April 24, 2024 - Brad Bobb was interviewed by FeeOnlyNetwork.com

Why do your serve federal employees?

Early on in my career I started working with a couple of federal employees and wanted to learn more about their retirement system. I went through some training on federal benefits and the federal retirement system. Since then, my practice has turned into only marketing to federal employees because we seem to be a good fit for each other and I believe it’s an area that is underserved. One thing I really like about federal employees is that I seem to relate well to them, most of the people I talked to are very down to earth people.

Why should a federal employee work with an advisor that specializes in federal retirement?

There are a number of nuances in the federal retirement system that are unique which makes it beneficial to work with an advisor that specializes in federal retirement. Things such as knowing the impact your FERS annuity has on TSP,  knowing distribution rules of TSP, when it’s beneficial to leave money in TSP or take money out of TSP, understanding how your FEHB works while working and in retirement, understanding your fegli and how it works in retirement, and many others.

One element that helps me in working with clients is the fact about 90% of my clients are federal employees or retirees, so many tend to be in similar situations.

How do you get paid?

This is a great question that I think you should ask of any advisor you are considering working with. I work with people on a one time project basis or I work with them ongoing, so I either get paid a fee for project work or a fee for ongoing planning and investment management.

People that fit the project model are typically people wanting to put together a financial plan or tackle a specific financial issue. 

People that fit the ongoing model are likely retired or very close to retirement and want help with cash flow planning, investment management and tax planning. The reason I use a flat fee model versus the typical assets under management model is twofold:

• One reason is that I want people to know and have confidence that the recommendations that I’m giving them are in their best interest. If in AUM advisor tells you to take money out of TSP then he might be thinking that the advisor is telling you that because they only gets paid if you move money out of TSP. An advisor getting paid a flat fee gets the same fee regardless of where the assets are held.
• The other reason is that I don’t believe the fee should have a linear correlation to the amount of assets that you have. For example, a person with $2 million in investments shouldn’t be paying four times the fee of a person with $500,000 in investments. Yes, there may be more work with a person that has 2 million but it’s not necessarily four times the work therefore I don’t believe it should be four times the fee.

Are you a fiduciary?

Yes. This is a term that in my opinion is being used way too much by the industry and people that are not truly fiduciaries. As a fee only advisor I act as a fiduciary at all times for my clients. The decision to become a fee only advisor as well as a flat fee advisor was to remove as many conflicts of interest as possible. 

What is your goal when you work with a client?

The best compliment that I have received from clients is this: I feel better after talking to you. 

My goal is to make my client’s lives easier by taking care of as much of the financial part of life as possible, as well as being a sounding board for any decision related to finances.

What do you do in your free time?

A lot! My wife Lynette and I have three teenage kids that are all active. We spend a lot of time watching our three kids at sporting events throughout the year and just as much time trying to raise them to be responsible people that will grow up to shine God’s light in the world. We have a lot of hobbies that we enjoy like snow skiing, snowmobiling, hunting and just working out together.

One of my newest hobbies that I’ve taken up is pickleball and I’m loving it!