Advisers Pile on the Perks

What are you getting for that hefty annual fee you are paying your financial planner?

In an era of belt-tightening, it can pay to ask for more.

Wilson Matthews, 36 years old, sells fine men's clothing in Birmingham, Ala., but turned to his planner to haggle with a car dealership. The planner, Irvin Schorsch III, president of Pennsylvania Capital Management in Jenkintown, Pa., managed to get the price of an Audi A4 reduced by $6,100 -- and got another $1,000 knocked off the shipping fee.

Mr. Schorsch says he offers to negotiate all kinds of big-ticket purchases for clients, from cars and boats to retirement homes and weddings.

Says Mr. Matthews: "Why not take advantage of the free help?"

Financial planners typically help investors manage their money and plan for retirement. But with the stock market stuck in a rut and interest rates near record lows, they are finding it tougher to justify their price tag. Fee-only planners -- as opposed to brokers who are paid on commission for stock or bond sales -- typically charge a flat 1% annual fee on assets up to $1 million and 0.75% on assets larger than that, according to the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, a group for fee-only advisers.

To differentiate themselves, win referrals and foster loyalty, some planners are offering a range of perks. Advisers nowadays accompany clients while house-hunting, line up movers and remodelers, sift through college financial-aid packages, teach adult children how to manage their money, procure pets, join clients on cruises and even arrange doctors' appointments.

"Clients don't know to ask," Mr. Schorsch says. "But you should be demanding more." He says he has developed a form resembling a "Chinese restaurant menu" with boxes that new clients can check off for services they are interested in receiving.

Planners are trying to stem a rising tide of skepticism. In soon-to-be-released survey of 1,800 households with at least $100,000 to invest, 21% said that they were considering moving their assets from their adviser in the next year, according to Northstar Research Partners, a market-research consultant, and Sullivan & Co., a branding firm.

No one tracks how many of the country's more than 66,000 certified financial planners, or countless other wealth-advisory firms and investment advisers, have started offering their clients perks, or exactly what those might be. But enough planners are going above and beyond asset management and retirement-paycheck planning to make it worth finding out what you could be getting for your money.

It must be said: The more assets you have, the better your odds of finding a planner willing to bend over backward to keep your business.

Jeannette Bajalia, a retirement planner in St. Augustine, Fla., whose business paid her way to go on a cruise with a widowed client, suggests investors ask prospective planners what they do to demonstrate they care and contribute to clients' health and well-being. Experts say it also is worth asking about services that can help save time, such as Mr. Schorsch's negotiating for big-ticket purchases on his clients' behalf.

With that in mind, here is a survey of some of the extras financial planners are starting to throw in at no extra cost. If you are in need of one of these services, it can't hurt to ask:

In the Home

Planners often wind up with Rolodexes stuffed with numbers of contractors, plumbers and the like to help clients take better care of what often is their biggest asset -- their home.

Sandy Sabean, a 49-year-old small-business owner in New York, found a real-estate agent, insurance agent and other professionals through Stacy Francis, her certified financial planner.

Ms. Francis has compiled a database of mortgage brokers, contractors, movers and even feng shui designers. She keeps notes about their personalities to improve the odds that they will click with clients. "She just knows" who can help, Ms. Sabean says. Ms. Francis says she isn't paid for the referrals.

Jean and Eric Mote, planners in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, typically meet with clients in their homes, and as they talk they hear about things they can help with around the house. The planners say they have programmed thermostats, changed light bulbs in ceiling fans, replaced smoke-detector batteries and even once helped rewire the taillights on a horse trailer.

One client depends on their help clipping his cat's nails while he holds it down, Ms. Mote says.

Sometimes planners stumble across a home-related service they consider so important that they offer it to their clients at no charge.

In Walnut Creek, Calif., planner William Upson has persuaded clients in the San Francisco Bay area, subject to fires and earthquakes, to take video inventories of their homes and possessions. Clients get a DVD to keep, and he stores one in a vault as well.

Boise, Idaho, planner Stephen White believes his clients can save on utility bills with solar panels. He says he has vetted local installers, run cost-benefit analyses and is getting ready to email clients noting how much costs have dropped in the past few years. He also has priced home-energy audits and helped several clients get them done, though he says none has invested yet in a pricier solar conversion.

Retirement

Many people turn to a financial planner on the brink of retirement, when they become overwhelmed with the task of tapping retirement accounts and pensions to replace their disappearing paycheck.

But some planners are extending that counseling into what have become complicated retirement benefits -- Social Security and Medicare.

Matthew Curfman, a CFP in Jackson, Mich., invested in software this year so he can run 81 combinations of drawing Social Security for married couples to determine the biggest benefits they can extract across their life expectancies.

With Mr. Curfman's help, Bruce Huntzinger, a 65-year-old retired electrical engineer who started taking Social Security three years ago, and his wife, Sharon, also 65, a retired teacher who hasn't started drawing Social Security yet, figured out that they could increase their benefits by $31,000 if they live to be 90.

Their strategy: Ms. Huntzinger will file for a spousal benefit at age 66, then file for her own full benefit at age 70. Meanwhile, Mr. Huntzinger plans to suspend his benefit at age 66 and restart it at age 70.

"The analysis showed us I have the option of suspending my Social Security, which I hadn't thought of," he says.

Medicare options have become so complicated, especially for higher-income retirees paying higher premiums, that financial planner James Miller of Chapel Hill, N.C., has started referring his clients to a Medicare consultant. The clients have to pay the consultant's $60 fee for a one-hour meeting, but Mr. Miller helps them prepare for it and accompanies them.

Financial planners also are helping clients plan, and bargain for, late-life moves. Merrill Ginsburg, a 76-year-old retiree in Carrollton, Texas, tapped his planner, Emerson Bell, to help him choose a senior-living facility. Together, they visited the final two contenders, with Mr. Bell helping him calculate their costs. Mr. Bell also plans to negotiate the contract at the community his client chooses.

"I expected that he would help see if I could afford these places, but not go to the point of visiting and negotiating," Mr. Ginsburg says.

Mr. Bell says that as his client base ages, he expects he will be helping more clients choose a retirement home: "This will be the first of many."

Loved Ones

When Rob and Jane Keegan, a radio-station executive and teacher, respectively, in Haddonfield, N.J., were helping their daughter pick a college, their planner, Michael Schwartz, encouraged them to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid -- and went to their home to help them.

"It's amazing what he's willing to do for us that you don't even realize," Ms. Keegan says. "I was glad we filled it out, because we at least qualified for loans."

When your children finish school, your planner might be willing to help them establish their financial footing at no cost.

Gary Armstrong, a 68-year-old father in Chapel Hill, N.C., for the last decade has sent his two children, now in their mid-30s, to his financial planner, Debbie Frazier. They have met with Ms. Frazier when buying their first homes and when deciding whether to renovate, and for other, more regular financial checkups -- all at no charge. Ms. Frazier says clients' children have turned into paying customers when they amass portfolios of their own.

Other planners have focused on helping clients when the empty nest gets lonely. Adviser Frank Congemi recently drove a Pekingese rescued by his wife from his home in Deerfield Beach, Fla., to a widowed client in Cary, N.C. -- about 1,300 miles round-trip.

"I told Frank I needed a dog, and they appeared one night with a bed, food and all the information for the vet here," says Nina Tufano, a 75-year-old piano teacher who has had the dog, Gizmo, for two months.

Leisure

Some planners even double as travel companions. Ms. Bajalia, the planner in St. Augustine, Fla., visits some clients at home every few weeks to go through their mail. One client, living far from any family, was lonely. To cheer her up, Ms. Bajalia recalls, "I said, 'You pay your way, and I'll pay my way, and I'll take you on a four-day cruise.'"

Departing from nearby Jacksonville, they visited Nassau and Key West. "I didn't do it for anything in return, but I get tons of referrals from her," Ms. Bajalia says.

Other planners are giving their clients a social outlet. In the past year, Meg Todd, a CFP at Bruton Financial Advisors in Downingtown, Pa., has started organizing movie nights and wine-and-cheese parties -- and even a trip to the Philadelphia International Flower Show. Clients are invited to bring their families to the movie night, held under a big tent on the firm's front lawn with a 16-foot inflatable screen, a popcorn cart and a balloon artist.

"I meet wonderful people whom I would never have met, because it's a different circle from my teacher friends," says Susan Blevins, 65, who has gone on several of the firm's outings following her husband's death last year.