Frequently Asked Questions
Can we just talk for an hour?
As a matter of fact, yes.
One of our services is by-the-hour consultation. We'll be happy to sit and talk with you about any financial matters you like. Billing will be at a simple by-the-hour rate and we'll follow up with brief notes about our conversation.
We can talk about your employer's 401k options, whether or not you need life insurance, what kind and how much. We can review your personal spending and saving habits.
More comprehensive or research-oriented work may be done for you outside of our personal meeting on either a fixed project rate, or, also, by the hour. That's up to you - we'll be happy to provide a quote or an estimate of the time necessary for any given project.
But if all you want to do is talk for an hour - and that may well be all you need - we'll be happy to oblige.
As will all of our planning and advisory services, our work is fee-only. We get no commissions and have no financial incentives to push any particular financial products. No project or discussion is too small. We don't require you to have a multi-million dollar portfolio, nor do we require you to commit to an expensive comprehensive planning project. We're here to help you meet your financial goals in a way which works for you.
Your Rights as a Financial Planning Client
This summary is taken from the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc., and Meyers Wealth Management stands by it.
1. You have the right to a planner who has integrity
2. You have the right to objective advice
3. You have the right to a planner who is competent
4. You have the right to be treated fairly
5. You have the right to privacy
6. You have the right to a planner who is professional
7. You have the right to a planner who is diligent
The CFP Board has a nice discussion of these issues here: <http://www.cfp.net/learn/knowledgebase.asp?id=13>.
What are some sources of market data?
Bond yields (treasury, municipals and corporates): http://finance.yahoo.com/bonds/composite_bond_rates
General market data: http://finance.yahoo.com
Daily Treasury Real Yield Curve: http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/domestic-finance/debt-management/interest-rate/real_yield.shtml
World stock market indices: http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/stocks/wei.html
Mutual fund, stock, and ETF analysis, prices, performance history: http://www.morningstar.com/
Quotes, stock screener and nice interactive graphs: http://finance.google.com
Can you draw up our wills and trusts?
Meyers Wealth Management does not provide legal services. We are not attorneys, nor do we directly employ any attorneys. As such, we do not give legal advice, we do not draw up wills or trusts or powers-of-attorney or other legal documents. Our clients are responsible for consulting with their attorneys for these things.
We are happy to advise our clients in the financial aspects of estate planning and very strongly recommend to all of our clients that they have up-to-date wills and other legal documents related to them.
Note that not everyone needs trusts! Sometimes they are very helpful, but sometimes they really don't do all that much. Everyone's individual situation is different. Many of folks assets will get transferred upon their deaths directly to named beneficiaries outside of the action of their wills, and avoiding probate - and without even having to set up trusts to do so.
As part of the financial planning process, we'll expect to review our clients wills, trusts, the ownership of various assets (ie. how accounts are titled), and especially the beneficiary designations which are attached to certain accounts (IRAs, insurance policies, etc). We are happy to consult with our clients attorneys in the process.
Can you do our taxes for us?
Meyers Wealth Management is not an accountant, CPA, enrolled agent or tax preparer. We'll be happy to refer our clients to some local professionals.
Our advise, plans and guidance for our clients takes into account tax matters -- for example, in many cases, it's in our client's best interest to save for retirement in certain tax-favored accounts such as IRAs and 401(k)s, or for another example, if a client has a taxable stock portfolio containing both unrealized capital gains and losses, we will work with the client to try to take maximal advantage of those gains and losses to manage the tax impact of any trading and portfolio balancing to do.
But we are not accountants, and we get no financial incentive for referring our clients to any particular accountants or other tax professionals.
Some of our clients do their own taxes at home using off-the-shelf software packages or online tax prep programs. For many folks, that's more than adequate and we'll be happy to take a look at their results - in fact, we ask most of our clients to provide us with a copy of their most recent tax returns simply because it's a great source of information which helps very much in drawing up a financial plan for the clients. For other clients, we'll strongly recommend that they do see an accountant, especially if they have complex tax situations such as income in more than one state, self-employment income or a small business, or if they are partners in a partnership, or if they have stock options to evaluate.
What is a "Financial Advisor"?
Unfortunately, the term "financial advisor" has come into common usage. The unfortunate thing about it is that the term has no precise meaning whatsoever. Anyone may call himself a "financial advisor". Just because someone calls himself a "financial advisor" does not mean that he has any eduction, background, experience, certification or anything else regarding actually giving financial advice.
What makes this especially unfortunate is that the most common usage of the term "financial advisor" nowadays is for a salesperson. Stock brokers and insurance agents, especially, call themselves "financial advisors" all the time. This is highly misleading because one might expect one's "advisor" to work for his client and in his client's best interest. In fact, stock brokers and insurance agents do not work primarily for their clients but, rather, for their employers. Insurance agents fiduciary obligation is to the insurance company, not the customer. Stock brokers are held to a "suitability" standard rather than a "fiduciary" standard with respect to their customers. This means that when these brokers and agents have a choice of several products which are "suitable" they may actually push whichever of those products makes them and their companies the most money, rather then the ones which cost you the least or make you the most money.
This doesn't mean that all "financial advisors" are looking out for themselves to the detriment of their customers. Most financial advisors do have the best intentions and mean well for their customers. And most of them do very good work for their customers. But at the end of the day, people respond to incentives. Always ask just how folks get paid and take that into account when evaluating their advice.
Because the term "financial advisor" is so loosely used and unregulated, Meyers Wealth Management tries to avoid the term. We do fee-only financial planning and portfolio management. We do not get commissions or any other financial incentives to put our clients into any particular product. If we advise you to invest in or use some particular financial product it's because we believe that it's in our client's best interest. Period. We are held to a fiduciary standard with respect to our clients.
There are some terms with precise and legal meanings which do apply. Meyers Wealth Management is a Registered Investment Advisor. Mr. Meyers is an Investment Advisor Representative. As a Registered Investment Advisor, Meyers Wealth Management is required to register with the states in which we do business and provide various disclosure to our clients. Moreover, as a Registered Investment Advisor, we have an explicit fiduciary obligation with respect to our clients.
What is the difference between "Fee-Only" and "Fee-Based"
Meyers Wealth Management operates on a Fee-Only basis. This means that all financial compensation we receive is explicit fees paid directly by our clients. We get no commissions, no "offsets", no financial incentive whatsoever to sell or place our clients into any particular product. When you do business with Meyers Wealth Management, you will know precisely what you are paying for the services we provide.
Fee-Based is an unfortunate term used in the financial advisory business. It means almost exactly the opposite of what it appears to mean. Fee-based financial planners both charge fees and collect commissions. Fee-only advisers do not collect commissions.
Further, there are certain products which have enormously complex compensation structures built into them, much of which is as hidden from the client as possible. This doesn't mean that those products are inherently bad -- it just means that when one is told that one needs such a product, one needs to be as careful as possible to make sure that one's "need" for the product is not really a reflection of a broker or agent's "need" for you to buy it so he or she gets a huge payout. Some products particularly notorious for having enormous payouts for the person selling them include permanent life insurance, variable annuities, "exclusive" limited partnerships and mutual funds with high "loads".
How do we get started?
We start by first getting to know each other. We prefer to meet in person as soon as possible, but before that first meeting, we ask that the prospective client start the process by gathering some information. The following is a link to our client questionnaire: Client Questionnaire
It contains a list of documents and information we'll need, and several pages of forms to fill in. It's a lot of information. Don't be alarmed! To best serve our clients, we need a lot of information. And if you haven't already gathered all of this, you might be surprised to learn how helpful just the process of getting it all together in one place is.
Ask us questions! The more comfortable you are with this, and the more complete our information is, the better a job we both can do. But don't worry if you're not sure how to fill in some of it, or if some of it doesn't seem to apply to you. And if there is other relevant information that we haven't asked for, please let us know.
Next, we have a preliminary meeting. We'll discuss your goals and our services and get to know each other a little bit. This meeting is normally an hour or so long. All information we discuss at this meeting will be confidential. At the end of this we can decide which, if any, of our services are most suitable.
If you engage our services, we'll keep a copy of the questionnaire and copies of any other relevant data we've discussed (or if you choose at a later time to engage our services, you'll be asked to send us that data at that later time.) Depending on the services engaged, we'll expect that data to be kept up-to-date and will periodically ask you to review and update it. We'll prepare a letter of engagement detailing exactly what services we've agreed upon, what you can expect from us, and what we'll require from you, a timeline for delivery of those services, and we'll expect a deposit at that time.
What happens after that depends on the services in question, whether it's delivery and review of a written comprehensive financial plan, delivery and discussion of a portfolio review, management of an investment portfolio, or ongoing consultation.
Do you follow a Code of Ethics?
Meyers Wealth Management adheres to the NAPFA Code of Ethics. This may be found online at http://www.napfa.org/about/CodeofEthics.asp and a printed copy will be made available upon request to all clients or prospective clients.
What is a Fiduciary?
The dictionary defines a fiduciary as "a person to whom property or power is entrusted for the benefit of another." In practice, this means that a fiduciary will always put the client first. For example, if one were to earn more by selling one product or another, a fiduciary would choose the product which most benefits the client, not the one selling the product. Note that stockbrokers have traditionally NOT been held to this standard. Stockbrokers (and other brokers and agents) have been held to a "suitability" standard - a much looser standard. As a Registered Investment Advisor, Meyers Wealth Management is held to this fiduciary standard.
How are you compensated?
We operate on a fee-only basis. This means that we are paid only and directly by our clients. We don't get commissions for selling products and have financial or other incentive to prefer one product over another - we recommend only the products that we believe are the best for our clients.
Our charges for specific services depend on the services in question. Many of our clients simply wanted a one-off review of their retirement portfolios, integrating both the options available to them via employer 401k plans as well as their IRA and other outside investments. For this service, we charge a small percentage of the value of the assets reviewed. For ongoing advice and management of such a portfolio, the fees are also a fixed percentage of the assets managed.
Fixed-fee projects such as a comprehensive financial plan are priced based upon an estimate of the amount of time expected to complete the project.
We also work on an hourly consultation basis. All fees are negotiable at the sole discretion of Meyers Wealth Management.
What services do you provide?
We are a fee-only financial planning and investment advisory service. Our primary services include:
• designing, implementing and reviewing investment portfolios for individuals
• comprehensive financial plans
• retirement planning
• estate, charitable giving, legacy planning
• insurance needs evaluations
There are three service structures we use to provide this advice to our clients:
• fixed projects -- for example, a written comprehensive financial plan, or a one-time portfolio review
• hourly consultation -- we can discuss anything you like, review your portfolio, plan how to spend less and save more, and a written summary of action items may be provided at your request
• ongoing portfolio management -- regular review of an investment portfolio, including a target asset allocation, measurements of the portfolio's deviation from that target, and regular rebalancing to keep the portfolio on track