Ameriprise Financial Advisors

He is a referral all through a good fried at work, manages a lot of the higher ups at my old company's money. We met over lunch, he asked some basic questions about goals, no hard sell.

We met again yesterday with wife in tow. She likes him, I feel like he is pretty good at what he does based on conversations (he has been doing it a while). Flat fee for the plans, some cost associated with other investments per him yesterday. Still no hard sell which makes me feel better.

Bonus is he is two blocks from my office, so I find him pretty easy...

Pretty large 401K sitting still with previous employer, significantly more income coming in due to switching jobs, wives 401K that is in god knows what fund, and our cash on hand which is a nice chunk. We also need to do estate planning, college funding for kids, saving for next house, etc. I hesitate to give $'s, some folks on here know me. I am also looking to do more short term investing.

My personal opinion is that unless you simply have no time or no knowledge at all, it makes no sense to use a fixed-fee advisor unless you have 250K in investible assets.

Is that 1750 just for plan setup, or, is that an estimate of your first year's fees. Most planners like that charge around 1% a year.

Sounds like he comes well reccomended, so he must do good work. Being comfortable with him is very important, which it sounds like you all are.

If you are unsure, you could give him only part of your portfolio to start.

Also, if you want to do more short term investing, I would do it yourself. Most financial advisors are taking the long term view, finding good investments, and following them to make sure they stay good. However, they are not going to want to be jumping in and out of stuff. This is why they charge a percentage fee of assets, and not by the trade.

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s that 1750 just for plan setup, or, is that an estimate of your first year's fees.

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1,750 is for the "plan", other investments may have a fee depending on what it is. The 1,750 covers 3-4 meetings per year with him/team and monitoring results. etc. I need to ask him about the fees associated with what he expects us to be in before pulling the trigger.

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it makes no sense to use a fixed-fee advisor unless you have 250K in investible assets.

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We are not quite there, but will be very soon.

I have never charged for a financial plan. It's part of the overall package. But whatever works for him

yes, asset management fee.

Does the 1,750 oome out all up front, or in quarterly installments?

Also, you need to ask him what his annual fee after the first year will be. Will it still be a flat fee?

I'm wondering if $1,750 is a minimum fee. Also, is he going to actively manage the investments for you?

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So what is the difference? You charge a % fee based on value of the assets, they charge a flat planning fee, with some additional fees depending on investment selections and other services.

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He will charge you a planning fee AND an asset management fee or commissions depending on his platform. I am not saying it is wrong I am only explaining the difference. My advisory fees range from .75% to 1.25% most are 1%.

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Does the 1,750 oome out all up front, or in quarterly installments

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Seemed like up front to me.

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lso, you need to ask him what his annual fee after the first year will be. Will it still be a flat fee

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This would be the fee each year. He said it may increase if investment, asset, planning complexity changed significantly.

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I'm wondering if $1,750 is a minimum fee

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I do not believe it is. I believe they build the fee based on what we are asking for help with.