?Hire a fee-based FA temporarily for less than fee-only

[q-school]

Snag75 wrote:

q-school wrote:

i’m not sure what percent of posters here have a FA.  let’s say < 20%.  i think it’s probably even less than that.  so, as you surmise, this may not be the right place to ask the focused question you are asking here.

however, i am one of the minority posters who has a FA.  they are 1% AUM.  i’ve had them for twenty years.  in the early years they weren’t making much.  in the later years they started making more.  i assessed their work periodically and had an idea when the value shifted.  as the accounts grew larger and larger, and my time and energy and comfort grew, i started shifting money away from them and managing myself.  it’s not necessarily all or none.  most of the people here are going to die with a huge estate.  if they die with a slightly smaller estate with the help of an advisor (which is not a fact imo) , that may or many not be painful to them.  i think on this board there is a lot of hope for optimal efficiency with investments.  however, my observations are a few big mistakes can take a long time to recover from.  slow and steady investing is going to win a lot of races.  in our doctor lunch room, index fund investing is a lonely lonely path.

money is a tool.  if you don’t like managing money, or don’t care to, or don’t want to, then you pay someone to do it for you.  same as lawncare or personal trainer or whatever.

it is my personal opinion that we will never know whether someone is better off with or without an advisor.  some people are not DIY.  some people perceive value where others do not.  that’s fine.  i would not offer you the advice that a FA would hurt you or help you.  i would ask you to reflect on whether you trust the advice from intelligent people being offered here.  if you don’t trust that’s fine, but you are going to get the same responses time and again here.  i suspect as you follow your journey to financial wisdom, if you come back here annually and reread the questions you pose, and the responses, you will see the answers as more and more reasonable every year.

i don’t think anyone intended to financial-shame you.

Click to expand…

Thanks q-school — I guess that’s the risk of posting here, it is also a skewed set of opinions (like asking in a Crunchy Moms Forum if I think organic milk is worth the added cost), though I do agree they are educated and experienced and more bottom-line oriented than possibly anyone else I may meet in the financial industry.
I really don’t want to pay 1% every year anymore unless I feel I’m getting value for that, and for the past few years I really didn’t.  Right now I feel like I could use a good deal of help, but I still want to keep costs down, and, like you, minimize fees paid as that value (hopefully!) reduces.  My goal is within a year, and I hope I can make it.  I have a lot of problems to solve before then, and will likely be posting here again to crowd-source more opinions on those specific questions too.

Are you saying that you do or don’t agree with index fund investing (vs actively managed funds)?  You made a few comments above about investing and I am missing your point I think.

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i am of the KISS philosophy.  i think index funds are great and set it and forget it would work well for you.  most here would advise you to occasionally rebalance and tax harvest, but i think as long as you are saving enough, you will be fine with just constantly investing for another twenty plus years.

i think if you don't know what to do and want to save FA fees and time, just start with boglehead three fund plan.

when i'm in the doctors lounge, i have heard of colleagues personally owning dairy queen, real estate, complex hedging and option strategies, businesses etc etc.

full disclosure-in my old age, i decided to buy some farmland recently.  however, i'm financially independent and not really specifically focused on maximum possible net worth at death.  otherwise stocks and index funds.

 

 

[Lithium]

Snag75 wrote:

Lithium wrote:

I don’t see why this is so complicated. This guy isn’t a fiduciary. The money you lose by getting swindled is a lot more than the difference in cost between fee-based and fee-only planners, let alone the FYFA course and robo-advisors. Have you not read or heard how WCI got fleeced by a couple of salesmen when he started out? That’s what inspired him to start all this. If it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone.

What level of assets are in question here? If this is $100k or more in a taxable brokerage, he is most likely getting a cut of the bloated ER’s (which will cost you thousands a year), not to mention load fees and capital gains taxes if the stock market goes up again.

Bottom line, you’re going to be paying a lot more than $1400. Salesmen keep their fees opaque for the sake of business.

Click to expand…

Please see above and let me know if you can tell if those holdings would be costing me extra in ERs and loads.  Also I don’t understand your point about capital gains.  How much would you estimate I am paying him per year (1% advisor fee and 0.2% program fee)?

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I guess this is an IRA, so discard the comment on capital gains.  Your portfolio is way too complicated.  It has 19 holdings, most of which I don't recognize.  No reason it should have more than 4 or so.  I guess it's not the worst in the world, since it does have a few low-cost options I am aware of.  I have no idea what the ER's of most of those mutual funds are.

I have stated in a few threads that most FA's, even the fee-only ones, are incentivized to make things overly complicated to intimidate their clients from trying to manage it on their own.  You could just move this all to a Solo 401k and put it in one Balanced Index fund and almost certainly do better in the long run with minimal stress.

[jacoavlu]

On the surface I'll say your fund holdings could be better but could be worse. There's some decent low cost index funds there, and also some high cost actively managed funds.

Again I'll say I'm not really sure what you're asking us to advise you on. If you want to stick with your advisor, you are more than welcome to do so. But in that case, what else can we help you with?

[snowcanyon]

Snag, what do you have against doing this yourself or using a fee-only advisor? What's so great about this spokesmodel/salesleech?

[jfoxcpacfp]

Snag75 wrote:

Can’t 1+3 = good value?  Assuming that #3 (i.e. me) is proactive in getting good advice from others outside #1’s world?  I wish I could justify paying $5K+ on advice, but I just can’t.

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I said you could combine 1 + 3. You'll have to decide yourself if it's a good value - my opinion is just that.

We have a waiting list - I'm not selling anything here.?

[Tim]

Snag75 wrote:

I don’t need advice on holdings, but on strategies for retirement planning given my own financial and personal situation.

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If you don't need investment advice on holdings, how the heck did you get 18 mutual fund holdings including two energy stocks for an account for $140k? If you want to list the purchase date and basis for each, you might get advice. Just like taxes, purchase date, price, basis - sale date(or today), price, proceeds = gain/(loss). No one has this info but you and your broker friend.

Without income, and a profile of your total income, liabilities, age and budget, you can basically follow guidelines, your FA is not helping you with that either.

*20% minimum to retirement plans and max them out.

*Disability Insurance (Own Occup is high income)

*Term Life for any risks like wife, kid, parents that depend upon you.

*6 months of expenses in an emergency fund.

*payoff any credit card debt

*payoff any car loans

*payoff mortgage

*Live as frugally as possible until your out of debt.

*Dump any other into a taxable account.

Use max three low cost broad index funds, in each account-two equity and one bond.

Stocks anywhere from 60 to 90% depending upon your mood (use Fidelity or Vanguard portfolio tools)

Three pages of scattered facts and data is not in your interest soliciting advice. You won't get a cohesive opinion from anyone because it is scattered all over.

Most of the responses are related to paying for investment advice from an FA that is selling you portfolio for his profit and insurance. That is not your personal needs you say. So be it. Throw out a strawman three fund portfolio for taxable and tax deferred. Throw out the income and how you spend it. The answers may help or simply confirm you are on a reasonable path. Arguing about advisor fees, expense ratio's and capital gains does not give you actionable advice or help you make choices.

Good luck.

[Snag75]

I guess this thread is going all over the place because my main question was about using this fee-based FA as a way to get some help with comprehensive financial plan (since he has a lot of tools for that which are "part of his service"), and less about choosing holdings.  But then people kept harping on how I'm likely getting gouged by what I'm letting him choose, which I don't really know but I don't think so, such that using him (even temporarily) is likely costing me much more than the $1400 I'm kind of considering to pay for the help with the comprehensive plan (for ~1yr).  So I tried to show where my investments are, but then we're going back to why am I showing those if that's not the help I need (I'm cool with setting and forgetting too).  Sigh...

Lithium wrote:

  Your portfolio is way too complicated.  It has 19 holdings, most of which I don’t recognize.  No reason it should have more than 4 or so.  I guess it’s not the worst in the world, since it does have a few low-cost options I am aware of.  I have no idea what the ER’s of most of those mutual funds are.

I have stated in a few threads that most FA’s, even the fee-only ones, are incentivized to make things overly complicated to intimidate their clients from trying to manage it on their own.  You could just move this all to a Solo 401k and put it in one Balanced Index fund and almost certainly do better in the long run with minimal stress.

Click to expand...

Good point about making things complicated to justify their service -- but I'm more concerned about it being "bad" at the moment (either inappropriate risk or too much in fees), esp since the plan is to get from under him relatively soon. Is there a way I can show those details that you'd need to see without having to click on individual funds?

jacoavlu wrote:

On the surface I’ll say your fund holdings could be better but could be worse. There’s some decent low cost index funds there, and also some high cost actively managed funds.

Again I’ll say I’m not really sure what you’re asking us to advise you on. If you want to stick with your advisor, you are more than welcome to do so. But in that case, what else can we help you with?

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I'm "checking up" on my advisor.  Can you tell me which are "high cost" and how do you know?  Perhaps I can just direct him that I want to stick to low cost only and favor index over actively managed?  I was thinking that with the volatility of things these days (compared to the past) maybe actively managed is better, but it also seems somewhat a crapshoot where guessing wrong is worse - does that sound right?

[Snag75]

snowcanyon wrote:

Snag, what do you have against doing this yourself or using a fee-only advisor? What’s so great about this spokesmodel/salesleech?

Click to expand...

This has been laid out extensively above -- need some personalized help with full plan, but don't want to pay for full fee-only service.  Johanna summed it up best as combo of "discount advice + DIY".

Tim wrote:

Snag75 wrote:

I don’t need advice on holdings, but on strategies for retirement planning given my own financial and personal situation. 

Click to expand…

If you don’t need investment advice on holdings, how the heck did you get 18 mutual fund holdings including two energy stocks for an account for $140k? If you want to list the purchase date and basis for each, you might get advice. Just like taxes, purchase date, price, basis – sale date(or today), price, proceeds = gain/(loss). No one has this info but you and your broker friend.

Without income, and a profile of your total income, liabilities, age and budget, you can basically follow guidelines, your FA is not helping you with that either.

*20% minimum to retirement plans and max them out.

*Disability Insurance (Own Occup is high income)

*Term Life for any risks like wife, kid, parents that depend upon you.

*6 months of expenses in an emergency fund.

*payoff any credit card debt

*payoff any car loans

*payoff mortgage

*Live as frugally as possible until your out of debt.

*Dump any other into a taxable account.

Use max three low cost broad index funds, in each account-two equity and one bond.

Stocks anywhere from 60 to 90% depending upon your mood (use Fidelity or Vanguard portfolio tools)

Three pages of scattered facts and data is not in your interest soliciting advice. You won’t get a cohesive opinion from anyone because it is scattered all over.

Click to expand...

I've done most of those things already (not mortgage though, that doesn't make sense).  The last bit about where to put what money and how much is what I need to think of, and need full picture to figure that out (i.e. how important will tax-free growth be to me in the future) since every decision has a consequence (I can do less tax-deferred and more tax-free, etc).
I don't know what's so "scattered" about what I've copied and pasted.  The first is an overall summary of my rollover holdings (equity, cash, etc), the second are the details on which funds they're in, and the third is a different account (non-rollover, active contributions).  I don't have a way to make them into neat columns in this format, but I could probably do so over email if anyone would like to PM me their email address.  How do people usually get advice on their holdings in this forum - would be happy to try another format, I'm just not familiar.

Remember, I'm just trying to keep tabs on what this FA did so I can adjust accordingly.  I'm not planning on doing DIY immediately, mainly due to me needing to think about the big picture and make an overall plan first.  Thanks.

[Lithium]

Snag75 wrote:

I guess this thread is going all over the place because my main question was about using this fee-based FA as a way to get some help with comprehensive financial plan (since he has a lot of tools for that which are “part of his service”), and less about choosing holdings.  But then people kept harping on how I’m likely getting gouged by what I’m letting him choose, which I don’t really know but I don’t think so, such that using him (even temporarily) is likely costing me much more than the $1400 I’m kind of considering to pay for the help with the comprehensive plan (for ~1yr).  So I tried to show where my investments are, but then we’re going back to why am I showing those if that’s not the help I need (I’m cool with setting and forgetting too).  Sigh…

Lithium wrote:

  Your portfolio is way too complicated.  It has 19 holdings, most of which I don’t recognize.  No reason it should have more than 4 or so.  I guess it’s not the worst in the world, since it does have a few low-cost options I am aware of.  I have no idea what the ER’s of most of those mutual funds are.

I have stated in a few threads that most FA’s, even the fee-only ones, are incentivized to make things overly complicated to intimidate their clients from trying to manage it on their own.  You could just move this all to a Solo 401k and put it in one Balanced Index fund and almost certainly do better in the long run with minimal stress.

Click to expand…

Good point about making things complicated to justify their service — but I’m more concerned about it being “bad” at the moment (either inappropriate risk or too much in fees), esp since the plan is to get from under him relatively soon. Is there a way I can show those details that you’d need to see without having to click on individual funds?

jacoavlu wrote:

On the surface I’ll say your fund holdings could be better but could be worse. There’s some decent low cost index funds there, and also some high cost actively managed funds.

Again I’ll say I’m not really sure what you’re asking us to advise you on. If you want to stick with your advisor, you are more than welcome to do so. But in that case, what else can we help you with?

Click to expand…

I’m “checking up” on my advisor.  Can you tell me which are “high cost” and how do you know?  Perhaps I can just direct him that I want to stick to low cost only and favor index over actively managed?  I was thinking that with the volatility of things these days (compared to the past) maybe actively managed is better, but it also seems somewhat a crapshoot where guessing wrong is worse – does that sound right?

Click to expand...

Search the mutual funds you have in morningstar and post the ER's of them all.  None of have these memorized so we can't tell you if most of your holdings are just sub-optimal or straight-up awful.

Regardless, it wouldn't change my advice, which is to move to another account, sell everything and put the holdings in a balanced index fund while you take a few months to learn.  Assuming this is a retirement account with no tax implications, I don't see the risk.

[octopus85]

Snag75 wrote:

I guess this thread is going all over the place because my main question was about using this fee-based FA as a way to get some help with comprehensive financial plan (since he has a lot of tools for that which are “part of his service”),

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You seem to have convinced yourself that you're a very special snowflake with very unique financial needs, and thus, you're looking for validation that the choice you already made (a non-fiduciary FA) is wise, because you've come up with a very cunning plan to get cheap advice from him then move to a non-AUM option, later.

 

Do I have all that correct?

 

The major problem here is too much noise. You don't need 19 funds. You need 1 target date fund. Or a DIY mix of 3, if you want to be really creative.

If you need help with something like a trust for a special needs dependent, then do it right (hire a lawyer or at least a fiduciary) - do you really think 'cheap' is wise, here?

Not all financial needs are going to be solved under one roof. If you have one "guy" who does all the "money stuff", well, then, I'm your gyno-procto-endocrinologist.

You seem to keep telling yourself "I nEed to See AlL the MoVinG PaRTs, tho! Gotta SEE the WHOLE PICTurE!! So CoMpLicATeD!!". In reality, it's not. This guy is making it complicated to keep you feeling that you need him.

[Snag75]

octopus85 wrote:

You seem to have convinced yourself that you’re a very special snowflake with very unique financial needs,

 

The major problem here is too much noise. You don’t need 19 funds. You need 1 target date fund. Or a DIY mix of 3, if you want to be really creative.

If you need help with something like a trust for a special needs dependent, then do it right (hire a lawyer or at least a fiduciary) – do you really think ‘cheap’ is wise, here?

Not all financial needs are going to be solved under one roof. If you have one “guy” who does all the “money stuff”, well, then, I’m your gyno-procto-endocrinologist.

You seem to keep telling yourself “I nEed to See AlL the MoVinG PaRTs, tho! Gotta SEE the WHOLE PICTurE!! So CoMpLicATeD!!”. In reality, it’s not. This guy is making it complicated to keep you feeling that you need him.

Click to expand...

I don't disagree about not needing as many funds (actually I think it's down to 10 now, I am realizing that the initial transfer does not reflect how it was later reallocated, which I don't have an electronic version to access yet), as I mentioned above.

However, aside from being inappropriately derisive and self-righteous toward a person whose life experience you know nothing about, I find your comments about no one having different financial needs from others surprisingly naive.  I won't go into my presumptions about your demographic, professional history, family status, likely specialty, but will leave it with the advice that, if you feel the need to try to look like a smart-****************** in a professional forum, do it based on what you know, not what you presume, because your ego and lack of perspective betrays you greatly.

If I thought I needed a special needs trust or something similarly complex, I would probably be asking for advice accordingly (there are a LOT more financial/life adjustments that one makes when parenting responsibilities are at an all time high than just what type of trust to get, I don't expect you to get that).  When people say "Just do this" and "Just do that", they don't realize how many scenarios that advice may not apply to, or may not make the most sense as another priority.  What kind of pension or inheritance one expects to get, what kind of future income and when, if educational savings should take place now at all -- all of these affect decisions on how much to put where (esp the pre- and post-tax considerations).  The assumption that there is always leftover to invest here and there is not always correct, so deciding how to balance those allocations matters more when there they start out imbalanced and new contributions are limited.  The fluctuating need for tax deduction (some years are needed more than others) also comes into play.

In the same breath you say I'm not special and don't need individualized help, but that I'm also dumb for speaking to a more "basic" professional at all.  That's tantamount to saying to someone with a few different health issues to skip their PCP and see an ENT for allergic rhinitis and Cardiologist for their HCTZ Rx, but otherwise just use WebMD for your overall health assessment.

Sorry if it seems like I'm taking out my frustration on you when others (including myself) don't necessarily disagree with your stance -- I would just advise you to step back and respond to queries if you are going to be constructive and thoughtful, with the intent to help more than feed your already clearly overblown ego.  It would be a shame to turn such a helpful resource into a post-millennial troll trench.

[jacoavlu]

We as the community aren’t doing you any service in beating the dead horse of financial advisor talk, if you’ve no interest in moving on from the advisor. Which is not unreasonable.

So if we put that issue aside, please let us know how we can help you. Do you have any specific questions?

[snowcanyon]

Snag75 wrote:

octopus85 wrote:

You seem to have convinced yourself that you’re a very special snowflake with very unique financial needs,

 

The major problem here is too much noise. You don’t need 19 funds. You need 1 target date fund. Or a DIY mix of 3, if you want to be really creative.

If you need help with something like a trust for a special needs dependent, then do it right (hire a lawyer or at least a fiduciary) – do you really think ‘cheap’ is wise, here?

Not all financial needs are going to be solved under one roof. If you have one “guy” who does all the “money stuff”, well, then, I’m your gyno-procto-endocrinologist.

You seem to keep telling yourself “I nEed to See AlL the MoVinG PaRTs, tho! Gotta SEE the WHOLE PICTurE!! So CoMpLicATeD!!”. In reality, it’s not. This guy is making it complicated to keep you feeling that you need him.

Click to expand…

I don’t disagree about not needing as many funds (actually I think it’s down to 10 now, I am realizing that the initial transfer does not reflect how it was later reallocated, which I don’t have an electronic version to access yet), as I mentioned above.

However, aside from being inappropriately derisive and self-righteous toward a person whose life experience you know nothing about, I find your comments about no one having different financial needs from others surprisingly naive.  I won’t go into my presumptions about your demographic, professional history, family status, likely specialty, but will leave it with the advice that, if you feel the need to try to look like a smart-****************** in a professional forum, do it based on what you know, not what you presume, because your ego and lack of perspective betrays you greatly.

If I thought I needed a special needs trust or something similarly complex, I would probably be asking for advice accordingly (there are a LOT more financial/life adjustments that one makes when parenting responsibilities are at an all time high than just what type of trust to get, I don’t expect you to get that).  When people say “Just do this” and “Just do that”, they don’t realize how many scenarios that advice may not apply to, or may not make the most sense as another priority.  What kind of pension or inheritance one expects to get, what kind of future income and when, if educational savings should take place now at all — all of these affect decisions on how much to put where (esp the pre- and post-tax considerations).  The assumption that there is always leftover to invest here and there is not always correct, so deciding how to balance those allocations matters more when there they start out imbalanced and new contributions are limited.  The fluctuating need for tax deduction (some years are needed more than others) also comes into play.

In the same breath you say I’m not special and don’t need individualized help, but that I’m also dumb for speaking to a more “basic” professional at all.  That’s tantamount to saying to someone with a few different health issues to skip their PCP and see an ENT for allergic rhinitis and Cardiologist for their HCTZ Rx, but otherwise just use WebMD for your overall health assessment.

Sorry if it seems like I’m taking out my frustration on you when others (including myself) don’t necessarily disagree with your stance — I would just advise you to step back and respond to queries if you are going to be constructive and thoughtful, with the intent to help more than feed your already clearly overblown ego.  It would be a shame to turn such a helpful resource into a post-millennial troll trench.

Click to expand...

I think the original question was whether or not you should stick with this advisor, and the overwhelming sentiment from the forum was that this advisor, or any AUM advisor/salesperson, is not the person to pick in any circumstance, regardless of inheritance, family status, number of children, job, employment status, specifics of financial planning needs, income, life experience, or any other variable at all.

So, the forum and you will agree to disagree. As jacoavlu has wisely asked, since we cannot help in this matter, is there anything else we can help with?

[Snag75]

Yes, and you already have to some degree (though mostly buried in the generic "stay away from FA"-rhetoric), by bringing up points I may not have thought of in continuing to try to think independently and be wary of advice given.  As I said, I will already be doing my own research and considering advice of those besides FA (including the forum of course), but so far I haven't heard a reason not to get the help I need (not that I "think I need", the decisions need to be made, some of them within weeks, and every time I start moving toward something, I realize 5 other things I need to take into account too) to make certain specific financial decisions in the upcoming months.  One pearl I squeezed out is that FAs tend to make things extra-complex -- I don't necessarily think this guy is doing it on purpose, but either way, his "style" may not jibe with what might be better for me.

So at this point, I would like to see how his choices compare with the opinions of others.  Problem is I don't know how to share that yet, as it appears I don't have online access to the new system yet.

I'm also curious if there is any other cheaper way to get the comprehensive assessment I need at this point, but so far (from my own research on this forum and elsewhere and these responses) sounds like no, so we can move on from that question.

[The White Coat Investor]

Snag75 wrote:

So I’m new to this game (and sadly, about 10-15yrs too late) and am in the the midst of a lot of changes to my financial plans for various reasons (mostly that I have stability and extra income for the first time since having my kids, also getting more savvy about mistakes made in the past).  I had another thread here where I asked several questions and got several answers re: what my new FA was suggesting to me.  In the meantime I’ve done more research and reading (mostly WCI!) and come to get a broader picture of what I might want to be looking for.

My understanding is that this FA is NOT fiduciary (do not see in our agreement and not part of the NAPFA) and is fee-based, charging 1% advisor fees and 0.2% program fees for housing and managing my rollover IRA fund of <$150K (the rest of my funds are elsewhere and managed by me, but that’s my largest pot). His services are full spectrum, has advised on my other accounts, been very available for time sensitive decisions, done a lot of research on his own re: my situation, and we haven’t even had time to meet for the full on analysis of everything.  My understanding of the plan is to enter all my stuff into some program he has and project what each might do for me in the future, thereby figuring out where I might need to reallocate, etc. (in the meantime we’re still dealing with other time sensitive investing/insurance decisions).  I really needed to do this years ago, but just always overrun with another crisis or another so inertia kept with with a FA who really didn’t do much for years besides take his fees after giving me bad investing advice, so this really feels like a step up to me.

However I also understand how active management may not be what I need as the advice and planning.  I’m approaching mid-40s and feeling very behind, so really looking to figure out all my game plans as my kids approach being “half done”(!), while trying to catch up from several years where I really couldn’t save and other less-than-ideal planning/saving strategies.

In comparing what his fees would be compared to a fee-only advisor, however, it’s seeming relatively reasonable, given that we’ve already spent hours on the phone (and even longer with texts and emails) trying to lay the groundwork to sort all this out.  I do feel I need this right now, and I like that he has access to “specialists” at his firm to clarify questions and what-not without me having to set up appts with 5 different people when I have many moving parts happening at the same time.

I’m considering just staying with him while I get all this sorted out, paying the AUM fees for a year or so (I think would come to ~$1500?), and then when I feel comfortable with my plan considering making a change?  I don’t mean to be deceptive, but I don’t want to pay $1500+ every year if I’m not in need of a lot of help (and then there’s the “active management” strategy that is still a question mark).

I understand this forum is full of DIYers, but I’m not there yet, and am using this time to learn a lot and figure out my options and a reasonable plan with someone who can look at my big picture — it’s almost like managing my IRA is “on the side”.

 

Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

I must have missed the other thread that's got everyone fired up. I'm just going off what I'm reading here.

$1500 is a heck of a deal for financial advice. As long as the advice is good, I'd be very happy to pay that price for it if I were you. So let's try to determine whether the advice is good, because there is no fee low enough to make up for bad advice. Not enough info in your post though, so I'll go back to the one you linked to. Here's what it says:

With my old advisor I ended up with my only post-tax investment via old Whole Life and VUL (don’t ask, bad advice when I was starting out and naive). My new FA agrees with the costs of the VUL being a poor investment choice (as well as some other investment choices I had given some changes in the market) and we plan to collapse as soon as it makes sense. I have moved my IRA account to his firm where they have me in a particular “model” (they have like 12 models, based on time to retirement, etc), and apparently make adjustments to each model based on their algorithms and what’s going on in the market. Previous FA made no adjustments and I had some losses which he states could have been avoided. His place is a one-stop shop (he has dedicated market watcher, as well as CPA and estate attny that work with him) and I thought it would be good to get advice there and have them manage the funds he has control of for a flat fee (based on % of IRA holdings) at least until I feel I have a full plan in place for the upcoming years.

So I like his plan of more active management (esp since his fees are about the same as prior), but now when it comes to back-door Roth he seems discouraging because he doesn’t want me to move the funds from IRA to solo-K, stating we wouldn’t have all the investment choices (ETFs, index funds, etc) that we do now with the open market. I just wanted a place to start putting in post-tax money finally, but he recommends using up space in my employer’s 403B instead (takes away from how much pre-tax I can put away) and HSA (which I’d planned to do too). Then he mentioned an IUL (since I’m losing life insurance when we collapse VUL and Whole), but I didn’t want to get into that stuff.

Okay, we've now determined you're not getting good advice. Sorry. Even at $1500, that's no deal. Based on your comments, you're still a ways away from being a competent DIY investor. You can get there, of course, but it's going to take one of three things:

1) Read a few books, keep perusing the blog, and keep asking questions on the forum until you get a written financial plan in place

https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/best-financial-books-for-doctors/

2) Take my Fire Your Financial Advisor Course. It costs more than the books in money, but much less in time.

https://whitecoatinvestor.teachable.com/p/fire-your-financial-advisor

3) Hire an hourly rate financial to help you set up a financial plan that you can maintain on your own going forward. There are a few of those here:

https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/financial-advisors/

The other alternative, of course, is simply to hire a competent, low-cost fee-only fiduciary financial advisor. You can find lots of those here: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/financial-advisors/

If you're not sure HOW I know you're getting bad advice, let's walk you through it step by step:

"we plan to collapse as soon as it makes sense" It makes sense now. Making more payments doesn't help.

"0.2% program fees for housing and managing my rollover IRA fund of <$150K" A housing fee is silly. What's the 1% for if not for managing the rollover IRA?

"the plan is to enter all my stuff into some program he has" Programs are great but are no substitute for competence. It's amazing I've gotten as far as I have without a program.

"apparently make adjustments to each model based on their algorithms and what’s going on in the market" Tactical asset allocation is a lousy idea. If you could predict the future, just put everything in what is going to do well. If you can't, don't try to time the market with any of the portfolio. Just doing it with a small portion is silly.

"which he states could have been avoided". Sure, with a functioning crystal ball.

"he has dedicated market watcher" Why would you have a dedicated market watcher? The secret to good investing is to NOT watch the market.

"I like his plan of more active management" Why? Are you familiar with the data behind passive investing? Are you really willing to gamble your life savings on something with a 10-20% chance of success in the long run?

"when it comes to back-door Roth he seems discouraging because he doesn’t want me to move the funds from IRA to solo-K, stating we wouldn’t have all the investment choices (ETFs, index funds, etc) that we do now with the open market." Nope. Bad advice. He clearly doesn't get the Backdoor Roth IRA, nor what is available in a good i410(k). Certainly you can get everything you need for a good portfolio there.

"he recommends using up space in my employer’s 403B instead (takes away from how much pre-tax I can put away" Bad advice. In your situation, the tax-deferred 403b at work is almost certainly the correct choice rather than the Roth 403b.

"Then he mentioned an IUL." Oh crap. It just got worse. Run, don't walk. I'm sorry. I know he seemed nice. But when I'm talking about bad advisors, I'm talking about people like your advisor. I'm sorry, I know it's a pain to keep changing and I know it all seems very frightening because you are still becoming financially literate, but this isn't going to be your long term advisor so the sooner you make the break the better.

Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help. You can do this. Thousands of doctors before you have done so. Either get good advice at a fair price or learn to do it competently yourself. Those are the only two reasonable options for you.