2 /5 Rock Hard: I had a financial plan done less than 5 years ago, not knowing anything about this world at the time and needing help. I had initially been following a very basic investing strategy ala John Bogle, with most of my savings invested in an S&P500 index fund.
I was fairly young, and was assigned to work with someone who I think couldnt have been more than a few years out of college. She was very confident and spoke with an air of authority, and I trusted what she recommended. She produced a plan for several moving parts coming up for us in our life over the next few years, presented in a spreadsheet, and made recommendations for changing our current investments and future allocations.
After a year, we needed updates as a couple of important circumstances had changed. The original person was gone, and a more seasoned person took over. They pointed out several assumptions in the original spreadsheet that they did not agree with, which lead to significant changes in our plans. A bit frustrating, but we rolled with it.
Fast forward a few more months, and needed some additional input. Was told wed have to pay full price for a whole new financial plan.
Fast forward a few years, and today I am reviewing again the investment allocations I had altered based on the previous advice. Had gone from a simple low cost index fund to 5 different recommended funds. Comparing returns, I would have been way better off (to the tune of $100k) if I had not heeded her advice..
So, ultimately, this cost me over $100k and after a few years I have a broken and unusable financial plan.
I am fairly certain they are charging even more now up front. You should be aware that you may only get a one off for that price, and that the investment advice might be considerable worse than what you would get by buying John Bogles book used for a few dollars on amazon.
