Facet is a user-friendly financial planning service to connect with dedicated fiduciary advisors who can help you reach your money goals through holisitic financial planning.
Business Insider’s personal finance team compared Facet to the best online financial advisors and found it offers comprehensive wealth management and financial planning services. However, it’s not cheap.
Pros and Cons
Facet Pros
- All advisors are fiduciaries
- Free initial financial consultation
- Easy-to-use online portal
- Various portfolio management and rebalancing features
- No additional fee for managing investment assets
Facet Cons
- Flat fee may be high for someone with few financial assets
- No in-person meetings
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Facet
Fees
$2,000 to $6,000 per year
- One-on-one consulting with CFPs
- Flat annual fee
- Wide range of personal finance services
- No additional fee for managing investment assets
- A $2,000 annual minimum requirement for membership
- No in-person meetings
- Only manages ETFs
Insider’s Take
Facet is best for folks seeking frequent, ongoing personal finance advice and investment management. But its high flat annual fee may not be worth it to folks seeking one-time consultation or infrequent guidance.
Product Details
- Wide range of personal finance services like retirement, tax, estate, and education planning + investing managment
- A $2,000 annual minimum requirement for membership
- No additional fee for managing investment assets
- Only manages ETFs
Compare Facet
Overview
Facet is an online financial planning and wealth management platform. It provides objective financial advice from a fee-only fiduciary, so you can more easily plan your retirement, save for future education expenses, or reduce your taxable income.
Facet is a subscription-based service requiring members to pay at least $2,000 annually. While this flat pricing model saves money for those with high account balances, it’s expensive for people with fewer financial assets or a one-time question. In those instances, one of the best robo-advisors offering free consultations with a CFP would be better.
The platform’s holistic approach to wealth management considers your entire financial situation when creating a custom plan. You can access tools like live portfolio monitoring, educational videos and guides, proactive portfolio rebalancing, and tax loss harvesting.
However, you won’t be able to meet with a Facet CFP in person; all meetings are online. This may be a dealbreaker for those who prefer to meet face-to-face.
Facet provides access to investment strategies centered on diversification and low-fee ETF portfolios. Its planners manage existing brokerage and retirement accounts from select third-party providers, including Fidelity and Charles Schwab, while new accounts are opened with Fidelity and Apex.
You have to call to get started with Facet. Customer service hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. Plus and Complete members have extended customer support hours. You can also email Facet at support@facet.com.
Ways to Invest
To get started with Facet, fill out the initial form under the “Get Started” tab located at the top right of the Facet homepage. Then, you schedule a free consultation with a Facet CFP to discuss your individual financial plan further.
Next, an onboarding specialist can match you with the best membership level based on your financial goals.
Facet Membership Tiers
There are three Facet membership tiers offering varying CFP access and financial planning services. You can share a membership with a partner or spouse.
The available Facet membership tiers include:
Facet Core:
- Unlimited messaging
- Up to three virtual meetings with a CFP for the first year and one virtual session for the second year and onward
- Investing strategies with no assets under management (AUM) fees or commissions
- Guidance on estate planning
A Core membership costs $500 per quarter ($2,000 annually).
Facet Plus:
- All the benefits of a Core membership
- Access to a small team of CFPs
- Up to two sessions per year after the first year
- Access to equity and compensation planning services (tax plans, company stock plan guidance, and annual access to an equity compensation planning specialist)
- Extended customer service hours up to 8 p.m. ET
A Plus membership costs $750 per quarter ($3,000 annually).
Facet Complete:
- All perks of Core and Plus memberships
- Your own dedicated CFP
- One additional virtual session during the first year and up to four sessions for the second year and onward
- Full access to estate planning documents and services and advanced tax strategies
- Extended customer service hours upon request
A Complete membership costs $1,500 per quarter ($6,000 annually).
All membership tiers can access cash flow and debt management, investment management, retirement, insurance, and education planning services.
Facet memberships are nonrefundable. If you decide to cancel, you can still access CFPs and financial planning services through the end of the paid period.
Facet Financial Planning
Facet’s online portal allows you to share documents with your assigned CFP, book appointments, and keep track of your goals and cash flow.
Financial planning services from Facet include:
- Cash flow and debt management: Short and long-term savings strategies, financial wellness, emergency saving, goal-planning, and debt consolidation
- Retirement planning: Services for retirees and pre-retirees, including a goal and income assessment and ongoing planning sessions
- Estate planning: Facet Complete members get access to a suite of state-optimized estate planning documents, including a financial power of attorney, advanced healthcare directive, last will and testament, and unlimited access to make updates.
- Education planning: Savings and funding strategies, guidance on receiving financial aid, and loan repayment
- Insurance planning: A CFP will identify gaps in your insurance coverage, help with employer-sponsored insurance, and provide an annual review with recommendations.
- Tax planning: Facet offers a range of tax planning services, including tax reduction strategy recommendations, tax-efficient education savings recommendations, personalized diversification analyses, Roth conversion recommendations, and analysis of the previous year’s missed opportunities.
Facet Investment Strategies
Investing strategies through Facet allow you access to consistent portfolio monitoring and regular reviews, automatic portfolio rebalancing, and tax-loss harvesting (only for taxable accounts).
Facet portfolios blend low-cost ETFs that expose you to various asset classes, including emerging market funds, asset-backed securities, government bonds, REITs, mortgage bonds, and large and small-cap US stocks.
Facet can manage existing brokerage accounts at Charles Schwab, Apex, and Fidelity Investments.
Generally, Facet’s investment strategies are best for long-term goals, but the firm now offers a short-term strategy (STS) option for investments to maintain stability. Investing in select ETFs allows you to save for short-term goals (one to three years).
Fees
Facet’s flat-fee advisory services charge annual membership fees ranging from $2,000 to $6,000 depending on the type of Facet membership tier you subscribe to. It can be paid annually or quarterly. Fees for membership tiers are as follows:
- Core: $500/quarter ($2,000 annually)
- Plus: $750/quarter ($3,000 annually)
- Complete: $1,500/quarter ($6,000 annually)
Since the membership fee is fixed, it won’t change even if your financial situation becomes more complicated.
Unlike other financial advisor firms, Facet doesn’t charge an hourly fee or an asset under management (AUM) fee based on account balances. Rather, you must be a member to open a Facet account.
Estate planning is the only Facet service you can purchase separately from a membership. Estate planning costs $2,000 for the first year and then $300 each year after. You do not pay additional estate planning fees if you are a Facet Complete member.
Custodians may charge additional fees for managing your account.
Trustworthiness
Facet is an SEC-registered investment advisor. It safeguards assets and personal information through 24/7 monitoring, continuous employee training to spot suspicious activity, data encryption, and multi-factor authentication.
All data Facet collects is cloud-encrypted and is stored for five years in accordance with SEC guidelines.
Facet Wealth Services has a B+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. The BBB primarily evaluates companies based on how well they interact with customers, and it uses a grade scale range of A+ to F when determining its ratings.
Facet’s record is clear of any major scandals or lawsuits.
Alternatives
Here’s how Facet compares to similar platforms.
SoFi Investing
SoFi Active Invest®
Account Minimum
$0 ($5 to start investing); $5 fractional shares; $2,000 for margin trading
Fees
$0 annual fee and stock trading fee
- No account minimum
- No account or trading fees, and low fees to own funds
- Access to Certified Financial Planners with a SoFi Plus membership
- IPOs available
- No tax-loss harvesting, an advanced investing technique where you sell a stock or mutual fund at a loss for a tax benefit
- No option for stop-loss orders when actively investing. SoFi’s active investing account only uses market orders
- Currently only available to US residents
Product Details
- App store rating: 4.8 iOS/3.8 Android
- Consider it if: You want an easy-to-use platform paired with rock-bottom pricing.
SoFi Active Invest® is a robust online brokerage and banking platform offering a range of financial planning, trading, lending, and money-managing services. Facet and SoFi® provide similar services but different fees and investment options.
SoFi offers products, such as its low-cost automated investing account. You can set up meetings with a complimentary certified financial planner with SoFi Plus to help you navigate a specific issue or talk about your overall strategy. SoFi is best for people who don’t have the cash to pay for complete financial planning right now but still want to make prudent decisions with their money.
If your goal is acquiring comprehensive financial guidance and management across a broad range of personal finance topics (such as tax planning, education saving, and retirement planning), you’ll want to consider Facet despite the high annual fee.
Vanguard
Vanguard is a large, reputable broker and investment advisor that offers various wealth-managing, trading, and financial planning services to investors of all kinds. Both platforms take a holistic approach to investing and financial planning.
Vanguard Personal Advisor is the best choice for investors who want to mix robo-advisor services with human advisor oversight. It offers the convenience of automated portfolio management to keep you on track to reach your goals and the benefit of professional insight from a dedicated Vanguard advisor.
You will pay at least $2,000 a year with Facet, but a flat fee means you won’t pay more as your balances grow. With Vanguard (which has a 0.30% fee for balances under $5 million), you will.
Vanguard Personal Advisor also has a $50,000 minimum balance requirement, meaning you’ll pay at least $150 in fees yearly. If you can meet Vanguard’s high minimum, it will save you more in fees. Otherwise, Facet is more accessible but may cost you more in the long run.
Why You Should Trust Us
We reviewed Facet using Business Insider’s rating methodology for investing platforms to compare account types, pricing, investment options, and overall customer experience when reviewing investing platforms. Platforms are given a rating between 1 and 5.
Financial planning firms generally offer account flexibility, goal-building strategies, human advisor access, and other resources. Some firms are better for advanced investors with higher net worth, while others may be better suited for beginners. Facet was evaluated, focusing on how it performed in each category.
Business Insider’s Overall Facet Rating
FAQs
Facet is an online financial planning firm and advisory platform that offers personalized financial planning and tailored portfolio management. Its fee-only fiduciary advisors offer retirement planning, estate planning, insurance analysis, and tax optimization services.
Facet uses a flat-fee pricing model based on three different membership options. A Facet membership ranges from $2,000 to $6,000 annually and can be paid quarterly.
Facet’s services benefit those needing hands-on investment management and regular financial planning advice. A Facet membership is also beneficial for households with complex financial situations that need consistent, personalized guidance from a professional.
Facet differentiates itself from other financial planning services by providing each client with a dedicated, unbiased CFP to create a customized financial plan based on their entire financial picture. The firm also stands out for its flat-free pricing model, making it a great option for investors with larger balances.
Clients can interact with Facet’s dedicated financial advisors through virtual meetings, messages, and phone calls. This allows for accessible, flexible planning sessions and ongoing communication regardless of the client’s location. However, there are no in-person meetings.
