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Bill Horvath is a retired financial services executive and Certified Financial Planner® whose career was spent working across sales, marketing, and account management disciplines at Vanguard and TIAA with a focus on corporate and non-profit retirement plans. In retirement, he enjoys the slower pace of everyday life, spending time with his wife, children and extended family, connecting with friends both new and tenured, pickleball, golf, movies, and devouring articles on personal finance (especially on HD!), sports, real estate, and travel.
Comments
Speaking as a licensed, but non-practicing CFP holder I can offer that one of the key factors to understand when interviewing prospective financial advisors is this - how are they compensated for serving you? And, this can take some digging and adept questioning to fully uncover. If the majority of their compensation is tied to specific product placement with their clients (e.g. mutual funds from certain investment firms in their clients' asset allocation strategies, annuities from only a few insurance firms, etc.) then it may be beneficial to interview fee-only advisors who are compensated via a straight-forward fee that is charged to one's account, most likely on a quarterly basis. In my opinion, the best advisors lead with great questions, are fantastic listeners, and pay even greater attention to the psychological and behavioral aspects of the relationships with their clients. While designations like the CFP and others are worthy achievements and help foster continuing education in the field, sometimes the best advisors are great at what they do too, without those fancy letters after their names.
Post: Beware the CFP Designation?
Link to comment from August 4, 2026
Mark - based on what you outlined, I'd definitely consider the G Fund for a bond position. As always, it depends on one's own personal situation and needs. As a retired financial services industry professional, I use the TIAA Traditional Fixed Annuity as the bond position in my total asset allocation strategy (similar to the comment from Jo Bo). I try to keep my investments simple, as many on HD do as well.
Post: TSP G Fund as the only Fixed Income Investment
Link to comment from June 21, 2026
Jeff - I loved this article more than you can possibly know. Thanks for sharing your story.
Post: A Life You Build
Link to comment from April 21, 2026
John - thanks for sharing on a topic that is important - or I should say, "what is important to you and your time." :) My wife and I walked out of a theater production about a year ago. It was part of a series of shows, but that one just wasn't engaging for us. (nothing political or headline grabbing, just not enjoyable to us) We snagged a wonderful cocktail each around the corner at a local establishment prior to an enjoyable dinner out. Time was well spent on that alternative evening path.
Post: The Retiree’s Dilemma
Link to comment from April 22, 2024