Facet Wealth review: Full-service financial planning for less

Finding a professional to help you manage both your big-picture financial future and everyday financial needs can be overwhelming. There are a ton of options to choose from and each charges for their services in different ways that could conflict with the advice they give.

You could choose a local advisor, an online robo-advisor, or even do it yourself. Each option comes with benefits and drawbacks. Until recently, these were your main options. However, a company called Facet Wealth offers a new option you may prefer.

Facet Wealth offers online-based Certified Financial Planners™ to help you plan your financial future for a flat yearly fee. You don’t have to pay commissions or assets under management fees.

What is Facet Wealth?

Facet Wealth is an online financial planning firm that puts your interests first by offering financial planning at an affordable price. They focus on your financial health and wellness.

Rather than charging you based on the assets they manage for you, Facet Wealth charges an annual flat rate for their advice and investment management. This is preferable because you don’t have to think about the potential impact commissions may have on the advice you receive. 

Once you build a nest egg, you don’t have to worry about paying high fees just because you have a lot of assets, either. 

Facet Wealth provides its financial planning services through the many Certified Financial Planners™ (CFP®) they have on staff. 

After an initial call, you’re set up with a dedicated CFP® that best meets your particular situation. This CFP® will be your personal Certified Financial Planner™ you get access to for any of your financial questions. 

An important distinction of using only CFP® financial advisors is the fact that each CFP® is a fiduciary. That means they’re required to put your interests first.

How does Facet Wealth work?

Facet Wealth starts by first getting to know your personal situation, then pointing you in the right direction.

Facet Wealth begins the process with an initial phone call. It lasts for about half an hour and is a goal-setting and introductory phone call. There’s nothing you need to do to prepare for it.

Using your information, Facet Wealth can set you up with one of their CFP®s for an initial complimentary financial review. This part takes less than an hour.

After the review, you can hire this company on an ongoing basis. They have a variety of plans based on your needs. And once you’re a client, you can meet with your CFP® whenever you need to and can ask whatever questions you may have. 

Note that your questions may be limited to the topics you pay for advice on. For instance, if you don’t choose a plan level that includes estate planning, you won’t be able to ask estate planning questions.

Facet Wealth services

Facet Wealth goes beyond the simple investment management provided by robo-advisors.

They provide investment management and comprehensive financial planning services, which may include the following:

Retirement planning: Your CFP® at Facet Wealth will put together an action plan to help you reach your retirement goals, as well as help you to understand the strategies behind it.

Education planning: If you have children, Facet Wealth presents options to pay for their future education.

Life planning: Your advisor will help you to plan for what’s most important in your life.

Asset management: This is the investment management part of the Facet Wealth program. It will include constructing a well-diversified portfolio to help you achieve your long-term goals.

Income tax planning: This service involves minimizing the impact of taxes while implementing your financial plan and investing activities.

Insurance planning: If you don’t know a whole lot about insurance, your financial advisor at Facet Wealth can help. They’ll recommend the best types of plans to provide specific protections you need for yourself and your family.

Estate planning: Facet Wealth will work with your personal attorney to create an estate plan to provide for your loved ones after your death.

Legacy planning: This involves creating a plan to make provisions for either your family or a favorite charity. It will enable you to structure your finances in such a way that you will be able to provide for the people or organizations you care for most.

Retirement income: Apart from retirement planning, it’s also important to successfully manage income in retirement. Your financial advisor will take into consideration your income from Social Security and pensions, in creating a distribution plan from your retirement savings.

How much does Facet Wealth cost?

The cost of Facet Wealth’s services depends on the services you want to pay for. 

Facet Wealth fees range from $1,800/year (which is $150/month) to $6,000/year (which is $500/month) – and most clients fall in the middle of that range depending on the complexity of your financial landscape. They offer seven levels of services with prices that increase with the level of services rendered. 

When you break it down month-by-month, you can pay as little as $150 per month to as much as $500 per month for their services. It just depends on your needs. And here, a Facet Wealth CFP® can even help you choose your employee benefits and provide assistance in making the right decisions with your company’s stock option plan.

Facet Wealth features

Here is what you can expect if you become a Facet Wealth client.

Dashboard

In addition to services and being able to contact your CFP® whenever you need, Facet Wealth also offers a dashboard to help you keep track of your finances. 

The dashboard allows you to link your financial accounts so you get a real-time view of your finances without logging into multiple accounts. 

The dashboard also highlights your goals and objectives, as well as key metrics like emergency fund status, savings rate, debt score, credit score, and more making it easy to see a snapshot of your overall financial picture.

Comprehensive planning

One of the big benefits of using Facet Wealth over a robo-advisor is Facet Wealth’s comprehensive planning offerings. They’ll take a look at your entire investment portfolio, including your retirement investments, to make sure your investment strategy is aligned with your long-term goals.

And rather than focusing only on managing and growing your assets, Facet Wealth can help you with other important parts of your financial plan as well.  For example, Facet Wealth takes a goals-focused approach to your investment management, using the things that are important to you to inform your investment advice.

For example, if you tell them you’re hoping to buy a house in the near future, they may suggest ways to move your money to help you save for the down payment in less time.

Flat-fee

Finally, one of the biggest selling points is Facet Wealth charges a flat fee for their services. This means you receive value equal to what you pay, not based on how large your asset balance is or how big of a commission your advisor is earning from the services they recommend.

Who is Facet Wealth best for?

Facet Wealth is ideal for the following types of people.

Those who want advice, but no high fees

Facet Wealth is best for those looking for professional financial advice without having to pay large assets under management fees. 

For instance, those with a $1,000,000 portfolio would pay $10,000 per year under a traditional financial advisor with a 1% assets under management fee. However, even with Facet Wealth’s most expensive fee, the cost would be just a little more than half the price.

Those who want a no-commission system

It’s also a great option for those that don’t want to wonder if the advice their advisor is giving them conflicts with the commissions the advisor may earn for suggesting a certain product.

Keep in mind, you need to be comfortable communicating through email or on the phone when you have questions. The good news is there is no cancellation fee if you find out Facet Wealth doesn’t end up being a good fit for you.

Who isn’t Facet Wealth for?

Some people may be disappointed by what Facet Wealth has to offer. Here a couple of groups that might not be a good fit for this service.

Beginner investors

Facet Wealth won’t work for everyone. In particular, those just getting started might not need to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars each year for advice.

Instead, reading a good book on the basics of index investing could provide enough knowledge to get started. Once you build enough assets to need more guidance, Facet Wealth may be a good option at that point.

Self-starters

Once your initial financial plan is built, self-starters may not need to continue paying for Facet Wealth every year. That said, you’ll miss out on the benefits of continued advice to help you manage life’s changes if you don’t stay subscribed.

Those who want an in-person advisor

Finally, those that like meeting with an advisor face to face will likely be better off with a local financial advisor.

My experience using Facet Wealth

The Facet Wealth experience is focused on providing comprehensive financial life management at an affordable price. 

Rather than focusing on its automated offerings and technology, Facet Wealth focuses on the relationship you’ll build with your dedicated Certified Financial Planner™.

Instead of relying on the basics of asset management, Facet Wealth instead provides objective advice on comprehensive financial planning based on the level of service you need.

You’ll receive a welcome packet upon signing up

Once you sign up for their service, you’ll receive a welcome packet that describes Facet Wealth’s role as a fiduciary. It also shares the guidelines they follow to offer its financial planning services.

You’ll fill out a questionnaire

You’ll have to fill out an introductory questionnaire that includes basic information about yourself, your family, and your finances, including any financial goals you may have.

Based on the results, your goals and financial information will be displayed on a dashboard. The dashboard’s goal is to provide all of your financial information and goals in one place in an easy-to-understand format.

You’ll then be assigned a CFP®

Next, your CFP® will help tailor the financial planning experience at Facet Wealth based on the services you need. This includes choosing the level of service you need.

Once you’re a client, you’ll have a series of planning meetings to help develop your personal financial plan which will ultimately result in a document called your financial blueprint. They can also break down individual goals into one-page plans such as preparing for college expenses.

Of course, you can call any time to speak with your professional whenever you have financial questions.

Facet Wealth vs. competitors

Facet Wealth has many competitors, but they all slightly vary in how they work and charge for their services. 

Robo-advisors

In a way, Facet Wealth competes with robo- advisors. Robo-advisors typically charge a relatively small percentage of the assets they manage and provide basic financial management using software instead of humans.

Robo-advisors will typically help you set up your initial asset allocation and rebalance your portfolio when necessary. They may also help you build a financial plan. 

Due to the lower cost of a robo-advisor’s services, there will generally be very little, if any, interaction with a human professional. 

Read more: Robo-advisors vs. financial advisors: Which option is best for you?

Wealthfront

Wealthfront is a true robo-advisor with free financial planning features. This is a solid option if inexpensive financial planning drew you to Facet Wealth but you have less capital and you’re new to investing.

The Wealthfront algorithm will create and manage a portfolio for you with a mix of exchange-traded funds that makes sense for your risk tolerance and goals, then rebalance it and save you money on taxes – all for a flat rate of 0.25% per year. Wealthfront’s low fees and investment minimum of $500 make it a good option for new and intermediate investors alike.

You won’t get an investment advisor of your own or the same level of personalized planning services from Wealthfront, but you will have free access to an automated platform that can help you figure out for yourself what you need to do to reach your saving, investing, and net worth goals.

Read our full review.

M1

Another competitor, M1 Finance, is a mix between robo-advisors and brokerage accounts. M1 Finance allows you to pick an investment mix, which they call pies. If you’d like, you can create your own custom investment mix as well. 

Once you pick an investment mix, M1 Finance will make sure you purchase the correct amount of each investment whenever you deposit money to keep your portfolio balanced. 

M1 Finance stands out from other competitors because their service is currently free. There are no assets under management fees or other fees to use them, but they do not provide financial planning.

Read our full review.

This article is not financial advice. All investing involves risk, including the risk of losing the money you invest. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

Personal Capital

Services like Personal Capital combine the robo-advisor model with a dedicated professional. They provide an online dashboard to help you track your finances and net worth for free. 

If you’d like to use their financial advisory services, they charge a 0.89% assets under management fee for the first $1,000,000 in assets. The fee decreases on amounts above $1,000,000.

Depending on your balance, this fee can be higher than using a service like Facet Wealth. In fact, the fee could be quite large if you have a lot of assets.

Read our full review.

Personal Capital Advisors Corporation (“PCAC”) compensates Webpals Systems S. C LTD for new leads. Webpals Systems S. C LTD is not an investment client of PCAC.

Financial advisors

Facet Wealth also competes with traditional financial advisors you can find in your area or online. Traditional financial advisors may earn their compensation through commissions on trades, charging assets under management fees, or charging hourly consultation fees.

Summary

If you don’t have a professional that can help you manage your financial life and goals, consider setting up an introductory call with Facet Wealth to see if they’re a good fit for your needs.

There’s no risk upfront and Facet Wealth’s goal is to make online financial planning personal and affordable for you.

Read more:

• Do you need a financial advisor?
• How those on a low income can access financial advisors