Deceived for Commission

Stay away from FirstCommand! They sell themselves as "military-friendly financial advisors," but in reality they're just commissioned salespeople.

I thought I was doing the right thing as a new officer for my financial future by promptly going down to the local First Command office and signing up for their investment and life insurance products (they sponsor events on base and their "advisors" are prior military, so they must be the good guys, right?), but it took me 12 years to realize I was being taken for a giant ride.

One of the funds they had me in was so awful that when I went to liquidate it as part of transferring my assets to Vanguard, I found out that the fund had lost so much in value and so many people put in redemption requests that the fund had stopped distributions (TFCIX).

I've since moved all my assets to Vanguard, but I still have $2K in TFCIX languishing back at FirstCommand because I still can't redeem those shares to this day. Bottom line is that you can do a lot better for yourself elsewhere; don't give these guys your hard-earned money.

When I was preparing to buy my home, my financial advisor who arranged the mortgage told me that the lender ‘didn’t accept’ help to buy ISA’s, so told me to transfer the money to my savings account and withdraw the full sum in bulk.

I later found out that’s not how it works…! I missed out on the government grant. I would have reported but I have no evidence as the advice was via email while I was using my work email address of a workplace many workplaces past!

Still bugs me when I pass his office 🙃

I’ll preface that this is more of a rant and confession than anything else. I am a 29 year old “financial planner” for a major brokerage firm that I have been with for 7 years now. I am always so impressed as I scroll through this sub the savviness of the average poster - from saving strategies, bogle head inspired investment strategies, and the overall effective simplicity. In my day job as a “planner” (salesman) we are taught to muddy the waters, complicate the process, and create fear to sell simplistic and unnecessary financial services. I wish I could give real advice ( max out, index, save, etc) but that simply won’t pay the bills. Saving aggressively, maxing tax deferred accounts, and indexing is a simple yet the most effective strategy that anyone can do.

It gives me quite the morale dilemma of pursuing a career in something I don’t believe there’s real value in. In my opinion, for 95+% of folks there is no need for a financial planner/advisor. The only real value in paying for any type of financial service I see is a tax advisor for those in complex situations; but there is simply no need for a financial advisor. I love the planning side of my career, but absolutely hate the sales side, which has stalled my career progress because I have turned down promotions to avoid the majority of my income becoming commission based and to stay in the space of helping rather than selling, which is hurting my own income / FIRE goals.

If I could go back in time, I would have become a CPA or perhaps an estate planner - where real value can be provided. Anyways, I know I am preaching to the choir here but, don’t get sucked in by a financial planner/advisor.