one of this independent planners, not those that are tied to a specific company.

[mikh]

for me, i diy and keep it real simple.
insurance, no term, hospital, life or whatever except the medishield from cpf. i decided if one day i can't afford medical fee, i will just let nature take its way on me.
for investment, 100% of my fund are in companies under SGX. in fact 90% are in just a few companies. that's all about my investment.
retirement planning, already retired few years ago. just need to watch the expenses.
estate planning, there is intestate law to take care of this.

Nice to be able to retire. Wish i can do that.
For leading a simple life, may not be that demanding, but got to keep out-running inflation at the least.

[flinger]

for me, i diy and keep it real simple.
insurance, no term, hospital, life or whatever except the medishield from cpf. i decided if one day i can't afford medical fee, i will just let nature take its way on me.
for investment, 100% of my fund are in companies under SGX. in fact 90% are in just a few companies. that's all about my investment.
retirement planning, already retired few years ago. just need to watch the expenses.
estate planning, there is intestate law to take care of this.

Mind if I ask, how young you are? =)