Certified Financial Planners

I need a recommendation for a Financial Planner familiar with FERS retirement. Thanks so much

 

There is a buttload of folks that will pass themselves off as such and lure you in with free planning\retirement sessions. I would advise staying away from them as their angle is to get your TSP rolled over to an IRA so they can manage it afterwards.

The only person I can recommend is Abe Grungold. He occasionally writes for Federal News network (one of his latest- https://federalnewsnetwork.com/mike-causey-federal-report/2020/07/when-your-tsp-nest-egg-wont-hatch ). He is a full-time Fed (https://www.linkedin.com/in/abraham-grungold-06131aa ) that does planning on the side. He also has a FB page that has some interesting articles and posts (https://www.facebook.com/FERS-Federal-Employees-134334327285768/ ).

Just my opinion, but I would stay away from anyone that want to manage your TSP/IRA for you, either now or in retirement. No issue paying for advice, but what many are looking for is 1%-1.5% in fees every year for doing the active management for you.

If you are looking for TSP advice, this is a good FB group to follow (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1399724786966464/ ). I think there is a waiting list to get in, but well worth the wait.

Feel free to DM me with any questions. I'm FERS with just a few years to go!

 

I have no recommendations for a financial advisor but I do have a couple of thoughts (as a retired fed under FERS).

You probably need to figure out when you can afford to retire and what you need to do to get there. While there are a lot of rules of thumb, this varies a lot and is dependent on what you want in retirement. A financial planner can help keep you from being too optimistic, this often has a fee of a few hundred dollars. It's usually good to do this initially 10 years or so before you plan to retire. Your agency may help with this; mine had planning for retirement, mid-career planning for retirement, and retiring soon planning courses.

You need to understand how retirement income, retirement accounts (both TSP and IRA, as well as Roth vs traditional for each), and social security play into this. Part of the plan needs to include tax ramifications of decisions as well as income ramifications. Another consideration is FEHB, to keep it or not and how it interacts with Medicare; generally, the advice is to keep it into retirement and to do this, you have to be enrolled 5 years before retirement. (One of the tax ramifications is you probably have FEHB taken out of your pay before taxes but after you retire, FEHB premiums remain the same but come out of after tax dollars.)

Beware of people who want to manage your money. If you decide to have someone do that, make sure they have a fiduciary responsibility (i.e., they have to look out for your financial interest, not theirs). There is no certification required to be a "financial planner" and individuals usually don't have training or a fiduciary responsibility. The people who do have this responsibility are typically at banks or places like Schwab.
(Note: Two examples... My in-laws had money they had managed by a lawyer embezzled. My parents used an individual advisor who sold them annuities (that wouldn't pay out until my mom was 110 or died) and had them pay for it by selling stocks they had for decades; this led to a huge tax burden and impacted their Medicare premiums and social security payments for a year. In addition, any interest paid on the annuities was taxed when inherited, if the money had stayed in the stocks there would have been no taxes due. Annuities generated the highest commission to the "financial planner".)

Tammy Flannigan writes a retirement column in Government Executive. I found this useful but usually too general. A recent one is at
https://www.govexec.com/pay-benefits/2020/07/myths-misunderstandings-and-managing-your-money/166755/.

Feel free to send me questions if you want.