Invest in your mattress. (just imho)
I was a "financial planner." It is often a glorified term for an insurance salesman. At a minimum, look for the CFP designation. Unless you have a very large sum of loot, you will work with a commissioned salesperson instead of a fee-based planner. If it was me, I would meet with a CFP and get them to make a proposal, and then if I liked it, go and buy all of the same products yourself - no load funds and whatnot. There is no reason to take a 5% haircut right off the top to make money for someone else.
The planner will probably try to sell you life insurance. If your family depends on your income, you need it. Do not buy life insurance from "a name you know" and think it's better because it's Prudential or Met Life. If the agent can only sell life insurance from one company (most of the big names are like this), then you don't want it. Talk to a couple of independent (very important) agents who can sell the products of many companies. The "buy term and invest the difference" saying is true, but most people are not disciplined enough to do it.
If you buy an annuity, look at the surrender charge. This is how the agent gets paid. Anything past 5 years is too long. 10-15 years is just robbery. There are some decent index annuity products, which give you a return tied to the market, BUT guarantee your principal. Also, I'm not sure if they are still around, but "two-tiered" annuities are a total scam. They advertise a very high rate, but if you ever want to take your money out, you only get a very small rate of return. It's like a surrender charge that never goes away; it just gets bigger over time. The only way to get the high rate and take the money out is to annuitize with the same company, and then they whack you on the annuitization.
