Complimentary financial review

[QuarterMillionMan]

Every financial institution offers a free complimentary review of its customers financial picture. Would you use them? I bank with J.P. Morgan Chase & Wells Fargo and often I'm tempted to make an appointment to take them up on a complimentary financial review but I never follow through because I don't feel that I need it but it would be good to get another person's perspective. Has anyone here used your bank's free resources to get a 2nd opinion of your finances?

[kork13]

Every financial institution offers a free complimentary review of its customers financial picture. Would you use them? I bank with J.P. Morgan Chase & Wells Fargo and often I'm tempted to make an appointment to take them up on a complimentary financial review but I never follow through because I don't feel that I need it but it would be good to get another person's perspective. Has anyone here used your bank's free resources to get a 2nd opinion of your finances?

Certainly. But I wouldn't base any major muscle movements off of what they tell you. Those "free consultations" are probably authentic enough to give you ideas of how you're doing overall, but almost without exception, they will be provided by a salesman and followed up with a pitch something along the lines of "You're doing fine here, here, and here, but this area needs some attention. Here are some products that our financial institution offers that can solve these problems for you, just sign here on the dotted line and we'll fix you right up."

Bottom line: You get what you pay for, and there's never a truly "free lunch." (maybe I should add those to the "financial quotes" thread... )

[snafu]

I wonder what you see as a negative in having a financial review by someone who has the correct credentials and must keep the information confidential. Even if they point out something you might not have considered, yet, you can buy any new product from any vendor you like.

We get a quarterly report with heavy emphasis on age based allocations. Had I followed their 'boiler plate' outline, I'd have missed out on these years of gains! My answer to queries is always...'I understand and acknowledge what you are telling me. I prefer to make my choices according to the research I do.' It's quite fun to have them do significant research of factors I like to follow like...their analysis of the 'Baltic Dry Index' and how they believe it will impact the economy. How much has the Norwegian Government Investment operation invested?

[Like2Plan]

DH and I did one with a USAA financial advisor around the time DH retired from the military. We wanted a check up to make sure we weren't missing anything. There were no surprises.

Then, we did another one with an AMEX financial planner a few years later. The goal was to reduce paperwork--at that time we had quite a few small holdings in DRIP stocks and I was looking for a strategy to make life simpler. The planner didn't really end up being very helpful (we did sign on for 1 year of services which looking back was a waste of money).

I learned more by using wikis on financial boards and asking questions and reading books.

[scfr]

It really depends on the credentials of the person offering the advice.

My personal experience with banks has been that the "consultation" is with a salesperson with a title like "financial products advisor" who is trying to sell something like an annuity or market-linked CD. I only ever had one of these as an actual sit-down. I learned from that, and now I ask enough questions to figure out whether or not it's just going to be a sales pitch. I won't rule out ever having another sit-down with a "bank advisor," because I try to keep an open mind, but my experience to date has not been good.

On the other hand, I have had a couple consultations with CFPs through mutual fund companies, and got some good information from those.
And in the past we've paid a CPA for some very specific guidance and felt is was money well spent.
I'm really big on DIY for finances, but I also believe a good, qualified, credentialed advisor is worth paying for when you need them.

In your shoes, the first question I'd ask is for the credentials of the person with whom I'd be meeting.

[MakeAStash]

The free ones are merely phishing expeditions to learn how worthy of additional marketing you are. "You mean you just inherited some money and don't know what to do with it? Don't move! We'll 'help' you right away!"

[~bs]

Certainly. But I wouldn't base any major muscle movements off of what they tell you. Those "free consultations" are probably authentic enough to give you ideas of how you're doing overall, but almost without exception, they will be provided by a salesman and followed up with a pitch something along the lines of "You're doing fine here, here, and here, but this area needs some attention. Here are some products that our financial institution offers that can solve these problems for you, just sign here on the dotted line and we'll fix you right up."

Bottom line: You get what you pay for, and there's never a truly "free lunch." (maybe I should add those to the "financial quotes" thread... )

that's the impression I get. Like "sounds like you need a financial advisor to boost your portfolio. We offer it for the cheap yearly fee of ... "