re: Financial Advisor Meeting

I disagree on the fee only part. Think about why you're saying that... 1) because you don't want someone who is going to be pushing you into products that generate commissions for them and not you and all the conflicts that go with you buying their pool. I get it. I really do.

Taken a step further for long term planning, 2) you must then be ok with the fee only guy/gal referring your business to a strictly commission based insurance salesman... because the advisor can't then refer to another "fee based" advisor (talk about a crappy business model) so they have to refer to someone who doesn't compete directly with them... someone who can't sell securities.

You can always follow up the are you fee only with a question like this: What percentage of your revenue is commissions? I would argue that anything above about 10% would be cause to probe with more questions.

For example, me. I'm a "fee based" CFP RIA Fiduciary. Between 2-5% of my revenue annually is based on life, disability, and long term care sales. My current pipeline of insurance consists of 3 term life policies with total annual premium in the neighborhood of $800 (talk about year changing revenue there) and 4-5 LTC policies which, to be fair, are substantial in year one. But for the love of God, I would not want to send a financial planning client down the road to some salesman to get a LTC policy from ole Gill who really needs a sale.

To the OP, solve all your problems by finding a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) who is a CFP. 2 for 1 in the fiduciary column with these two. Bonus points if they were in the business in 2007. Then it's just about expectations and personality. Good luck!

eta. I was not your downvote...