The review is free; the consultant is paid only if you choose to work together
Incentives shape advice, so you should be able to see them. Here is how a Federal Retirement Consultant is compensated, in plain language. The benefits review is free, the consultant is paid only if you choose to work with them, and the designation is the check on that incentive.
In plain terms. Financial advisor fees vary by model, but for a Federal Retirement Consultant the model is simple and disclosed: the benefits review is free, and the consultant is paid by the provider, out of the provider's own pricing, only if you later choose to move forward on a financial product through them. You are never billed separately for the review or the advice.
The single most useful question you can ask any financial advisor is how they get paid. A good one answers it without hesitation. So before you ever speak with an FRC, here is the honest version.
This is a common way financial advisors get paid, and there is nothing unusual about it. What matters is that it is disclosed.
Bring the federal retirement decision you are weighing: a retirement date, a survivor election, a TSP or FEGLI move. Your FRC walks the rules and the numbers with you in plain terms. The review is free.
You leave with an honest answer, including whether to wait or whether you are already on the right track. The next step is yours to take when it suits you.
If you later choose to move forward on a financial product through your FRC, the provider pays them, out of its own pricing. You are never billed separately for the review or the advice.
The benefits review costs you nothing, whether or not you ever buy anything. If you later choose to move forward on a financial product through your FRC, the provider pays them out of its own pricing.
There is no hourly bill, no retainer, and no separate fee carved out of your money for the guidance. You can take the notes to your own agency, OPM, or another professional and never come back.
| A Federal Retirement Consultant | A typical sales floor | |
|---|---|---|
| Paid only if you choose to work together, and tells you when not to. | Confirmed | Paid on volume, with quotas that reward closing today. |
| A named consultant you can verify by designation and license. | Confirmed | Whoever answers the 800 number, often unnamed. |
| Walks the permanent choices and the trade-offs out loud, first. | Confirmed | Mentions the downsides only if you ask the right question. |
| Comfortable saying "you are already on the right track." | Confirmed | Rarely leaves a sale on the table by talking you out of it. |
Elsewhere you will also meet fee-only advisors, who charge a flat or hourly fee, and fee-based advisors, who charge a percentage of assets under management and can also earn commissions; whatever the model, the test is the same, it should be disclosed plainly. The designation manages the conflict by making a review before you decide the whole premise, by teaching the honest trade-offs in our Federal Retirement 101 guide, and by requiring that every FRC is verifiable by name and holds a license you can check.
Not advice. This page explains compensation, not a recommendation. Always confirm any figure with the governing plan or agency and consider your own situation before you act.
