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An Open Letter To The President Of The United States Of America [TSC via AndrewRSorkin]
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You know what they say: You can’t choose your family, but you can choose your financial planner. Or something like that. One of the great things of being in charge of your money is choosing who (if anyone) will help you manage it. The choice isn’t always an easy one. How will you know that your planner is reputable and trustworthy?
These five red flags may be good indications of whether the financial planner sitting across from you is someone you should trust with your money. LearnVest Planning also provides an innovative 7-step program for your money where you work one-on-one with a financial planner. To see if this program is right for you, start with a free financial consultation.
1. She Isn’t Certified
“There are a lot of good planners out there who aren’t Certified Financial Panners™,” says Samantha Vient, CFP®, of LearnVest Planning Services. “However, CFPs® are required to adhere to the CFP® Board’s standards of professional conduct.We believe it’s always a good idea to work with someone who has the CFP® designation, which is issued after completing a CFP® Board-approved personal financial planning curriculum, passing a rigorous exam issued by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, meeting experience requirements and passing an ethics and background check.
2. He Offers to Manage Your Money for “Free”
Financial planners are usually paid in one of two ways: Either through fee-only, which can be a set fee, hourly, retainer or a percentage of the assets they manage for you, or through commission, which means the planner is paid each time he buys or sells an investment.Fee-only payment structures can be more desirable to some clients, as there’s no financial incentive based on assets under management for a planner to buy or sell, whereas working on commission encourages planners to make trades, rather than solely look out for your best interest—called a “fiduciary” duty. (You want to be sure that the planner you choose is a fiduciary.)
LearnVest Planning Services provides the services of fee-only Certified Financial Planners™. Get started for free with a 15-minute financial consultation.
3. She Says She Outperforms the Market
“If a financial planner tells you that she can outperform the market, that’s a major red flag,” Vient explains. “In fact, due to government regulations, it’s illegal to advertise statements that promise a specific return.”Outperforming the market—that is, getting better investment returns than the market average—is extremely difficult to do consistently, and requires taking a lot of risks with your investments. It’s rare to find a financial planner who can consistently outperform the market—and results are never guaranteed. Either way, in the pursuit of these high returns, she’ll be exposing your investments to much higher risk than you may be comfortable with.
Instead, look for a CFP® who, when looking at your portfolio, can advise on proper asset allocation based on your risk tolerance and time horizon, as well as through economic ups and downs.
4. She Doesn’t Ask About Your Financial Goals
“Your planner isn’t just there to crunch the numbers,” Vient advises. “She’s helping you make a plan for your money and your life. You should be looking for someone who has similar values to you.”Ideally, you’ll likely want to work with someone who is in a similar life stage. Are you a parent? A planner with children may be better able to understand your need to save for college. Does your CFP® have a specialty? Some planners have an area of expertise, like insurance, estate planning, divorce or retirement—a fact you might want to consider if that’s a particular need of yours.
When meeting a potential planner, remember that you’re allowed to ask questions about their experience and priorities: “Do you think it’s more important to save for retirement or pay off debt? How do you feel about supporting kids through college? How do you mitigate investment risk as your clients get older?”
The choices you make with your money are intensely personal. The person who helps you make these choices should be able to understand and accept your financial priorities, and help you use your money to meet them.
5. His Management Style Makes You Uncomfortable
Financial planners can manage your money for you or manage your money with you. As different people have different needs when it comes to money management, there is no right way to work with a planner—it’s up to you to decide how hands-on you want him to be.
When you sign on with a financial planner, there will be a written agreement of how the two of you will manage your money. Read this carefully, and ask questions if you’re unsure about anything. Are you signing your accounts over to this planner? Will he check in with you before making a trade, or when rebalancing your accounts? If you’re uncomfortable with anything in the agreement, bring it up immediately.Learn more about LearnVest Planning and our financial planners by visiting learnvest.com. To book your free consultation today, email FA_Support@learnvest.com or complete your request online.
LearnVest Planning Services is a registered investment adviser. The opinions expressed in this article are that of LearnVest Planning Services, a registered investment adviser. The advice provided may not be suitable for your individual situation and you should discuss your situation with a financial professional.
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Thank you for standing with us Mr. Cooperman, even those of us north of the border!
-Have not
''There a few things in life harder to find and more important to keep than love. Well, love and a birth certificate.''
—President Barack Obama, at the 2010 White House Correspondents' Dinner
I suspect that some of these irrelevant letters created by various financial pooh bahs need to be directed to the House party down the street from the White House, where tons of middle ground is being tossed out the second floor window with drunken abandon. Norquist throws quite a party.
Dear Leon:
Thank you for taking the time out of what I can only imagine must be a hellishly busy schedule to share your thoughts with me. A president who fails to listen to his citizens fails not only them but himself and his country as well. I understand your criticism and agree with your call to elevate the public discourse above the petty partisan-backbiting and narrow-minded self-interest that too often poisons our rhetoric. I can only assume that you have sent similar and equally heartfelt letters to my attackers and accusers asking them to tone down the reckless charges and urging them to do what is best for America so we can all prosper together rather than each at the expense of the other. I am curious why my letter was the only one you saw fit to issue publicly, but I'm sure you have your reasons and that they are sound. If you would be kind enough to forward copies of those letters to me, they could not but be a powerful inducement to my opponents to compromise in a spirit of bipartisanship at, say, the next debt-ceiling debate or other suitable occasion. Even if you have not yet written such letters, let me step up and be the first to heed your call for more civilized rhetoric, and if you’ll be gracious enough to allow me speak through you in this reply and directly address my critics in the words of the great Latin poet Catullus (a man who also suffered his quantum of criticism in at least equally tumultuous times), who, after listening carefully to his critics replied: pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo.*
Stay well and stay involved
Barack Obama
*I will bugger you, and then I will fuck your mouths."
Matt,
Please for the love of us all, notice the use of " [...] " above. Feel free to use it in ALL of your articles.
Love,
The Silent Majority
Old people should be seen and not heard
Thank you.
+1
co-fucking-signed.
Bravo
Comment of the Month
Wow this riled the handful of dealbreaker democrats. Or maybe these comments are just from OWS trolls
"…gorilla campaign…." check your motives
Or maybe they're from people who have no affiliation with OWS but simply get ticked off by hypocrisy.
Leon – you had better have someone else start your car in the morning.
Boo Yah!!
Fuck you Leon Cooperman.
Leon, your letter to President Obama seems to be rooted in a sincere wish to better our country, but it was wildly off the mark. This President, in trying to compromise, has bent backwards almost to the point of breaking. And he has done it in the face of unprecedented and unrelenting attacks.
You charge Obama with promulgating a debate that can be seen as “class-warfare.” Where is the evidence for that? Is asking that tax rates go back to where they were under Clinton, when we were all doing better, really class warfare? Is asking that reasonable restrictions be placed on financial institutions “class warfare”?
Surely you are aware that under Obama personal taxes as a percent of GDP are well below their historical average. And you must be aware that corporate profits are well above their historical averages.
So where is this class warfare you speak of? You, like Hannity, O’Reilly, et al, raise bogeymen that simply do not exist. I never hear my fellow main-stream Democrats blast capitalism, or denigrate fairly-earned monetary success, so it is infuriating when intelligent people like you imply otherwise.
You concede (grudgingly) that you and others fortunate to be in the 1% might have to pay slightly more in taxes. Will that happen? Keep in mind that the large majority of Republicans in Congress (and every member of the failed Super Committee) signed that intensely nonsensical “pledge” to Grover Norquist to never raise taxes, regardless of dire need or common sense. Where is THEIR willingness to compromise?
The Radical Right hates Obama, and they would rather see the country suffer than to allow him a legislative victory. To deny that is to deny reality.
Thank God he remembered to denote his CFA credentials at the top. Really makes the missive that much more impactful. I think we're all in agreement that this finally puts to bed the CFA vs. MBA debate. (Obvi CFA > MBA).
Leon, do I detect a bit of buyer’s remorse?
Why LC is wasting his breath is beyond me, BHO doesn’t understand that you can’t vote “present” when you’re the president.
Anyone who disagrees with President Downgrade's policies is an 'attacker…' and 'reckless…petty backbiter,' see above.
ps Great trolling by that dude.
Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacist!
"Surely you are aware that under Obama personal taxes as a percent of GDP are well below their historical average. And you must be aware that corporate profits are well above their historical averages."
labor costs have not recovered since the beginning of the recession, which implies lower income taxes, and when divided into a higher nominal GDP number, then your math works, but it is not because Obama lowered taxes, pal
UBS > Obama
With all due respect Ken….you need to look up the definition of "class warfare". I would suggest that you use wikipedia…it is very clear and consise……by definition, most of what Mr. Cooperman asails here, and much of what we hear coming out of the Presidents mouth is text book………give it a look.
Government spending and transfer payments are an ever large component of GDP. The ARRS is in large part responsible for this. That is why personal taxes as % of GDP look lower. Anything else?
Did anyone listen to Cooperman's explanation of this letter today on CNBC? He said if he were President he would end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, give every returning soldier a free four year college education and impose a 10% surtax on all incomes over $500,000 a year. He listed nine other "planks" that lean clearly Democratic. There is not a single elected Republican that would ever allow the plan that Cooperman thinks is the right one for for the country to be enacted into law. And that's the only point that Obama has been rightly making— that Republicans are obstructing ideas for everyone, including the rich, to contribute more to solve our problems. Cooperman's letter and interview reveal astonishing hypocrisy.
"you and others fortunate to be in the 1%"
– Yes, it was luck and fortune that put me through and paid for my schooling, pushed me to work 80 hour weeks at great personal cost, and motivated me to risk my own $$ to be an entrepreneur. Yes, it was society's lottery ticket that got me into the 1%
I'm with you on that. People just don't wake up one day and find everything they ever wanted. The wake up and go to work for it. It's all envy- that is all it is. If you think that the top 1% does not pay more then their fair share, you are full on envy. You should be looking at what you can do to better yourself, not what someone else can do for you. It's not the top 1% that owe this country, it's the bottom 55 that do.
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