Fee Only Financial Planning

We are fee only financial planners.  This means we do not accept commissions or incentives of any kind from any of the investments we recommend.

We’ve chosen this business model for a reason.  We feel strongly that a financial planner who does accept commissions always has the potential for a conflict of interest.  While the investment advice from these planners may well be solid, and in your best interest, it depends entirely on the integrity of the planner.  We’ve seen too many examples of clients saddled with high fees, high expense ratios, or sub-par performance to believe that their previous planners were acting solely in their best interest.

A fiduciary rule is currently in the process of being implemented by the Department of Labor. It requires advisors to act as fiduciaries – meaning they act in the client’s best interest – when advising clients on retirement accounts.  Retirement accounts, usually qualified plans like IRAs or 401(k)s, are almost always an important component of a client’s retirement plan and therefore we support this rule.  However, advisors are not bound to act as fiduciaries for other investment accounts that a client may have, leaving the door open to potential conflicts of interest for those accounts. You should know that we operate as fiduciaries and have since we started our business in 2007. It is a fundamental part of how we operate. You can read a copy of our Fiduciary Oath in the Legal Stuff section of our website.

Finally, be cautious of advisors who believe the best way to serve you is to have you immediately roll over all of your investment accounts to them.  We often recommend that clients keep some of their money in their company 401(k)s due to the advantages that this can offer a client with some plans.  In a case where we are managing your money in our Assets Under Management (AUM) program, our approach limits the amount of money under our management, thereby limiting our income, yet we believe this is the right thing to do for the client.