Frequently asked questions

Financial planning

CFP® Professional stands for CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Professional, it’s the gold standard of financial planning. Here you get a dedicated CFP(R) professional backed by a team of experts that will help plan a path toward financial prosperity. All of our CFP® Professionals have a wealth of experience and knowledge and come with the highest credentials.

A CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Professional helps clients achieve their financial and personal goals. Here, our CFP® Professionals are part coach, part advocate, all partner. We are in this with you. We take a holistic approach with an emphasis on your entire financial life – not just investments. Ultimately, our goal is to create a path towards financial prosperity and peace of mind so you can focus on your family, career, that trip of a lifetime or retirement.
A fiduciary is a person who holds a legal and ethical relationship of trust with clients. They are legally bound to make recommendations in the best interest of those clients. Also, all our CFP® Professionals are fiduciaries on behalf of our clients.

As fiduciaries, we are legally bound to give you advice that serves your best interest. We also charge flat fees instead of commissions or by AUM (also known as Assets Under Management- charging based on the amount of investments managed by an advisor, usually a percentage) so no one is giving you unnecessary advice to line their own pockets. We strenuously vet our advisors to ensure our clients are working with excellent practitioners. And on a side note we believe in working with nice, honest people. Life is too short to work with jerks.

About Facet

We are headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. But our CFP® Professionals work with clients nationwide.
We do full financial planning versus solely managing money. We believe clients should have human beings planning their prosperous financial lives. Understanding, common experiences and human insight create trust and make for a better informed plan.

We charge a flat fee for comprehensive financial planning, based on the services that will best suit your needs. Unlike many financial planners, we do not base our fees on assets under management (AUM) or on commissions. We believe these models can create complacency and muddy the intentions of the financial plans created. We are in the business of working for you to develop sound financial plans that are tailored to your goals and will not sell you unnecessary products to create higher commissions. Our prices range from $2,000 to $6,000, annually.

We believe you should pay for service rather than pay based on how much money you have. Why? Because assets don’t necessarily tie to how much time you might need with your advisor. Furthermore, the “pay for what you use” model breaks down some of the barriers that keep some people from financial planning in the first place. And we want everyone to be able to plan for a prosperous financial life.

Our sign up process is simple and designed to help us learn more about you and your needs, so we can show you how Facet’s unbiased financial advice benefits every facet of your life.

To get started, fill out this form and a Facet expert will call you within 24 hours to schedule an introductory call (or, you can call 1-888-339-5536 to speak with someone now). They’ll take the time to hear more about your financial life, understand your needs, and create a customized package that works best for you. They’ll also help you understand what it’s like to work with Facet, walk you through our secure, easy-to-use online platform, and answer any questions you might have. When you’re ready to move forward, we’ll schedule your first meeting with your own CFP® Professional at Facet.

Facet's client experience

On your schedule via videoconference or telephone. If you’re experiencing issues with our video conferencing please click here to see some guidelines

No, every one of our clients works with one single dedicated CFP® Professional. Clients have a direct line to them. We encourage our clients to ask as many questions as they want. We believe it fosters a stronger relationship, builds trust and allows our CFP® Professionals to better know their clients so they can be even more insightful about planning.

Yes, that’s core to making sure all assets are managed properly – not just the assets we directly manage. We believe in a holistic approach to managing all of your assets.

Yes, it’s one of our core services. We are there for you for each and every individual enrollment period.

Of course. In fact, it’s another one of our core services we provide for our clients. We analyze and consult on the tax impact these option plans may create and then take a look at how they affect the rest of your portfolio to set up the best plan for you. Once again, we want to consult on all of the parts of your financial life – not just the money you’ve entrusted us to manage directly.

Yes, we can manage assets directly for clients or provide guidance if clients would rather hold their assets on their own.

It’s entirely up to you. You always have access and can meet whenever and however many times you want. Our goal is to maximize the time we spend together. So typically, most clients meet with their CFP® Professional frequently over the first year to set up their plan and then 2 to 3 times per year after that. But we can’t stress enough that our door is always open and we are always available.

We believe in passive management. We want to be market participants rather than trying to beat the market by picking stocks. We are focused on minimizing fees and maximizing diversification.

Yes, you can! Every one of our clients meets with one of our CFP® Professionals before signing up. We’ll work with you to understand your current financial picture, as well as your short term and long term goals, ensuring your planner relationship is set up for success from day 1.
Click here to schedule a free consultation with a Facet expert. Or, to speak with someone now, call 1-888-339-5536.

Security

Your data will always be yours.

We employ industry best practices to keep your data safe.  We will never sell your data.

When it comes to protecting you and your data, we do not believe that simply checking boxes to ensure compliance is adequate.  We employ industry best practices to ensure information security is at the core of our technology and business operations, yet strive to set a new standard for bank-level security and privacy.

While never a requirement, you will be invited to enter your online financial institution credentials. We never see those credentials, nor do we store them. Your credentials are securely passed to your financial institution and we are provided with a read-only feed of balance and transaction information. We do not have access to your money nor can we make any changes to your account.  If for whatever reason you want to remove our read-only access, you will be able to de-link those accounts.

You can learn more about account linking here

We host our servers using Amazon Web Services (AWS).  All data is encrypted in-flight and at-rest to ensure only the right people view your information for the right reasons: providing you a customized plan for achieving your financial goals.  If you have any questions, let us know: [email protected].

How do I get started?​

Click here and you're a minute away from scheduling a free, no obligation session with one of our Facet expert.

Get started now

What will I learn on this call?

It’s hard for anyone to look at a website and say “yes, this is for me, please help me with my money”.  Finances are deeply personal, and talking to someone who can listen and determine what will help you the most is just one simple and confidential call away.  In 15 minutes or less you will have a better understanding of what’s available to you and if you are a good fit for Facet.
If it’s clear we can help, and you want to learn more about working with Facet, then we will share what the service will cost based on the complexity of your finances.