College Planning Experts

Phenomenal company. Everyone is so helpful, especially Irene in counseling. She is the best at what she does!

They were a great resource with our oldest daughter, unfortunately really dropped the ball with our second. She kept getting passed from counselor to counselor and the one she is dealing with doesn’t know musical theatre. She missed audition deadlines and her top 2 schools. Be aware of your child’s goals before signing up. We learned an expensive lesson!

So glad to have Brian helping us with the college planning. I don’t understand the few bad reviews and why people blame this company for things.
There is so much going on, that despite Brian and his staff constantly sending us emails and calling us to stay on track with everything, we still fall behind.
We never could have gotten through the process without their help. I told Brian that even if we didn’t get anything extra that we couldn’t have gotten on our own the cost is well worth it as we simply don’t have time to figure out how to get our daughter into college.

I’ve shared all my positive experience with College Planning Experts through word of mouth to my friends and relatives. We hired College Planning Experts since 2008 and its worth of every penny for the services that they provide. They guide us through the process and made us understand of each requirement as to why we need to submit all of these documents. As you all know, applying the best colleges/​universities for your child is very confusing especially all the requirements & deadlines. You want the best for your child and give all the tools that they deserve. You may be able to do it that «IF» you really have time to spare especially from your work to learn the convoluted system. Other than that, it’s worth it. Although we are now familiar of the system but there’s a lot of changes of the regulations. I still do not want my daughter to be caught in a college system quagmire. I thought she studied hard enough to deserve help and guidance with College Planning Expert. Trust them. They will help you and child get this through w/​successful outcome.

College Planning Experts has been extremely helpful in assisting my son and daughter in their college application process, especially with my son being a senior. They have been very cooperative with their service; helping my teens’ search for a career area, thinking about the long-​term plans from now till post-​college. In every step of the way, Heather has been very helpful in steering my kids through the process. Their financial aid guidance is greatly impactful as well, finding every way to save each dollar. Brian is very knowledgeable in the financial aspects and has been extremely helpful in our needs. I trust and respect his guidance. Without their service in driving this long process, it would have only left us all with stress ten-​fold! I would highly recommend CPE to help my family and friends with their college planning! Thank you CPE!

Not convinced they’re worth one star!
Advised us to cash out our 529, put in a whole life policy, use federal $$ to finance our son’s education with loans, then repay with whole life policy. Only problem… they neglected to mention the tax consequences!!! We could have used the 529 monies, NOT borrowed money/​pay interest, NOT paid taxes, and NOT paid College Planning Experts $ 3500 instead!
Worst ‘experts’ ever!

If you’re looking for help getting college preparation for you child, this is the place for you. The process is difficult at best. College Planning Experts hand walked my granddaughter through the process and helped her in getting scholarships we would have never known existed. Even after the major process was done, they still were helpful in making sure we understood the next steps. They were great in helping with all the financial paperwork as well. –Sincerely, Berta Gunn

Glad I avoided this land mine. The phone jockeys here are good at establishing a connection with potential clients by spending lots of time pitching college planning expertise, thousands in savings, and collecting lots of information on your finances and kids’ college plans vs gpa, sports, etc. They are without argument very good at their jobs.
Here’s where the wheels fall off… Based on the info you share, you would expect some thoughts around strategy or an estimate of college savings from their strategies. Nope. Just the line, «we are confident we can save you multiples of what we charge you.» They want to charge you $ 3−5k on average if you have one kid, more if multiple kids. When I hear the word «multiples» I think 3−5x, wouldn’t you? So pick the 4x midpoint and apply it to the $ 5k they wanted to charge me = $ 20k/​yr in college savings they were suggesting. Cool, let’s look further into this and ask specifically how they’re going to accomplish this. The phone jockey, although very professional and polite, knew nothing and deferred to «Brian» every time I would push for any real information. Then before scheduling a meeting with Brian their fee schedules were presented. I thought to myself that I’m in the wrong business if they get paid thousands and thousands for this «service».
They set the hook pretty well into this fish so I did some online research on this company before walking away. What I learned was more alarming than my initial concerns about price vs value delivered…
Here’s their core business model:
They generate leads through holding «college planning» seminars. These generate leads, or vulnerable parents of college bound kids, who follow up with CPE and Brian uses the opportunity to sell them annuities (insurance products) for which he receives a very, very lucrative commission. In case you didn’t know, commissions for this type of investment are about 50%. And unfortunately, annuities are not even a valid college financial planning strategy.
After collecting all of these facts I told the phone jockey, as nice as he was, that I have no interest in dealing with CPE nor Brian. He didn’t sound surprised and even had a canned response which I won’t go into here. I’m sure the list of suckers is long enough that they don’t spend a second thinking about the fish that got away. Now they’re trying to hook you… are you savvy enough to not be the sucker? If you’re reading this I hope you know the answer.

College Planning Experts is a SCAM!
I fell for it but I am warning others to avoid them. They offer nothing of value unless you are disabled and unable to use a pen and paper or computer. The advice and help they charge you for is available for FREE at your local high school and college.
BEWARE!!!

Buyer Beware! College Planning Experts sells its range of services to nervous and vulnerable parents on the brink of sending their baby to college. They convince parents that tackling financial aid on their own is a risky business and then turn around and charge families a hefty price to fill the forms out for you. In addition, they «help» you with future financial planning by selling a life insurance policy as a means of saving to pay off college loans in the future. This is where it really gets shady. What they didn’t explain clearly to us was that the cost of that insurance was $ 8,000/year. When we needed to withdraw our savings due to unforeseen financial hardship, we lost nearly $ 10,000. They did not give us enough information in laymen’s terms to evaluate the plan. Overall, they are selling a sense of security and support in a situation that seems daunting at first, but you are much better off learning the ropes yourself and saving lots of money that you can actually put towards your child’s education.

College Planning Experts have been awesome! They offer something for everyone. I am not a parent planning college for my kids; I am an adult college graduate planning to go back to school to obtain my MBA. I wish I had found them while planning for my bachelor’s degree. Back then, my financial aid department never explained the importance of my EFC score and how details in my financial records could dictate how much aid I received. Also, they offer documents and resources for students such as links to Fafsa, EFC calculators and applications for grants. I recommend College Planning Experts for anyone planning for college for themselves or their children.

These guys do fantastic work! Trying to navigate the college application process on your own can be insane, but they made it easy for everyone I know who attended their workshops. Very nice people, talented staffers and a no-​nonsense approach to helping clients reach their college goals. I just wish I was going back to college so I could take advantage of the services.

Anyone who has embarked on the college application journey knows that it can be a long and arduous road. That’s where the College Planning Experts come in. They help you think through the process. Not just what it takes to get into your college of choice, but how, especially when it comes to financial aid. The forms and understanding how funding works can be super complicated but they will sit down and walk you through steps, even help you fill out FASFA forms. They hold free workshops all the time, and have some great coupons. Check them out and feel more secure about the college process!

I see these other negative reviews here and am in shock! College Planning Experts has been nothing but great to me and the other families I know. I was referred to them by a friend of mine who had been using them to help her son get into the college he wanted which was a college they thought they couldn’t afford. After hearing what they had done for her and how much they helped I had to check it out for myself. Sure enough, everyone was every friendly and helpful. I went to one of their free workshops 1^st, which was packed full of great ideas and tips to the college planning process. They even give away enough info that if you had the time to spend researching and educating yourself then you could most likely do everything yourself. But the truth is, over 90% of all Financial Aid forms have a mistake on them that cost families money in free financial aid. I personally don’t have the time to research hours of information to try to fill this all out in my own, correctly. I decided to have people who do it for a living everyday do it for me to ensure it’s done right and that I get the most free money possible.
I did do the same thing that one of the reviews said, which was go home and see what EFC score I could come up with in comparisson to what College Planning Experts said they could get me. And sure enough, they are saving me thousands if dollars in my EFC.
I really don’t see why others have left bad reviews. They do go over everything with you and explain how it all works up front. I think those that left a negative reviews probably didn’t pay attention to the details and just assumed that everything was done for them when it is very clear that everything is not done for them, only certain items like the FAFSA is done for you. Otherwise, everything is done with you and is set up to help guide you threw the college planning process and give you options based on your families situation. They give you your best options and let you decide what will be best for your family.
I love College Planning Experts and would recommend it to anyone with a college bound student in their family. Just one thing I would like to say to those families with a potential college students… don’t put it off, START PLANNING NOW! Save yourself the headache of not having enough time to plan. So if you have 4 or more years before college, get started now, don’t wait. At least go to one of the College Planning Experts FREE Workshops that they offer throughout the Santa Clarita Valley or San Fernando Valley. You’ll have nothing to loose and everything to gain. They helped take the pressure off my shoulders and they will do the same for you!

As a student of College Planning Experts, I wouldn’t have been able to get into UC San Diego without the help of CPE. It was really important for me to get into the top college of my choice. I am now in my 4^th year and almost done with college with only $ 25,000 in loans. The career I am pursuing as an engineer will allow me to make over $ 100,000 in income and I will be employed immediately after college. CPE has a great system that helped me plan my career first (4 years ago), plan my majors that applied to me, and the best fit college that would allow me the most success after college. All of this happened because of CPE and their staff.
My parents’ biggest concern when we started CPE was the cost of college. They had a certain budget for me and Brian and his staff were able to get me enough financial aid and grants to allow my parents to fund my college education. We highly recommend CPE to anyone that wants to avoid the stress of the college planning process. It truly will pay off!

It’s the message on their answering machine that should have been my clue to run like hell «We’ll get back to you within 3 business days». Are you kidding me! I’d like to use that one on my boss. The dog running around should have been a red flag, too. So after paying $ 7,000 for CPE to help my son prepare for college interviews and write essays, he missed two deadlines for interview requests. I was out of town dealing with a dying father and I thought I could depend on them. Save your money and go to
to get all the info and services you need. Same here with wrong info on FAFSA and CSS form. Not spelling my son’s name correctly, too, to start with. I told them to let me file my own damn forms instead of constantly correcting theirs over and over again. Their «risk free» solution to getting financial aid was deemed a little too risky by every tax accountant, CPA, attorney, financial advisor I spoke to. Find an experienced parent who has gone through the process to help you and save your money and your mind.

I should have noticed the red flags when I walked into the lobby of College Planning Experts… the absence of a receptionist… the miniature dog walking around freely wearing a dog sweater… the pictures of the owner standing next to has-​been reality stars. Hmmmm, but decided not to make judgment… yet.
Brian Safdari, the owner, has made a business of advising parents on paying for their children’s education. I’m sure he will tell you about his professional soccer career that never materialized. Most people find him through free seminars that he gives throughout the SCV. During these seminars he hands out a «limited number» of free consultations. He emphasizes that financial aid is based on the EFC, estimated family contribution. This is the dollar figure your family is expected to pay for your childs education. He claims he has a program that can produce the lowest EFC, therefore, less money leaving your pocket. All for the low price of $ 750.
Well, I am ashamed to admit that I bought his dog and pony show. He, or his assistants, filled out the financial aid forms and came up with an EFC and told me he saved me about a $ 1000. I wrote him a check and walked out of his office wondering if this guy bamboozled me.
So I went home and filled out the same financial aid forms and came up with a lower EFC! Immediately I called Brian and told him. He defended himself and told me I was using the wrong numbers (the numbers I used were the same numbers I provided Brian). He refused to give me my money back until I filed a Small Claims suit.
Long story short, at least I can say I know someone who had their picture taken with a former Apprentice winner and Gene Simmons!