Is paying for financial advice right for you?
Paying for financial guidance is a personal decision, and an important one.
Not everyone needs a financial advisor. In fact, many people are well served by focusing on the fundamentals: saving consistently, managing debt, and investing for the long term.
Where professional advice becomes far more valuable is as retirement approaches, or once you are already retired. This is when decisions become more complex, mistakes become more costly, and confidence matters more than ever.
When Financial Advice Becomes More Valuable
As you move closer to retirement, financial planning shifts from accumulation to retirement income planning and risk management. Decisions become more interconnected and the consequences more lasting.
Common retirement planning questions include:
- How do I convert my savings into reliable retirement income?
- Which accounts should I withdraw from to reduce lifetime taxes?
- How should my investment strategy change as I near retirement?
- How do I manage market risk while protecting my lifestyle?
- How do healthcare and longevity impact my plan?
These are ongoing decisions — not one-time events — and they benefit from experienced, objective guidance.
How Our Fees Work
Our fees are based on the assets we manage for you. We use a tiered (or sliding-scale) structure, where the fee decreases as your assets increase.
This means:
- Larger portfolios benefit from lower marginal fees
- Our incentives stay aligned with your long-term success
- Fees remain straightforward and predictable
We do not earn commissions for selling products, and we are not paid based on transactions.
What Your Advisory Fee Covers
Our fee supports an ongoing relationship, not just investment management.
This typically includes:
- Retirement income planning
- Investment management and portfolio oversight
- Tax-aware planning and coordination
- Ongoing monitoring and adjustments
- Guidance during periods of market uncertainty
- Regular reviews as your situation evolves
For many clients, the greatest value comes from ongoing advice and disciplined decision-making, especially when markets are unsettled.
Transparency, Trust, and Fit
We believe transparency builds trust, and that our services are not the right fit for everyone.
If your financial situation is simple and you prefer to manage things on your own, that can be a perfectly reasonable choice.
But if you are nearing retirement — or you're already there — and want guidance navigating complexity, reducing uncertainty, and making more informed decisions, working with an advisor can be a meaningful investment.
We’re always happy to explain our fees clearly, answer questions openly, and help you determine whether working together makes sense before any commitment is made.
Our fees are based on a percentage of assets under management (AUM) and are fully disclosed before you engage our services.
Fees FAQs
We are compensated through a fee based on the assets we manage on your behalf.
This fee is calculated as a percentage of your portfolio and is applied on a tiered schedule, meaning the percentage decreases as your assets increase.
We do not earn commissions for selling products, and we are not paid based on transactions.
Our goal is to keep our incentives aligned with your long-term success — so as your portfolio grows, we grow with you.
Your fee depends on the amount of assets we manage for you and follows a tiered schedule, where the percentage decreases as your portfolio grows.
For example, a $1 million portfolio would have a blended annual fee of approximately 1.05%, while larger portfolios benefit from lower overall rates.
We will always walk through your exact fee in dollars and percentages before you make any decision, so you understand precisely what you’re paying.
Our fee covers an ongoing advisory relationship, not just investment management.
This includes retirement income planning, portfolio management, and tax-aware decision-making, along with regular reviews and adjustments as your situation evolves.
Just as important, it includes guidance through the decisions that matter most — when to adjust your plan, how to respond to market volatility, and how to make informed choices over time.
For many clients, the greatest value comes from having a clear plan and the confidence to stick with it.
No. There are no hidden fees.
Our advisory fee is clearly disclosed and covers the services we provide. We do not charge commissions or transaction-based fees.
Depending on your portfolio, there may be underlying expenses associated with the investments themselves (such as mutual fund or ETF expense ratios). These are not paid to us, and we work to keep those costs low and transparent.
We believe you should always understand what you’re paying and why.
Our fee is based only on the investment accounts we directly manage on your behalf.
This typically includes accounts such as IRAs, Roth IRAs, and taxable brokerage accounts that we oversee and actively manage as part of your plan.
We do not charge fees on assets we do not manage, such as your home, real estate, or outside accounts.
That said, we still take your full financial picture into account. Assets held elsewhere — like a 401(k) or other investments — are incorporated into your plan, even if they are not directly managed or billed.
Financial planning is important at every stage of life. Many people do a good job managing the fundamentals on their own: saving consistently, investing for the long term, and making thoughtful decisions along the way.
Working with an advisor becomes more valuable when decisions grow more complex or carry greater consequences.
As retirement approaches, planning shifts from building wealth to turning that wealth into a reliable income stream. Decisions around withdrawals, taxes, investments, and healthcare become more interconnected — and the margin for error becomes smaller.
This is when many people find value in having a clear plan, an experienced perspective, and guidance they can rely on over time.