John

Review of Rowling & Associates

I was looking for a financial advisor to help me p...

I was looking for a financial advisor to help me plan for retirement and found Steve Doster, a member of Rowling Associates on the Cert Fin Planning org's website. I scheduled an appointment with Steve. Prior to meeting, I began my due diligence with the matter of fiduciary responsibility. This is the top area of concern mentioned on nearly every source of advice on how to select a financial advisor.

After inquiring about this, Steve sent an email cancelling my appointment.

What led to this? After the appointment, I emailed to request a document indicating whether or not he would hold a fiduciary responsibility. A member of his staff indicated that the information could be found in the documents that I had already been sent, and referred to the specific document and section. Unfortunately, that section just referred to the their Code of Conduct document for the details, which would be 'available upon request'. So I made the request. My appointment was then immediately cancelled. Below is the email I received. You be the judge.

"The disclosure documents you received discuss our fiduciary duty to clients and our adherence to professional codes of conduct. As CPAs and CFP professionals, we are required to follow the code of ethics and professional standards of conduct for both professions. Our company code of ethics is part of our much larger compliance policies & procedures, which is a document for internal use only.

In reviewing our communications, I understand you need financial advice quickly. It takes time to complete our financial plans due to our thorough and thoughtful process. It can take us 6-8 weeks to complete a plan depending on a client's complexity. It seems that our firm is not the best fit for you to meet your timing needs, so I am cancelling our introductory meeting. I wish you all the best in your search for a financial planning firm.

Regards,
Steve"