FAQ

We do not charge for personal meetings. We are committed to educating people about their federal benefits, and we will spend as much time as necessary to make sure you understand your situation.

We are financial strategists, and our founders both have more than 25 years of experience in financial services. This level of experience enables us to recognize situations where various strategies we are familiar with can be helpful and appropriate. If you are interested in learning about helpful strategies – often concepts and approaches that you have never heard of before – we will meet with you without charge to explain the strategies we think can be most helpful to you.

The strategies we work with fall into four broad categories: “tricks” we have learned over the years that can make a big difference to your financial situation – including pitfalls to be avoided; financial programs and services that we refer to other financial professionals (for which we receive no compensation); financial strategies that we implement for you and are compensated by the companies we work with; financial strategies that we implement for you and charge you a fee directly.

As part of explaining any strategy, we explain fully what, if any fees, you would pay to implement that strategy. You always have the opportunity to decide if you feel the fee is reasonable…

…but we never charge for education, and we will spend as much time with you as necessary to make sure you understand your benefits – whether, or not, you choose to implement any strategies with us.

We also “get paid” in the form of referrals. If your friends or co-workers need help sorting through their retirement benefits, we deeply appreciate introductions. If you feel we have been helpful to you – please tell people you know about our services and how they have helped you.

Honestly, it is as simple as asking. You can click on this link (request a free benefits analysis report) and fill out a Benefits Analysis Request Form, or you can call our offices to arrange a meeting. Our phone number is (303) 284-6166.

We have a very efficient two-meeting process that we take you through to, first, gather all your information about your federal employment and, second, to meet again to go over the Benefits Analysis Report that we generate from the information we collected in the first meeting.

Again, this is as simple as calling to set up an appointment, or clicking on this link (schedule an appointment now). Our telephone number is (303) 284-6166.

Federal employee benefits are unique – and not particularly intuitive. You have some of the best retirement benefits available anywhere, but the price of admission is figuring them out. There are rules, paperwork and procedures that must be followed or benefits can be lost – permanently. An advisor who is not familiar with federal benefits is not likely to be much help in navigating labyrinth of benefits that Congress has cobbled together over the years. It is entirely possible that an inexperienced advisor might fail to advise you on certain issues, or provide incorrect advice – either of which could cause you to forfeit benefits.

You worked hard to earn these benefits. You deserve an advisor who understands the ins and outs of federal benefits. You would never fly aboard an airplane that was piloted by a captain who was not familiar with the aircraft – why would you even consider allowing an unknowledgeable advisor to “pilot” your retirement benefits?

Our workshops are designed to provide extensive information about your retirement benefits – to clarify things for you, not to overwhelm you. We bring in expert presenters who have decades of experience working with federal employees and their benefits. Their experience enables them to bring valuable perspective to the material they deliver.

Our only agenda is to provide helpful information. We are not trying to scare you into buying some product that will solve your problems. In fact, we do not discuss any sort of financial product or service in our workshop. Everything we present is included so that you can better understand your retirement benefits.

Everyone says they care; we mean it! Our founders both have over 25 years of experience in financial services, and they thoroughly enjoy working with federal employees. Rarely do they leave a meeting with federal employees without commenting on how much they enjoyed the folks they just met with.

We have offices in Littleton, downtown Denver, DTC and Fort Collins. We schedule meetings in all of these offices every week. We try to group together meetings in a particular office, but we will meet anywhere when it is necessary. We regularly schedule meetings on weekends.

Our calendar is often booked out a week, or two, but we will do everything we can to schedule you sooner if there is a specific need.

The best way to find out when we are available is to click on this link (schedule an appointment now) or to call our main office (303) 284-6166.

We strongly encourage both spouses to participate in the retirement planning process. We hope you will bring your spouse with you – to a benefits workshop and any meetings you have with us.

Experience and specialized training – in no particular order.

We have met with thousands of federal employees, seen a very wide variety of situations and prepared hundreds and hundreds of Benefits Analysis Reports. We have answered hundreds of thousands of questions about federal retirement benefits. That is not to say we have seen it all. In fact, we love it when we encounter a situation that we have never seen before. But we have developed an extremely wide ranging familiarity with all things federal.

Absolutely not!

We pride ourselves on our commitment to educating federal employees – specifically without any sort of sales pressure. We believe firmly in the adage that if we provide enough value to enough people, our business will thrive. A heavy handed sales pitch brings no value to our process, and is, in fact, counter productive because it causes people to shut down.

We genuinely enjoy helping people understand their benefits, and being pushy does nothing to help you understand your benefits.

We realize that many “benefits specialists” are nothing more than insurance sales people. While we do work with insurance strategies when they are appropriate, our founders actually come from an investment background – where insurance is not widely appreciated. Having expertise in multiple financial areas, developed through decades of experience, gives us a uniquely well-rounded perspective and enables us to offer information and input that is not rooted in any one financial discipline.

We are true financial professionals – not insurance sales people, not stock jockeys, not mutual fund promoters, not product pushers.

We very much appreciate referrals and introductions to other people who can benefit from our services. There are several ways you can help connect us with your friends, family and colleagues who also need help understanding their retirement benefits:

• •Tell them how we have helped you
• •Give them our phone number and/or link to our website
• •Give us their contact information (if they are OK with it), and we will initiate communication with them
• •Bring them to one of our benefits workshops – or encourage them to attend one

We strongly encourage both spouses to participate in the retirement planning process.Much of the work we do with people centers around a complete financial plan. With over 25 years in the investment industry, both our founders have expertise in a wide range of financial activities, including investment management, life insurance planning, estate planning, real estate, mortgages, cash flow longevity, etc.

Of course, your personalized Benefits Analysis and the help we provide for you to fully understand your benefits are not dependent on you engaging us to advise you in any of these financial areas, but we are always happy to share our knowledge for your benefit.

Over the years, we have acquired software programs and developed our own software tools to help us provide valuable information about the “big picture” of retirement. These types of services and programs are available upon request – and without obligation.

Once you’ve done something hundreds – or even thousands of times, you get it down to a science. Our free, two meeting process is very efficient with a 90 minute first meeting and a two hour second meeting. If we need more time to handle your special situation, we will gladly take the time, but we may need to schedule another meeting – depending on our schedule.

We are not affiliated with any federal agency – nor does the work we do with various agencies imply any sort of formal endorsement.

Our name – Federal Employee Benefits Center – is intended to communicate that we specialize in working with federal employees related to their employment and retirement benefits.

The Federal Employee Benefits Center is a not-for-profit organization focused on delivering education to federal employees. When we get into investment and insurance areas of our work, we represent separate companies that fall under their respective regulatory channels.