Boldin Advisors: Understanding Our Fee-Only Fiduciary Guidance from a CFP® Professional

Do you know that there are all kinds of certifications and qualifications for financial guidance and many different ways of paying for advice? We wanted to clarify the type of guidance you get from Boldin Advisors and give you a run down of our advisory products and services.

Boldin Advisors Offers Guidance from a CFP®, the Standard of Excellence for Financial Planners

With Boldin Advisors, you are accessing a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) professional. The CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) designation is one of the most recognized and respected certifications in the field. CFP® professionals are trained to provide comprehensive financial planning services to clients, covering areas such as investments, retirement planning, insurance, tax planning, and estate planning. The rigorous CFP® certification process includes education, examination, experience, and ethics requirements, ensuring that CFP® professionals have a broad knowledge base and adhere to high ethical standards.

• Other notable certifications include the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation which is highly regarded in the investment management field and the Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) designation which, is similar to the CFP®, but has a slightly different curriculum.

Boldin Advisors Offers a Fee-Only Billing Structure

Financial advisors can be compensated through various fee structures. Boldin Advisors is a fee-only service.

Fee-only advisors charge a flat fee for advice.

• The pros for flat fee advice include:
  • Transparency in pricing, alignment of interests with clients’ financial goals, potentially lower conflicts of interest, and the ability to provide holistic advice.
  • Perhaps, most importantly, very often the fees are much much lower than what a client would pay under an assets under management arrangement.
• Cons may include the need for fee-only clients to be responsible for executing and managing their own assets per the recommendations of the advisor.

For contrast, here are the other kinds of fee structures for financial advice:

• Commission-based: Advisors earn commissions from the sale of financial products like insurance policies or investment products.
• Fee-based: Advisors charge a combination of fees and commissions.
• Assets under management (AUM): Advisors charge a percentage of the total assets they manage for their clients. The downside of this is that client often pay very high annual fees if they have significant assets.

With Boldin Advisors, You Choose a Level of Service to Meet Your Needs

Boldin Advisors is extremely flexible and services can be modified to fit the level of guidance that you want and need.

Our most popular services are listed below, but please attend a FREE discovery session to help you determine which level of service from Boldin Advisors is right for you.

Retirement Plan Checkup: $3,200

This is Boldin Advisor’s most popular option. It includes a more extensive review of your situation, a 90 minute call with a CFP® professional and all of the services from the Advisory Session, plus:

• Results of stress testing your plan. Your CFP® professional will look at added expenses, different rates of return, longevity changes, inflation, and sequence of returns risk
• A complete review of your investment portfolio, including a separate investment report that shows the allocations, risks, industry and geographic concentration, expense ratios on funds, growth vs value mix, large, mid, and small cap mix. You would provide the ticker symbols on a spreadsheet. If you are not able to provide on a spreadsheet, adjustments to the fee may apply
• Direction on asset allocation/portfolio construction if needed
• Withdrawal strategy examples when starting to spend money from your investments
• Withdrawal order ideas explaining the typical ways that the portfolio is maximized
• Charitable giving options to minimize taxation
• Insurance considerations to fully protect your net worth
• Recommendations on a variety of other topics from healthcare to insurance and estate planning ideas you can take to your attorney to discuss
• A written Plan of Action that we review together and the separate investment report

Best for…

The Retirement Plan Checkup is best for people who want a thorough review of their plans as well as investment, retirement withdrawal, tax, insurance, and estate recommendations.

Book Your FREE Discovery Session with Boldin Advisors

The process for engaging with Boldin Advisors is considered. There is no rush and definitely no strong sales push. We want you to feel comfortable with the level and quality of support you get.

• Start with a group discovery session where you’ll meet your advisor. Discuss your goals and ask as many questions as you like.
• If you wish to proceed, meet one on one with your CFP® professional to determine exactly which type of engagement best suits your needs.
• The advisor will assess your plan and arrange a meeting to walk you through your recommendations.
• You’ll get written follow up after the meeting about what was discussed.
• If appropriate, your advisor is available for on-going support.

Learn more or get started with a FREE Discovery Session.