oops... I got long winded in my response and just figured out you want to bring someone in for your office, not for just you to attend... ignore what I rambled on about below...
I was not impressed with my local federal credit union for their FERS/TSP pitch. Basically a troupe of used car salesmen with very expensive suits, shoes, watches, and cars in the parking lot. They were very impressed with themselves. All I saw was overhead. I did not hear much sage advice. The bottom line of their pitch: put the minimum into your TSP to take advantage of the employer match, put any more in and you are a fool. Give us the rest of your money and we will "manage" it for you by investing in our high commission products and then pay us a management fee. Not to be a stick in the mud, but I did not see them offer hard examples of alternatives to the TSP and what those investments YTD return is. The C, S, and I are up 12-16% and the management fee is about $0.25 per $1,000.00.
Then there are the big programs that made the circuit to our Regional Office for a FERS retirement seminar. Lots of flash and shiny photos. Very expensive and the RO paid the bill. I did not attend, but thought it was funny that the guy preaching about how wise he was and we are to follow his advice, was so old and tuckered out during the seminar that he often had to sit and rest for a bit and kept talking. I tend to ignore guys like that. But the guy I meet on vacation and is just a bit older than me and retired... when he was talking about how he saved and manages his money, my ears are wide open.
I have not had much luck with independent financial advisors either. I have approached numerous ones over the past 3 years. Lots of promises with flash and fluff but crumble under a few hard questions. I always ask if they have federal employees as clients. Are those clients under the FERS system? They always say YES YES YES, I am an expert here to save your hide and I only charge $500 up front for an analysis. Then I ask a few harder questions and I pull out a spreadsheet or two and then suddenly it’s a bunch of umms and hmmmms. An example of a harder question: Under FERS, what is the difference between a postponed vs. deferred retirement? I do not expect the average financial advisor to know this off the top of their head, but I do expect one that claims to have numerous federal clients and wants to charge me up front before he shows me the quality of his work and advice.
My advice… get some help if you are new to this and do not trust your decisions. Do not hand all your money over to them. Then learn, observe, study, read, watch, listen, question, etc. Then fire them and pay yourself their commission and fee. The more you are involved, the closer you watch, and in the long term I bet you will make more money and retire better.
I used to think guys in suits knew more than me. What a fool I was. My wife worked for a private bank for a bit. Was an administrative assistant for high net worth clients. The managers were very professional around the clients and she would put together an outstanding portfolio report. But she said it was a real eye opener to see how ghetto they acted when the clients were not around and in meetings. Investment decisions/advice did not seem to be as informed as you would think they are.
