Financial Planning
We offer three tiers of planning. The fee charged is based on the value we can provide where the value will be some multiple of the fee. For example, if we calculate that our Gold tier will provide $28,000 of value, we may price it at $2,300. The typical total fee for the first year ranges from $3,800 to $1,200. Fees below are examples, and we offer standard pricing or annual pricing.
Planning Areas
- Collect and organize financial life
- Secure and convenient cloud storage to digitize and declutter
- Employer benefits review and strategies
- Identify opportunities to reduce costs and save more
- Create strategies to automate savings and contributions
- Create strategies for assets and debts
- Education on what you need to know about investing
- Learn a principle-based investment strategy
- Create an Investment Plan for all accounts
- Calculate your actual need for insurance
- Evaluate current insurance for best value
- Recommend better value if applicable
Service Model
- 3-5 initial meetings to create and implement the plan
- Number of meetings depends on complexity and how far we get in each meeting
- All recommendations are on one page
- Action steps to improve your financial life
- Call or email about any question any time
- Ask about any topic included in your plan
- Never “on the clock”
- Meetings each spring
- Review past year and plan current
- Make adjustments as needed
- Hit tax day deadlines
Add-On Services
- Open and coordinate various accounts
- Choose & manage investments
- Fee as a percentage of assets
- See Investments for more detail
- Term Life Insurance
- Disability Income Insurance
- Home & Auto Insurance (through external broker)
- Long-Term Care Insurance
- Commissions are paid to Firm
- See Insurance for more detail
- Prepare and file Federal & State Income Taxes
- Fee based on complexity: $130 – $440 at tax time
- See Tax Prep for more detail
- Required documents to complete your Estate Plan
- Last Will & Testament
- Living Trust
- Health Directive
- Power of Attorney
- TOD Deed
- Notary services for completion
- No legal advice given or included
- $45 – $145/m for 12 months, depending on complexity
Planning Areas
- Gold Plan includes all areas in Silver Plan plus the following:
- Review prior year returns for errors and opportunities
- Evaluate current and projected tax liabilities
- Create strategy to minimize lifetime taxes
- Calculate retirement capital requirement
- Calculate amount needed to save to reach requirement
- Create strategy to save enough into the best accounts
- Calculate retirement capital requirement
- Calculate amount needed to save to reach requirement
- Create strategy to save enough into the best accounts
- Plan when to take Social Security for optimal results
- Create initial plan for 3D Retirement Income
- Create Three Dimensional Retirement Income Plan
- Duration – Income that will last longer than you will
- Direction – Income that will grow faster than the cost of living
- Deviation – Income that can flex with unknowns of the future
- Evaluate and optimize Medicare options
- Plan Social Security (if not already taken)
- Education on estate planning and what is required
- Beneficiary and Transfer on Death alignment
- Discounted access to Estate Documents services
Service Model
- Gold Plan includes everything in Silver Plan plus the following:
- Additional meeting in the fall to review progress, stay on track, and make adjustments
- Complete year end tax planning opportunities
- Schedule a meeting whenever you need for any reason
- Almost inevitably something comes up during the year
- We complete your Financial Profile in Right Capital
- Utilize planning features to calculation and illustrate planning strategies
- Project the future consequences of current decisions for greater confidence
Add-On Services
- Open and coordinate various accounts
- Choose & manage investments
- Fee as a percentage of assets
- See Investments for more detail
- Term Life Insurance
- Disability Income Insurance
- Home & Auto Insurance (through external broker)
- Long-Term Care Insurance
- Commissions are paid to Firm
- See Insurance for more detail
- Prepare and file Federal & State Income Taxes
- Fee based on complexity: $130 – $440 at tax time
- See Tax Prep for more detail
- Required documents to complete your Estate Plan
- Last Will & Testament
- Living Trust
- Health Directive
- Power of Attorney
- TOD Deed
- Notary services for completion
- No legal advice given or included
- $25 – $125/m for 12 months, depending on complexity
Planning Areas
- Platinum Plan includes all areas in Gold and Silver Plans.
- Because Gold covers all areas of planning, Platinum offers additional benefits other than additional areas
- We are more involved and perform more tasks for you
- Tax Prep is included at no extra cost
- Estate Documents are included at no extra cost
- Greater access to our team
Service Model
- Platinum Plan includes everything in Gold and Silver Plans plus the following:
- Monthly check-in and offer of phone or in person meeting
- Stay on track with closer partnership
- We run the math on decisions as they arise throughout the year
- Make better decisions without the work
- Coordinate with Family Members directly on estate planning
- Access for adult children to complete their financial plan
Add-On Services
- Open and coordinate various accounts
- Choose & manage investments
- Fee as a percentage of assets
- See Investments for more detail
- Term Life Insurance
- Disability Income Insurance
- Home & Auto Insurance (through external broker)
- Long-Term Care Insurance
- Commissions are paid to Firm
- See Insurance for more detail
- Prepare and file Federal & State Income Taxes
- No additional cost
- See Tax Prep for more detail
- Required documents to complete your Estate Plan
- Last Will & Testament
- Living Trust
- Health Directive
- Power of Attorney
- TOD Deed
- Notary services for completion
- No legal advice given or included
- See Estate Planning & Documents for more details
- No additional cost
Planning Areas
- Collect and organize financial life
- Secure and convenient cloud storage to digitize and declutter
- Employer benefits review and strategies
- Identify opportunities to reduce costs and save more
- Create strategies to automate savings and contributions
- Create strategies for assets and debts
- Education on what you need to know about investing
- Learn a principle-based investment strategy
- Create an Investment Plan for all accounts
- Calculate your actual need for insurance
- Evaluate current insurance for best value
- Recommend better value if applicable
Service Model
- 3-5 initial meetings to create and implement the plan
- Number of meetings depends on complexity and how far we get in each meeting
- All recommendations are on one page
- Action steps to improve your financial life
- Call or email about any question any time
- Ask about any topic included in your plan
- Never “on the clock”
- Meetings each spring
- Review past year and plan current
- Make adjustments as needed
- Hit tax day deadlines
Add-On Services
- Open and coordinate various accounts
- Choose & manage investments
- Fee as a percentage of assets
- See Investments for more detail
- Term Life Insurance
- Disability Income Insurance
- Home & Auto Insurance (through external broker)
- Long-Term Care Insurance
- Commissions are paid to Firm
- See Insurance for more detail
- Prepare and file Federal & State Income Taxes
- Fee based on complexity: $130 – $440 at tax time
- See Tax Prep for more detail
- Required documents to complete your Estate Plan
- Last Will & Testament
- Living Trust
- Health Directive
- Power of Attorney
- TOD Deed
- Notary services for completion
- No legal advice given or included
- $540 – $1,740 depending on complexity
Planning Areas
- Gold Plan includes all areas in Silver Plan plus the following:
- Review prior year returns for errors and opportunities
- Evaluate current and projected tax liabilities
- Create strategy to minimize lifetime taxes
- Calculate retirement capital requirement
- Calculate amount needed to save to reach requirement
- Create strategy to save enough into the best accounts
- Calculate retirement capital requirement
- Calculate amount needed to save to reach requirement
- Create strategy to save enough into the best accounts
- Plan when to take Social Security for optimal results
- Create initial plan for 3D Retirement Income
- Create Three Dimensional Retirement Income Plan
- Duration – Income that will last longer than you will
- Direction – Income that will grow faster than the cost of living
- Deviation – Income that can flex with unknowns of the future
- Evaluate and optimize Medicare options
- Plan Social Security (if not already taken)
- Education on estate planning and what is required
- Beneficiary and Transfer on Death alignment
- Discounted access to Estate Documents services
Service Model
- Gold Plan includes everything in Silver Plan plus the following:
- Additional meeting in the fall to review progress, stay on track, and make adjustments
- Complete year end tax planning opportunities
- Schedule a meeting whenever you need for any reason
- Almost inevitably something comes up during the year
- We complete your Financial Profile in Right Capital
- Utilize planning features to calculation and illustrate planning strategies
- Project the future consequences of current decisions for greater confidence
Add-On Services
- Open and coordinate various accounts
- Choose & manage investments
- Fee as a percentage of assets
- See Investments for more detail
- Term Life Insurance
- Disability Income Insurance
- Home & Auto Insurance (through external broker)
- Long-Term Care Insurance
- Commissions are paid to Firm
- See Insurance for more detail
- Prepare and file Federal & State Income Taxes
- Fee based on complexity: $130 – $440 at tax time
- See Tax Prep for more detail
- Required documents to complete your Estate Plan
- Last Will & Testament
- Living Trust
- Health Directive
- Power of Attorney
- TOD Deed
- Notary services for completion
- No legal advice given or included
- $300 – $1,500 depending on complexity
Planning Areas
- Platinum Plan includes all areas in Gold and Silver Plans.
- Because Gold covers all areas of planning, Platinum offers additional benefits other than additional areas
- We are more involved and perform more tasks for you
- Tax Prep is included at no extra cost
- Estate Documents are included at no extra cost
- Greater access to our team
Service Model
- Platinum Plan includes everything in Gold and Silver Plans plus the following:
- Monthly check-in and offer of phone or in person meeting
- Stay on track with closer partnership
- We run the math on decisions as they arise throughout the year
- Make better decisions without the work
- Coordinate with Family Members directly on estate planning
- Access for adult children to complete their financial plan
Add-On Services
- Open and coordinate various accounts
- Choose & manage investments
- Fee as a percentage of assets
- See Investments for more detail
- Term Life Insurance
- Disability Income Insurance
- Home & Auto Insurance (through external broker)
- Long-Term Care Insurance
- Commissions are paid to Firm
- See Insurance for more detail
- Prepare and file Federal & State Income Taxes
- No additional cost
- See Tax Prep for more detail
- Required documents to complete your Estate Plan
- Last Will & Testament
- Living Trust
- Health Directive
- Power of Attorney
- TOD Deed
- Notary services for completion
- No legal advice given or included
- See Estate Planning & Documents for more details
- No additional cost
We charge a fee to compensate us for the value we provide. It enabled us to provide unbiased advice and planning across your entire financial life. We do not need to sell you something to get paid, and it allows us to focus on areas of finance that get neglected by other financial advisor models. Moreover, charging a financial planning fee makes us a fiduciary on your entire financial picture, not only on your investments.
A fiduciary is one who is held to the Fiduciary Standard, meaning they act in the client’s best interest. Anyone who charges a fee for advice is held by law to the Fiduciary Standard, and may only recommend strategies/products that are in the client’s best interest.
Those who don’t charge a fee are held to the Suitability Standard, meaning they may recommend something as long as it is suitable for the client. It does NOT have to be in the client’s best interest.
Good observation. Let’s look at an example. Financial Rep Ron has two options to help a client. Option A is best for the client, helping the most. Option B is still good for the client, but not nearly as helpful. But, Option B pays Ron 20% more than Option A. Under the suitability standard, Ron can still recommend Option B, which pays him more but is worse for the client, because it is still “suitable” for the client.
In our opinion, it is unwise to work with someone who is not held to the Fiduciary Standard across all areas they are giving advice on.
Firms/Advisors must act in the best interest of their clients on all topics they are charging a fee-for-advice, but only on those topics. It is fairly common for firms/advisors to charge a fee on their investment advice, which makes them a fiduciary on that advice, but not on other areas. It is common, for example, for an advisor to give fiduciary investment advice, and suitable insurance advice. We are a fiduciary across ALL areas of your finances.
No one works for free. If they are not charging their clients a fee directly, they are getting paid through hidden fees and commissions. They are allowed to recommend whatever they want, even if it is not in their clients’ best interest. The true cost of “free” advice is often much higher.
Note: If you are already working with a “free” “advisor,” and our fee is the stumbling block, we would invite you to allow us to show you what you are truly paying in hidden fees, costs, and commissions.
We use a Value-Based Fee for the Financial Planning. It is calculated by how much value we believe we can provide you. This is only fair way to do it. We wouldn’t want to charge you $900 and then only provide $400 worth of value. On the flip side, you wouldn’t complain about a $4,000 fee if we provided $21,000 of value.
We offer three plans at three price points, as well as standard and annual options payment options. Scroll back up for our plan options, as well as an example of what a fee might be.
We prefer an ongoing planning relationship. The full value of planning is realized over time in the achievement of your goals. Life also changes, and plans must change with them.
We charge up-front because there will be some aspects of the plan that provide the most value at the beginning. We also find clients to be more committed when they’ve invested money into the plan. We charge monthly to:
- Keep the up-front amount low enough to be immediately affordable (the value will always be more than the fee, but sometimes the value is delayed).
- Incentivize clients to take advantage of the planning and advice throughout the year and reach out with questions or concerns that arise.
- Make it easy to continue with the relationship after the first year. The monthly fee is for 12 months as part of the original fee. If the client finds the relationship valuable and can see the ongoing value of continuing it beyond 12 months they can simply continue paying the fee.
For those that prefer, we also offer an annual option. There is no discount for paying annually, but for some there is a convenience.
We are “Fee-Based”. We are a Comprehensive Financial Planning Firm and a Full Service Implementation Firm. Two sides of the same coin. Planning is useless without action, and action without a plan is dangerous. While the vast majority of what we do is for a fee (planning, investment advisory, tax prep, estate planning, etc), we also offer term life, disability income, and long-term care insurance. ALL insurances only pay commissions, not fees. No matter where you get your insurance, the cost to the client is the same. The only variance is where the commission is getting paid. Because LaxFP as a firm receives insurance commission for the placement of insurance products, we are not “fee-only” by the technical definition.
Yes, it does. Conflicts of interest are always present any time different recommendations result in different compensation. We take conflict of interest seriously, and we use two methods to mitigate the inherent conflicts of interest regarding insurance commissions.
- We recommend insurance for those who have already paid a fee for insurance advice (it is part of all plan options). This makes us a fiduciary on insurance recommendations, and we can only recommend what’s in the client’s best interest, even if it has a lower commission or means recommending no insurance.
- All commissions are paid to the firm, not to the individual advisor. Advisors and Planners are paid salaries and do not directly benefit by higher insurance commissions.
We have considered it and have come to this conclusion: If we don’t offer it, then clients would need to get it elsewhere which creates two problems:
- The hassle of having to establish another relationship may delay or impair the clients completion of the recommendation.
- They will need to get it from someone who is not a fiduciary and may (eventually) try to sell them additional insurance they don’t need to earn the direct commissions.
We welcome clients to get their insurance from whomever they’d like. But for those who would like to avoid those two hurdles, we will continue to offer it.