Marilynn K. Yee/The New York TimesStephany Kirkpatrick, left, and Mina Black of LearnVest.
In this weekend’s Your Money column, I return to a topic that I’ve come at in various ways in recent years: The question of how the merely middle class and semi-affluent among us can get good, ethical, reasonably priced financial advice without having to watch our backs and our wallets.
Wealthy people have plenty of people clamoring to help them, and yet they need help the least. Everyone else is all too often left to work with people who say they do financial planning but are, in fact, insurance salesmen or seeking to earn big commissions from mutual fund companies.
LearnVest aims to change that, as I explain in the column, though they cannot yet help you with your investments. Merrill Lynch has its Merrill Edge program, but it’s pretty investment-centered. I was particularly intrigued by LearnVest’s fledgling efforts to help people with basic financial planning by pairing them with a real certified financial planner for a reasonable price.
If you’re tried LearnVest’s program in the time that it’s been open, please tell us about it below. Ditto for those of you who’ve had personal experience with Merrill’s call centers and its Edge program.
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=809d3cbbd48e426869ef1101e8c831e5
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