For many years, Ryan Kelly has advertised on The White Coat Investor website, and it’s been a great partnership. Through The White Coat Investor, Ryan has had the opportunity to work with many physicians and other high-income professionals over the years, and he is grateful for the opportunity to advertise on the site.
Recently, The White Coat Investor launched its own financial planning firm, White Coat Planning. Ryan believes it’s a great firm and a great option for many people. He’s especially pleased that they offer financial planning services for individuals who prefer to manage their own investment portfolios.
In particular, one powerful advantage of White Coat Planning is their capacity and commitment to scale, and to grow their firm and be able to support potentially many thousands of clients.
That said, Ryan believes his services offer three distinct advantages compared to White Coat Planning, particularly for do-it-yourself (DIY) investors.
1. Lower Cost
One of the most significant differences is cost.
White Coat Planning’s least expensive financial planning option for DIY investors currently costs $5,250. This includes an initial planning fee of $4,500, plus a required three months of follow-up service at $250 per month.
By comparison, Ryan’s Financial Review service costs $3,400, which includes:
- Two Zoom planning meetings.
- A detailed, personalized financial planning letter written in a narrative format, including a comprehensive review of the client’s financial situation and specific recommendations.
- Specific investment recommendations tailored to the client’s circumstances.
- Three months of unlimited email follow-up advice.
- One additional 50-minute Zoom meeting, to help with implementation of the recommendations, during the follow-up period at no additional cost.
That’s a savings of $1,850 compared to White Coat Planning’s least expensive option.
For clients who want more extensive financial planning and investment implementation assistance, Ryan’s DIY Investing service costs $4,900.
A comparable arrangement at White Coat Planning would involve its $4,500 initial planning fee plus four months of its highest-tier follow-up service at $550 per month, bringing the total to $6,700.
Ryan’s DIY Investing service is therefore $1,800 less expensive than that comparable service offered by White Coat Planning.
Ryan believes both of his offerings provide excellent value, particularly for individuals who want comprehensive, personalized financial advice without committing to ongoing asset management fees.
2. Work Directly With Ryan Kelly
The second advantage is the opportunity to work directly with Ryan throughout the entire financial planning process.
There can be some advantages to working with a larger financial planning firm. Some clients prefer working with a larger organization.
However, many people prefer working with a smaller firm, particularly one where they can develop a long-term relationship with a single financial advisor.
Ryan Kelly’s firm is a solo advisory practice. When clients hire Ryan, they work directly and exclusively with him. Ryan personally reviews their finances, develops their recommendations, writes their financial plans, and meets with them to discuss their financial situations.
And if clients decide to rehire Ryan in the future for a follow-up review, they’ll work directly with him again.
This provides continuity and consistency. Large firms can have a high level of advisor turnover. On the contrary, those hiring Ryan won’t need to explain their financial history to a new advisor each time they seek advice, and they won’t have to worry about being reassigned to someone else because of advisor turnover.
3. Investment Implementation Assistance for DIY Investors
The third advantage is particularly important for individuals who want to manage their own investments but aren’t yet completely comfortable doing so.
Traditionally, financial planning firms have offered two approaches:
- Delegators: Clients who prefer to have a financial advisor manage their investment portfolios on their behalf, typically in exchange for an ongoing investment management fee.
- DIY investors: Clients who want financial planning and investment recommendations but prefer to manage their own investment accounts, and are already confident doing so.
However, there’s an important group of people who fall somewhere in the middle.
These individuals want to become confident DIY investors, but they need some hands-on guidance to get started.
Based on Ryan’s understanding of White Coat Planning’s current service offerings, its DIY financial planning services do not include the same type of hands-on investment implementation assistance that Ryan provides.
With either of his financial planning services, Ryan not only meets with clients over Zoom, but he can have them share their screens, and guide them through the steps involved in implementing his investment recommendations.
For example, Ryan can help clients learn how to:
- Place buy and sell trades in their investment accounts.
- Reallocate existing investments to match a recommended asset allocation.
- Enable automatic dividend reinvestment.
- Establish automatic investments into a taxable brokerage account.
- Receive guidance in completing the steps involved in making a backdoor Roth IRA contribution.
- Become comfortable navigating and managing their investment accounts.
Those needing this level of support are encouraged to hire Ryan for the $4,900 DIY Investing Service. The goal isn’t simply to tell clients what investments to purchase. It’s to help them develop the knowledge and confidence to manage their own portfolios going forward.
Clients retain complete control of their investments, but they don’t have to figure everything out on their own.
Ryan believes this is a particularly valuable service for physicians and other busy professionals who understand the benefits of low-cost index investing but would appreciate some personalized guidance as they learn to implement and maintain their own investment portfolios.
The Bottom Line
Ryan has a great deal of respect for The White Coat Investor and believes White Coat Planning is a strong option for many individuals seeking financial advice.
However, for those who prefer to manage their own investments, Ryan believes RFK Capital Management offers three compelling advantages: lower fees, the consistency of working directly with one experienced financial advisor, and hands-on assistance learning how to implement and manage their investments.