Meeting with Retirement Plan "Advisor"?

[RosieTR]

My workplace periodically sends out emails to offer us the chance to set up one-on-one meetings with our retirement plan advisors. I'm trying to decide if this might be worth it, since I've gone to seminars from some sort of retirement plan advisors and it's been very simplistic. They couldn't legally tell us what to invest in, even, so it was just sort of an encouragement to invest in....something. So I was wondering if you have ever done a one-o5-one session with your workplace retirement advisors. Was it actually an individualized thing or just cookie-cutter? I really don't want to take some sort of "risk tolerance" test and then have them tell me that someone in their mid-30s should be 80% equities and 20% bonds or some such junk. My inclination is that I will know more than the advisor just from having read a few books and paid attention (and lived through the 2008-2012 stock market, nevermind 1999-2002's!). However, I wondered whether maybe I'm blowing this off and it could actually be almost like a free financial advising session. So, I thought I'd ask y'all if you've done something like this and what it was like. Thanks!

[ApatheticNoMore]

Is it free? I don't know what you have to lose, you don't have to listen to them. I kind of wish I had done that when I found myself in what seemed a bit of a rich person's brokerage for awhile and they kept asking (as I'm definitely not anyone's plutonomy market :)) But no ... I never did :\

[RosieTR]

Yes, it's free for me. It's through work so must be part of the agreement for carrying their retirement plans or something. There are a few different companies, and each offers these counseling sessions. However, it's a chunk of time out of my day that may potentially be better used by reading investment book or other some such, this is why I wondered if anyone else had done this. I definitely wasted time in the little seminar years ago, where some fresh young guy showed us a chart of "riskier" to "more conservative" portfolios and the age-appropriateness of each. Something I could have spent 5 min looking at the website for, rather than an hour of dubious financial advice that it was.

[SteveinMN]

Rosie, my wife attended one of those sessions at work. Depending on the audience, they may tailor the content some. But much of it is the usual generic advice and none of it was particular to our situation. They just can't deal with specifics when 10-20 people are sitting there. My (secondhand) interpretation based on my wife's description was that it would be worth attending if you knew absolutely nothing about the market or the usual retirement options -- and then the session's best function would be to acclimate you to the concepts and some of the jargon so you could investigate more on your own. If you're savvy enough to know what an age-appropriate portfolio might look like -- and it sounds like you are -- it's unlikely the time you spend will be worth what you get out of it.

[rodeosweetheart]

Hi Rosie,

We have been to both the group sessions and individual. Maybe our guy is an anomaly, but I absolutely recommend you go. You write, "My inclination is that I will know more than the advisor just from having read a few books and paid attention (and lived through the 2008-2012 stock market, nevermind 1999-2002's!)." which sounds like my range of experience in this area, and each time I have dealt with this guy, both the individual and the group, I have gotten lots of new ideas about retirement planning.

We first went the the individual (husband and I work for same place) and he spent about 45 minutes with us and explained the range of products available with our state retirement system, and how they interrelate. My husband signed up for a 401k Roth, which is a pretty cool product and not available other place I work. Then yesterday, I hemmed and hawed for same reason as you about the hour long group session--this guy was brilliant.

Yeah, a lot of it I knew already, and you could tell that I was farther down the learning curve than a lot of the people there, but he had lots of great information that was new to me about our state system and how the pieces relate, pitfalls that people face, and ways that people can manage the different pieces in retirement--it was sophisticated stuff. And he is a great guy, very approachable, and he takes calls and looks at individual portfolios--he is not on any commission, and he is fantastic.

At the individual meeting, he listened to us, too, and we shot ideas back and forth, so you might find that the guy wants your ideas and input, too, if you have any angles he might not hve considered.

The group presentation yesterday of course talked about age appropriate portfolios and the like, but he did it extremely well, andthe numbers that he showed to back it up were a fun little mini-reminder for those of us who do follow this kind of thing and already "get it."

Lots of new info at the group thing about how the state pension system works, and while we only work a piddly adjunct gig there, being in the pension system at all gives us some intriguing possibilities to roll over other 401k's there after retirement, should we choose.

And I learned the cash inthe 401k portfolio is earning 3.5%! And the management fees on the Vanguard 500 are .11 ! So if you do have a level of sophistication, you'll hear lots of interesting info that means something to you!

Maybe our guy is an anomaly, but definitely, I urge you to go to any free one on one or group session. Your guy may be a wealth of information on the plans, the tax implications, and have thought through strategies that have not occurred to you.

Now, I need to take my own advice and go talk to somebody at Schwab.

[try2bfrugal]

I think it never hurts to hear what they have to say. I would ask how they are paid and what their qualifications are for giving financial advice. Usually financial adviser really just means some kind of financial product salesman on commission. Just for grins ask them what they think of TIPS and I bonds and see if they even know what they are since they are inflation protected, commission free investments.

[Rogar]

The retirement planners where I used to work were not employees of the company, but a separate group the company had formed some sort of contract with. They were commission based salespeople and pushed some pretty risky products on my friends. I was never that impressed with them, but a few of my friends seem to put a lot of trust in their opinions. I think it is mostly good for people not wanting to spend a little time doing their own homework.

On the other hand, Fidelity has handled my 401k and I've had meetings with some of their investment planners. They supposedly don't work on commission and have been helpful, though they are always saying I should have more money in equities than my conservative nature thinks prudent.

[rodeosweetheart]

The retirement planners where I used to work were not employees of the company, but a separate group the company had formed some sort of contract with. They were commission based salespeople and pushed some pretty risky products on my friends. I was never that impressed with them, but a few of my friends seem to put a lot of trust in their opinions. I think it is mostly good for people not wanting to spend a little time doing their own homework.
.

Yes, as Rogar says, good to find out if they are on commission. Our guy works for the separate company, but is not on commission and does not push any investment. He also gave some good advice about commissioned advisors and what to look for, and about things like annuities, certain aspects to be wary of. So I agree with Rogar, ask if they are on commission before you make up your mind.

On the other hand, if it's free, what do you have to lose? I met with a lot of advisors when I first got my settlement and I disliked several and distrusted a few, but I learned something from every meeting.

[try2bfrugal]

On the other hand, Fidelity has handled my 401k and I've had meetings with some of their investment planners. They supposedly don't work on commission and have been helpful, though they are always saying I should have more money in equities than my conservative nature thinks prudent.

Fidelity has been in the news for pressuring their advisers, some who are CFPs, to sell high margin investment and insurance products, which violates the CFP ethics code.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-37640643/conflicts-of-interest-and-mutual-fund-advice/

[lhamo]

A one time meeting to see what the person is like probably isn't a bad idea. If he/she sucks, no more meetings. We had a one-on-one meeting with the guy who managed our workplace's retirement funds when we first started working there. total waste of time. Workplace had chosen American Funds, and when I asked why there were no index based fund options he pulled out an article from Newsweek or something about how their funds had beaten the indexes, yadda yadda yadda. He couldn't even tell me how to put together a portfolio of theirs that would roughly track a major index. We ended up doing OK with American -- fees were largely waived as our employer had her trust fund invested with them ($$$$$). But I pretty quickly moved my stuff out into a rollover IRA at Vanguard once I left.

In that case, the guy reminded me totally of a snake oil salesman. YMMV.

lhamo

[RosieTR]

Wow, thanks for the advice. I don't think it's a commission thing because it's connected to the retirement plans at work (pension or 403b). I'm inclined to think I'll get more out of a one-on-one session than a group seminar since the latter is what I had originally gone to in a similar context. They just give the generic "get more conservative as you get older" speal and give you a little quiz on your risk tolerance. I don't know if enough of a person's emotional feelings are taken into account when the professional folks get involved. I was fine with the losses of 2008 and didn't pull money out of equity positions, but I didn't really know that on a deep emotional level until it happened. OTOH, I have some older friends who panicked and pulled money out, who were way more financially sophisticated than me! DH can't really look too often at his retirement stuff or he starts thinking of it as money he could potentially access. I have a sequestration in my mind between money I could spend and money that's not til I'm not working. Hence, I do more of the tracking of overall savings and such. Anyway, I think maybe I'll make an appointment with the one-on-one but skip the seminars.

[razz]

We attended a group session before DH retired and learned a lot from the those who attended asking questions and hearing the responses. There is a lot to cover in presentation but a lot more that I simply did not think to ask but was glad that others did.