5 Ways Advice Only Planning goes beyond Investments

Advice Only planning continues to grow in popularity, with many companies offering personalized financial advice without commissions or asset management requirements, while some are scaling to provide planning services to employees through financial wellness and tech offerings. 

While it’s common traditionally to approach an advisor with investment questions, it is no longer a prerequisite to work with a planner, nor is having a large net worth. Below are 5 ways an advice only planner can serve clients outside of the investment realm. 

Help you decide how much cash to carry, and where to save your next dollar. 

A basic foundational planning step, knowing how much cash you should have, where it should be held, and how much cash should go to other various goals such as investments, debt, etc., sets the base for all other recommendations. This is a common topic to focus on and often I find myself bringing up this topic at times when someone consults with me on investments. Planners can help one determine how much cash to save for short term goals, such as travel, a vehicle purchase, renovations, and an initial home purchase, and where to have that money. 

Help Make Home buying Decisions. 

Advice Only planners can look at your entire financial picture, accessible dollars, and make a reasonable determination of how much you can actually put down on a house, and a sensible way of purchasing. This can differ quite a bit from simply working with a mortgage broker as many more variables are brought into consideration. They can help understand tax laws regarding selling homes and other property as well. Other variables that advice only planners will help you understand are PMI, homeowners insurance, property taxes, and estimated costs with owning a home. 

Help make employee benefit and other personal insurance related decisions. 

It is common to cover employee benefits, including Equity Comp, Disability Insurance, group term policies, and other various benefit packages during initial enrollment, and annual enrollment for clients. Advice only planners can help determine which benefits make sense to you, which one’s are not needed, and even help you set proper 401k contribution percentages and investment allocations. 

Determine how to make tax efficient decisions. 

Many of the decisions you make impact your taxes. Advice-Only planners can review your taxes, prior returns, and other important tax documents to facilitate guidance on other planning areas. Some of those other areas may be how to allocate investments, deductibility of health insurance premiums, available tax credits, whether it makes sense to itemize or take standard deduction, and many other topics. Some planners may also provide tax prep services or serve as a CPA in some cases, but not always. 

Help show you how much to save for your kids’ college education. 

Advice only planners can help you determine how much to save for your college education, and can help you navigate the wide array of choices for 529 plans, and their applicable tax benefits. They can help compare costs of different education paths, and visually show how much to save for college in tandem with other savings goals.

They can also help parents with soon to be bound college kids navigate FAFSA, and may even specialize in this area. 

In summary, Advice only planners can and will provide value beyond investments. I often say that we serve as a central figure in the financial decision making hub for most clients, and may interface with other professionals the client works with too. I offer a free consult meeting for those looking to learn more about advice only planning, or are looking to actually hire a planner. Here are a couple additional resources to learn more about advice only planning: 

Advice Only Network 

What is Advice Only Planning