Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Have a question about AdvisersGiveBack.org?
We have answers below. And if you don't see your question, please contact us.
All the advisors, who are giving back by volunteering their time for free, are committed to only working in your best interest. To use "industry speak," they are all fiduciaries who are required to put your interests first.
Advisors have to apply and then be accepted to volunteer on AdvisersGiveBack.org. They are then trained on our behaviorally designed program, so that they can best serve you.
We can only offer pro bono financial planning through the generosity of the amazing financial advisers donating their time to give back.
If you feel like you've benefitted from working with your financial adviser, you're welcome to make a tax-deductible donation to cover essential infrastructure costs associated with offering the Advisers Give Back service.
It works like this:
- Sign up and provide some details about your financial goals and general situation.
- Schedule time to talk with an advisor (or you can opt to only message them and their team).
- Agree to at least three specific actions, based on your adviser's feedback, that you'll take in the next four weeks.
- You have four weeks to work on the key tasks you and your adviser agreed that you'd take. Your tasks appear in your personalized online Dashboard.
- You can message with your adviser if you have any questions (along with their assistant, they'll be tracking your progress, to make sure that you follow through on the key actions you committed to).
- Celebrate taking action on your money! 🎉
- Donate-what-you-can to help cover essential infrastructure and also be able to use the service again in the future.
- Gain ongoing access to your adviser and their team to keep making progress on your money. You can also reach out to them if any money questions or life events come up.
We'd be really surprised if this happened, but if you prefer to work with a different adviser, just message your adviser's assistant with details on what's not working and we'll match you with a new adviser.
Yes! We try to cover the major ones (saving for an emergency fund, paying off debt, saving for retirement, etc.), but if you don't see your important financial goals you can simply add them when you sign up.
No, meeting with your adviser is not required. Also, any meeting that you have will be over the phone and not in-person.
If you prefer, you can skip the one-on-one meeting and instead rely on messaging (email, text, in-app) with your adviser and their team.
Yes! You can decide if you want to just receive email messages or whether you'd prefer to also get infrequent text messages with friendly reminders about the key actions that you are going to be taking.
If you want to update your financial goals, just message your adviser's assistant and they can take care of that for you. It will populate some new key actions in your personalized Dashboard, as well as alert your adviser to the change.
Yes, and we also encourage it. When you personalize the program after signing up, you can set them as a "cheerleader" so that they also get updates on key milestones.
Additionally, you can add them to the first meeting invite, by including their email address on the meeting booking page.
We understand that many people are concerned about sharing personal financial information. That's why do not ask for specific financial details and never ask you enter any passwords or even tell us which financial institutions you use.
Also, we screen your contact information from your advisor, so that you are effectively anonymous.
We use secure SSL encryption and multi-factor authentication to keep your information protected. We also neither collect nor store any sensitive personal information, such as social security number or any account information.
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