Financial planning, an outcropping of the services typically provided by a stock broker or account executive, include investment advice, insurance sales, retirement planning, and various other assessments and planning to meet financial goals.
Shopping for a credit card? Want to see how your current card(s) stack up? Get some help from Consumer Action. "For more than two decades, Consumer Action conducted its annual Credit Card Survey, compiling the interest rates, fees and obscure terms and conditions that cardholders are subject to. This annual overview and “pulse point” on the industry helped consumers choose credit cards and served as a record of the growth of anti-consumer practices in the industry. The evidence we collected helped get the CARD Act—one of the most successful consumer protection updates—signed into law in 2009. With the rise of the Internet, comparing credit cards has become a business model for dozens of companies. The sites make money when consumers click through and apply for a card. The business model demands that the information be kept continuously updated—something we, as a non-profit, lack the ability to do. So, instead of conducting another survey of individual credit cards this year, we take a look at the plethora of card comparison sites to determine which ones offer the most useful and complete information." Details at: http://www.consumer-action.org/news/articles/2012_fall_issue_canews