Fee-Only Financial Planning

Dallas/Fort Worth, TX (PRWEB) August 5, 2005

So you are looking for an objective financial planner or advisor? You have read the articles and are convinced that you want to work with a financial professional that does not work for commissions but instead works for you. While it may seem like a straightforward request, the vast array of financial terms can lure you to an advisor that on the surface appears to work for fees as opposed to commissions, but as you dig deeper you may find that this fee advisor may in fact work for both fees and commissions or simply just for commissions.

The regulatory bodies that police the world of financial advisors have left great latitude as to what terms financial advisors use to describe themselves and their services. As a result, a great number of consumers are finding that locating a true “fee-only” financial advisor is difficult. In fact, over 600,000 individuals are licensed to sell financial products on a commission basis across the United States while only about 1,200 advisors actually belong to the nation’s largest professional association of “fee-only” financial advisors (NAPFA).

So what are you to do? The first step is to educate yourself with regard to the common titles that financial advisors use and which one actually indicates that you will be working with someone that does not work on commissions.

Here’s your first test, which of the following terms describes a professional that does not work for commissions: financial planner, financial advisor, fee-based advisor, fee advisor or fee-only advisor. The answer: fee-only advisor. While many of the titles have a connotation of working for fees, advisors with any of these titles except the “fee-only” title are allowed to and often do receive commissions for implementing their recommendations. Only the “fee-only” advisor is prohibited from accepting compensation from third-parties.

So how do you go about finding a true “fee-only” financial professional? There are a number of individual firms such as Heritage Financial Planning (http://www.HeritageFinancialPlanning.com) in Texas that work on a true “fee-only” basis or you can search for financial advisors that are part of professional associations such as NAPFA (http://www.NAPFA.org) or the Garrett Planning Network (http://www.GarrettPlanningNetwork.com) to find a true “fee-only” professional in your area.

About the Author: Steve Blankenship, CFP®, a nationally recognized financial planner, is conveniently located in the heart of the DFW Metroplex. Located in historic Grapevine, Texas, Steve’s firm, Heritage Financial Planning, offers fee-only financial planning to people from all walks of life.

Steve has been named “One of the Best Financial Planners in Dallas/Fort Worth” by D Magazine and has been featured on the cover of Financial Planning Magazine. Steve has been sought out by local and national media on numerous occasions and has appeared in The Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Kiplinger Personal Finance and BusinessWeek among others. Steve has also served as a technical advisor for Money Magazine on multiple occasions.

Steve was recently highlighted by Financial Planning Magazine as one of three financial advisors from across the country that represents the “Next Generation of Advisers.” A graduate of Baylor University, Steve is among a small but growing number of advisers that actually earned a college degree in financial planning.

Steve is a Member of The Garrett Planning Network, Inc., the nation’s largest organization of hourly as-needed financial planners. He is also a member of NAPFA, the largest organization of professionals dedicated to championing fee-only financial planning. He can be reached at (817) 410-5725. For more information, visit http://www.HeritageFinancialPlanning.com.

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