Q. I want to know what you think of two services widely advertised to federal employees. One is the Thrift Savings Plan pilot that claims to help one allocate TSP contributions in good and bad financial times with extraordinary success, and the other is a full service company offering financial and estate planning called Federal Navigator.
A. I won’t review the specific services you’ve mentioned, but I will make a couple of general comments:
Read the disclaimers for any advisory service you’re considering. A newsletter is for informational purposes only, so the publishers won’t take responsibility for the results their recommendations might produce for you. Why would you take advice from a source that abdicates any and all accountability for the results of their advice? Professionals who are licensed and paid to sell you insurance or investment products are salespeople, not advisers. Their interests are in conflict with yours, and you never know why they are recommending this or that product. Why would you trust advice from a conflicted source? I generally don’t believe that it’s smart to trust recommendations from sources without accountability or with conflict of interest, particularly not when there are more trustworthy sources available. You’ll have to do your diligence and decide for yourself, however.
