Fee-Only Financial Planners in Lynchburg, Virginia
HSC Wealth Advisors’ mission is to build long-term relationships that improve your life through astute and efficient stewardship of your financial resources. Our planning and investment counsel brings customized direction, clarity, and peace of mind to your life and legacy.
About Fee-Only Services
As an independent fee-only wealth management firm, all decisions are made locally, and we have no headquarters to consult.
This means:
- Our fees are based on the amount of investment assets we manage and our services include investment management and unlimited advice and counsel surrounding all aspects of cash flow, tax, insurance, education, and estate planning as well.
- The HSC Wealth Advisors team has no bank depository requirements for lending activities.
- As a fee-only registered investment adviser (RIA), we have no required proprietary investment products.
Our team of certified financial planners helps clients with planning strategies tailored to a range of financial goals. Whether you are currently working or retired and looking to gain greater peace of mind over your wealth, we can help. If you are in the beginning stages of wealth accumulation, we have a guide on How to Start Saving.
If you’re looking for a fee-only financial planner in Lynchburg, Virginia, we can help!
Generally, our clients pay HSC Wealth Advisors no more than 1% per year.
What Is a Fee-Only Financial Advisor?
Fee-only financial advisors receive a flat commission for their services. They do not receive a commission based on the products or services they recommend.
There are many benefits of working with a fee-only financial planner. There are no financial hooks, surrender charges or lockup periods. Clients are free to leave at any time if they are disappointed.
Paul Barringer founded HSC Wealth Advisors in 1983 because he believed that Lynchburg, Virginia was in need of a company that would treat clients the way he himself would want to be treated. We’ve kept that goal alive with our fee-only financial planners: treating our clients how we would treat ourselves and more importantly, our own families.
We establish a fiduciary relationship with you, a special relationship of trust, confidence, and/or legal responsibility when providing advice or managing your assets—as outlined by the Center for Fiduciary Studies in their Prudent Practices for Investment Advisors.
As an independent, fee-only, RIA, HSC Wealth Advisors only requires clients to pay us our flat fee, no matter how we work together. Fee-only advisors, like HSC, have fewer conflicts of interest and we generally provide more comprehensive advice on various financial services.
Fee-Only Vs Fee-Based Financial Advisors
What does fee-based mean then? A “fee-based” financial advisor, on the other hand, is not governed by the same principles as a “fee-only” financial advisor. The two terms sound remarkably similar; however, they are light years apart in meaning and it’s the “fee-only” registered financial advisor that most of us will want to hire.
“Fee-based” advisors start with their fees — and are then permitted to add commission on top of it, for selling products such as mutual funds or insurance. Most likely, if you’re working with a fee-based advisor, they don’t just charge you a fee for the assets they manage for you. Depending on the products that they promoted you into obtaining, they may receive commissions, soft dollars and referral fees from the brokerage firm, mutual fund company or insurance company for whom they work.
The potential conflict of interest is obvious: When an advisor is compensated by what they sell you, they may be more likely to try and make that sale. Since they aren’t bound by fiduciary duty, they aren’t obligated to tell you if that sale is in your best interest. In fact, “fee-based” advisors will get paid differently on some products versus others and will sometimes push a product that you don’t need— nor will that product help you towards a secure financial future.
SCHEDULE A CALL TO LEARN MORE ABOUT FEE-ONLY
What Should You Ask Your Potential Financial Advisor?
Consumers need to look closely at the compensation structure to determine if the advisor is truly “fee-only”. Before hiring an expert, you can always ask. A commonly recommended question to ask a potential advisor and a straightforward way to distinguish between the two types of fee structures is simply: “How do you make your money?”
Here’s how we answer: “Our clients pay us only our fee, no matter what.” With no commission financial advisors, you don’t pay sales commissions, contingent deferred sales charges, high expense ratios, referral fees, soft dollars or any other ambiguous fees that are, confusing at best and, at worst, harmful to your investment return. We primarily charge a percentage of assets under management because of our emphasis on offering comprehensive wealth management. But fee-only financial planning includes other methods of charging clients such as a flat retainer, an hourly rate or a charge specific to the task at hand.
As an “independent, fee-only RIA”, we are quite unique among financial advisors in the Lynchburg, Virginia area. The bottom line is we serve our clients and only our clients; doing all we can to see that you reach the goals and objectives that you have set for yourself both financially and in life—it’s as simple as that with HSC.
Transparency, Accountability, and Conflict-Free Advice
HSC Wealth Advisors’ mission is to build long-term relationships that improve your life through astute and efficient stewardship of your financial resources. Our fee-only fiduciary financial advisors bring customized direction, clarity, and peace of mind to your life and legacy.
Our services may include financial planning, investment management, insurance planning, tax strategies, retirement planning and estate planning. We are a fee-only Wealth Management firm. We are compensated only by our clients and accept no commissions or compensation from any other sources. This approach eliminates conflicts of interest. You always know we are on your side. We don’t sell annuities, life insurance or any other product that pays a commission. We use exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and no-load, mutual funds.
Contact Our Fee-Only Financial Advisors in Virginia
Considering fee-only financial planning? Contact the experienced fee-only financial advisors at HSC and let us help you secure a financial future.
To find out more about fiduciaries, visit www.focusonfiduciary.org or go to the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors www.napfa.org for more information. Or call NAPFA at 1-800-366-2732.
At this time, we are not providing financial planning advice on a per-hour basis. We do not charge by the hour. However, exceptions can and do exist. Current client relationships may exist where the fees are higher or lower than our published fee schedule. Click here if you would like a copy of our published fee schedule.
