Top Financial Planners

As a high net-worth individual, you probably have multiple financial and investment goals. If you are concerned about achieving those goals, you probably have questions about your finances, such as diversifying your $10 million investment portfolio or increasing your income.

Your goals can range from buying a home in your dream location, investing and saving for your family, or even taking a vacation in exotic locations. But how can you achieve this goal while protecting your wealth? This is where a financial planner comes in handy.
In this article, we look at why financial planning is important and how you can go about it. Topics like budgeting, taxes, investments, insurance, and so many others that are vital for a high net worth individual to know will be considered. The article was created by Pillar Wealth Management LLC, a wealth management firm that caters.

to the needs of affluent clients who have between $5 million and $500 million in liquid assets and are looking to protect and increase their wealth. If you would love to get professional advice from experienced financial experts, you can book a free, no-obligation session with Chris Snyder and Hutch Ahoo, the co-founders of the firm.

The Best Financial Advisors of 2023

Money Crashers provides their selection of the best financial advisors based on the following criteria:

1. Price — How affordable is this advisor? Our selected advisors offer good value for the money.

2. Accessibility — Are the advisory services available without a huge minimum account balance?   

3. Track Record — What’s the quality of the services provided?     

4. Technological Innovation        — Is this advisor using the latest tools and finance technology?

5. Customer Reviews — What do customers say about their experience with this advisor?

Here are our choices for 2023.

1. Best Overall: Fidelity Investments  

Fidelity Investments, founded in 1946, is based in Boston, MA. It is a multinational financial corporation with over $4 trillion in assets under management. Fidelity owns a brokerage firm and offers a wide range of financial advisory services.

Fidelity was the first major US finance firm to sell mutual funds to the general public. Fidelity Contrafund, the firm’s largest mutual fund, with over $100 billion in assets, is the biggest non-indexed fund in the US.

In 2018, Fidelity introduced a line of zero-expense-ratio mutual funds, and the funds in this line cover more than two-thirds of US indexed assets.

Fidelity’s robo-advisor is called Fidelity Go. There are no advisory fees for accounts under $10,000. Subsequently, fees top off at 0.35%.

Fidelity’s personalized planning services combine its online advisory service with a human advisor, requiring a minimum account balance of $25,000.

With Fidelity wealth management, the client works with a dedicated advisor to build a tailored financial plan. The advisor monitors and rebalances the asset portfolio and reviews your financial plan at least once a year.

Fidelity’s wealth products include Fidelity Wealth Management and Fidelity Private Wealth Management. Enrolling in Fidelity Wealth Management requires $250,000, with advisory fees ranging from 0.50% to 1.50%. Fidelity Private Wealth Management requires $2 million managed through Fidelity and $10 million or more in investable assets.

2. Best for Mixing Robo-Advice with a Human Touch: Vanguard Personal Advisor Services

Vanguard holds about $8 trillion in assets under management. In 1951, John Bogle founded the Vanguard Group in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Bogle established the First Index Investment Trust in 1971. This fund, which is now called the Vanguard 500 Index Fund, is one of the earliest passive investing index funds.

Vanguard is owned by its fund shareholders. The company prides itself on offering low-cost products and services, with low expense ratios.

Vanguard launched its digital advisor in 2020.

For online advice with an advisor, Vanguard requires a minimum of $50,000 to qualify. The yearly fee is 0.30% of the account balance. With that service, you get a personalized financial plan, investment coaching, goal tracking, access to exclusive actively managed funds, and automated tax-loss harvesting.

For a 100% digital experience, Vanguard Digital Advisor (a robo-advisor) offers low-cost investing at not more than $2 per every $1,000 managed. There are no advisory fees for the first 90 days.

With $3,000 in a Vanguard brokerage account, Vanguard Digital Advisor will monitor your investments and, as needed, will rebalance your portfolio. There are no penalties for closing an account.

3. Best for Commission-Free Advisors: Zoe Financial

Zoe is in the business of growing wealth. Zoe Financial evaluates financial advisors so you don’t have to. First, they select only advisors with the CFP, CFA, or CPA designations. A Zoe advisor has at least five years of relevant experience.

A Zoe advisor must be unbiased and charge reasonable fees. Advisors are assessed on their knowledge and the client experience they offer.

Zoe claims to select only the top 5% of advisors. Zoe offers a free retirement planning guide.

4. Best for Low-Cost Unlimited Access to Advisors: Betterment

Betterment’s investment advice is offered primarily over the internet. Betterment manages investment portfolios of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and, in some cases, mutual funds (traditional securities) or digital assets (crypto). Betterment also offers retirement planning and cash management.

The investor provides the platform with information about her or his financial situation, and the software builds and manages your portfolio based on that information. The robot monitors your account on an ongoing basis; it trades on your behalf, depending on asset allocation changes and account deposits or withdrawals. The minimum initial deposit is $10.

Asset allocations are drawn from low-cost ETFs. Third-party providers have access to traditional securities.

Betterment provides automated advice with access to financial planning experts through its Premium plan, which has a team of CFPs to offer advice through unlimited calls and emails. Betterment Premium requires a balance of at least $100,000 in traditional securities and crypto.

The Premium offering and Advice Packages provide advice from financial consultants via phone or email. The fee for a Digital client is 0.25% annually, and for a Premium client, the fee is 0.40%.

Betterment’s tools can help you figure out how much you need to save for retirement, and establish a savings plan.     

5. Best for Flat-Rate Financial Planning Services: Harness Wealth

Based on your profile, Harness Wealth’s technology will recommend tax, financial, or estate services advisors.

The Harness vetting process considers the advisor’s expertise, customer service, fiduciary status, and data security.

The Harness advisor marketplace covers the core pillars of financial strategies, such as wealth management, tax advice, equity services, and trust and estate planning.

Harness offers standalone financial planning starting at $1,200, using a vetted CFP.

6. Best for No Investment Management Fee: Facet Wealth

Facet Wealth, founded in 2016, is based in Baltimore, MD. The firm works exclusively with individuals and has over $1 billion in assets under management.

At Facet Wealth, you’re assigned a dedicated CFP, who is necessarily a fiduciary advisor, to establish a financial plan. Your advisor is available whenever you need help, advice, or information.

Facet Wealth offers online financial services with a human element. It provides financial planning and consultation, with fees ranging from $2,000 to $8,000 per year on a flat fee basis, depending on the complexity of the provided services. There is no investment advisory fee.

At Facet, your CFP works with you to develop a retirement plan that meets your needs. You can save for retirement at the same time as paying down debt and saving for major purchases, such as a new home. Even if retirement is decades away, a Facet CFP can help you plan for retirement by acting now.              

Who are the Best Financial Planners?

As a high net worth or ultra-high net worth individual with a considerable investment portfolio, you want to get the best possible financial planner for your investments. But before we talk about how to find the best financial planner, let us look at who a financial planner is, and what they do.

A financial planner is another finance professional that can move you closer to achieving your financial goals. They do this by taking your future goals and expanding on them to create a comprehensive financial plan. The financial planner takes a look at your lifestyle, your expenses, and what you seek to achieve financially.

They will then use the information to draft out a comprehensive plan for your portfolio. As simple as it may seem, the process is quite complex, especially when managing the assets of extremely high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals.

If you would like to receive information about improving your investment portfolio, get our free guide, Improving Portfolio Performance: The Shifts Multi-Millionaires Must Make to Achieve Financial Security and Serenity. This guide was prepared by Pillar Wealth Management, a wealth management company that caters to high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients with $5 million to $50 million in assets.

When creating a financial plan, your financial planner will consider several factors, such as the time frame of the goals. There are some goals that you will want to achieve in the short-term while others are far off.

If your financial planner knows these goals, then they can help you achieve them. If you need professional advice with setting financial goals, then schedule a free non-obligatory consultation call with the founders of Pillar Wealth Management LLC, Chris Snyder, and Hutch Ashoo.

To help you accomplish your financial goals, your financial planner will have you take a survey. The purpose of this survey is to help the planner get a clear view of your current financial situation, as well as understand your financial goals and investment objectives.

The survey also tells your financial advisor what your risk profile is, so the plan considers that too. Your risk profile is what helps your financial planner determine how your assets should be invested to help you achieve your goals.

The risk profile that you fit into depends on the stage of life you are, as well as your risk appetite. Your financial planner must have all the relevant information that they need so that they can help you create the best kind of plan.

Once your financial planner understands your goals, they will then determine how realistic the goals are. The financial planner may use several financial management tools such as a capital needs analysis to see how you can raise the capital necessary to reach your goals. To achieve this, they will cross-check your financial budget to determine your spending, compare your assets and liabilities to determine the cost of meeting your goals.

Now is a great time to let us look at where you can find the best financial planner for your investment portfolio.

Where are the Best Financial Planners?

If you do a quick google search for “best financial planners near me,” you can get a lot of results. You will see a lot of financial professionals that offer financial advisory services. But where can you find the best ones?

To find the best financial planner, you need to know the various types of financial professionals who offer financial advice and can draw up a financial plan. Understanding the types of professionals that offer financial advice and create financial plans will help you identify where the best financial planners are.

The first type of professional we will cover that can give financial advice is a Robo-advisor. However, a Robo-advisor is not a human being. A Robo-advisor or Robo-investor is a computer software that manages your investment portfolio according to an algorithm. To get started, you are given a questionnaire to fill.

This questionnaire will ask various questions about your financial plans, your goals for your investments, how you want your portfolio to be managed, and many other questions. The Robo-advisor prepares an investment plan for you based on the answers you give in the questionnaire.

This investment plan will take into consideration your reasons for investing, the timeframe you plan to invest for, and your risk appetite to allocate your assets. The Robo-advisor automatically manages your assets based on the algorithm. This means that you do not get to have hands-on participation with your investments.

Robo-advisors are not for everyone, especially those with complex financial situations, like high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals. For example, if you have a lot of goals, the algorithm might not be sophisticated enough to handle them. Also, if you need some advice or want someone to talk to, you may not have the opportunity because an algorithm handles your trading for you.

If you want to know how your wealth and estate can be better managed, request for your free copy of our hardcover book, The Art of Protecting Ultra-High Net Worth Portfolios and Estates: Strategies for Families Worth $25 Million to $500 Million. Our team at Pillar Wealth Management, LLC. will send this to your home for free.

The next kind of financial professional that you can use is a financial planner. A financial planner is exactly what it sounds like, a professional that helps you plan your finances and investment portfolio. We have already described who a financial planner is and what they do, but there are some disadvantages to using only a financial planner.

The major challenge of using only a financial planner is with the implementation of the plan. A financial plan for a high net worth individual with $5 million to $500 million in liquid assets is likely going to be extremely complex, especially if the investment portfolio is worth 10 million or higher.

Many financial planners do not have the best knowledge on selecting assets to invest in; neither can they help you manage your portfolio by selling or buying bonds stocks or other securities. The result is that although the financial planner can prepare an adequate financial plan, they did not have the authority or know-how to implement the plan. And without proper implementation, you might not achieve your investment goals.

This is where an investment or a stockbroker comes in. Investment brokers suggest and purchase investment vehicles such as stocks, bonds, and securities to meet your financial goals. Unlike other financial professionals who are paid a fixed fee, an investment broker is usually paid on commission, which means that the broker ends money anytime you purchase stocks, bonds, or other securities from them.

Therefore, to effectively manage your investments as a member of the top 1%, you will need at least the services of a financial planner and an investment broker. However, hiring two different people can prove problematic, especially if the two parties do not work well together.

This is where a financial advisor or wealth manager comes in. They combine the skill sets of both a financial planner and an investment broker in addition to providing other services specifically tailored towards affluent clients.

A financial advisor is skilled in fields such as estate planning, tax planning, insurance, and of course, investments. If you need professional advice in any of these fields, you can schedule a free consultation call with Chris Snyder and Hutch Ashoo, the co-founder of pillar Wealth Management LLC, who are experienced in providing financial advice to affluent clients. With over three decades of experience, you can rest assured you are getting the proper advice you need.

How to Find the Right Financial Planner

When you are looking for financial advice or help managing your investment portfolio, it is important to find the right financial planner. More importantly, you need to find a financial planner that is right for you. As a high net-worth individual with $5 million to $500 million in liquid assets, your financial needs will differ quite significantly from that of an average middle-class individual.

However, most financial planners are trained and experienced in managing wealth for members of the middle class. This means that they are not right for you, because they do not fully understand the complexities of managing a huge investment portfolio. The right financial planner for you, therefore, is a financial advisor or wealth manager that has considerable experience managing wealth for high net worth or ultra-high net worth individuals.

If you need more information about how to choose a financial advisor, our team at Pillar Wealth Management, LLC, created a valuable resource for you. Receive your copy of The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Best Financial Advisor: For Investors with $5 Million to $500 Million in Liquid Assets.

Another reason why you need a financial advisor is because of something called fiduciary duty. Fiduciary duty means that your wealth manager is bound by law to always act in your best interests. This is not the case for a stockbroker or any other financial professional, while they are expected to, it is in no means compelled by law.

For example, a stockbroker can suggest investment security to you for purchase, not because it is the best in that asset class but because it yields a higher commission for them. Unfortunately, if the asset that was suggested moves your portfolio in the direction of your goal, it is perfectly legal, even if they were better investment options.

This is not the case with a financial advisor as they are bound by law to provide you the best investment advice within the limit of their ability. You can expect your financial advisor to give you the best possible investment advice to meet your goals.

1. Consider Your Priorities

Different financial planners offer different services. They may have a specialty, or they may have more experience working with certain types of customers. So, before beginning your search for a financial advisor or planner, prioritize the financial services you need.

It may be that you simply want advice on choosing investments, retirement planning, or filing your taxes. You may be concerned about staying on a budget while also saving money. If you have retirement accounts, you may wonder how long your money will last once you start making withdrawals.

2. Find Planners Who Fit Your Needs

Go online and start looking. Many websites can help you find a financial advisor with whom you can work remotely, or if you prefer a face-to-face meeting, your search engine with provide some names. To find planners that are certified financial planners (CFPs), you can use the CFP Board website or Brokercheck on the FINRA website. Another good site is NAPFA, the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors.

You can ask around in your network of friends, family members, and co-workers, where someone you know may be working with an advisor or a planner, and they are satisfied with the result.

3. Calculate the Costs

Of course, you want to know how much you’ll need to pay for financial planning services.

You may want to focus your search on planners with certain designations and who are compensated on a fee-only basis. Following a fee-only compensation model means the advisor’s income is comprised of only the fees paid by their clients, which avoids conflicts of interest.

Fee-only advisors charge a fee based on the value of the assets that they manage for you, usually a percentage. This advisory fee will vary depending on the asset management services provided and the size of the portfolio, so the advisor may require a minimum amount to manage the assets.

Fees may be lower for high-net-worth portfolios. Planners may charge an hourly rate for their services or a monthly or annual retainer.

4. Vet the Contenders

For each planner on your shortlist, you’ll need to validate their credentials. Do this by going to the relevant website (CPF board, FINRA). The SEC keeps track of regulatory violations.   

Make an appointment for an initial conversation with any candidates that appeal to you. Be prepared to discuss your financial situation and personal details. During your first meeting, you can ask questions about the advisor and the services they provide to determine how they can help you reach your financial goals. You will know if they are someone with whom you can build a long-term, trusting relationship.

Why at Pillar Wealth Management – we consider ourselves one of the Top Ultra-High Net Worth Management Firms

When selecting a financial planner or wealth advisor, you should consider the years of experience that the firm has had with providing financial advice to affluent clients. Experience in providing expert financial advice is just as important as any certification that the firm may have.

When it comes to managing the assets of high net worth individuals in the US, at Pillar Wealth Management LLC we feel we are one of the top wealth management firms. If you would like to take advantage of this wealth of experience, you can schedule a free consultation with Chris Snyder and Hutch Ashoo, the co-founders at Pillar Wealth Management LLC.

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