The financial planner may work with you
himself or have others in the office assist him.
You may want to meet everyone who will be
working with you.
If the planner works with
professionals outside his own practice (such as
attorneys, insurance agents or tax specialists)
to develop or carry out financial planning
recommendations, get a list of their names
to check on their backgrounds.
HOW WILL I PAY FOR YOUR SERVICES?
As part of your financial planning agreement,
the financial planner should clearly tell you in
writing how she will be paid for the services
to be provided.
Planners can be paid in several ways:
. A salary paid by the company for which the
planner works.
The planner's employer
receives payment from you or others, either
in fees or commissions, in order to pay the
planner's salary.
. Fees based on an hourly rate, a flat rate, or
on a percentage of your assets and/or income.
. Commissions paid by a third party from the
products sold to you to carry out the financial
planning recommendations.
Commissions are
usually a percentage of the amount you
invest in a product.
. A combination of fees and commissions
whereby fees are charged for the amount of
work done to develop financial planning
recommendations and commissions are
received from any products sold.
In addition,
some planners may offset some portion of the
fees you pay if they receive commissions for
carrying out their recommendations.
