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Financial planning

Fee-only financial planning, priced in dollars before you start

Comprehensive planning means one document that connects your cash flow, taxes, retirement date, insurance and estate paperwork, built by someone paid only by you. We quote it in dollars per year, not in percentages you have to translate.

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Fee-only advice, no product commissions Advice through a registered investment adviser Flat and hourly options available

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Financial planning is the part most people skip because it does not come in a product wrapper. A plan is not a portfolio: it is the set of decisions that determine whether the portfolio matters. When do you stop working. Which account do you spend first. How much of your traditional IRA should you convert this year, and what does that do to your Medicare premium two years from now. Who gets what if you die tomorrow, and does the beneficiary form agree with the will.

Those decisions are worth real money and they interact. In 2026 you can defer $24,500 to a 401(k), plus an $8,000 catch-up at 50 or older for a $32,500 total, and ages 60 through 63 get an $11,250 catch-up instead of $8,000 (IRS). A married couple with $40,000 of retirement income can convert roughly $93,000 of IRA money and still stay inside the 12% bracket, because the 2026 joint standard deduction is $32,200 and the 12% bracket runs to $100,800 of taxable income (IRS). Delaying Social Security past full retirement age adds 8% a year to the benefit for anyone born in 1943 or later (SSA). None of that requires buying anything.

Fee-only means we are paid by clients and nobody else: no commissions, no 12b-1 trails, no revenue sharing. That matters because cost is the one variable you fully control. Kitces Research, summarizing survey data from nearly 1,000 advisors, found median all-in costs of about 1.65% a year for advised portfolios up to $1 million, of which roughly 0.65% comes from fund expense ratios, trading and platform fees rather than the advisory fee itself (Kitces.com). We would rather show you that number and cut it than talk around it.

PolicySherpas advisory services are offered through a registered investment adviser, and nothing on this page is individualized investment, tax, or legal advice.

Planning areas

Six places a plan earns its fee

Most households need three or four of these at once, which is exactly why piecemeal advice underperforms a single coordinated plan.

Core

Retirement income planning

Withdrawal order, cash buffers and a guaranteed floor, sized against a 3.9% starting withdrawal rate.

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Tax

Tax-efficient investing

Asset location across taxable, traditional and Roth accounts, plus loss harvesting worth real basis points.

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Estate planning basics

Wills, revocable trusts, powers of attorney and the beneficiary forms that override all of them.

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College savings planning

529 funding levels, financial-aid treatment and what to do with leftover balances.

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Owners

Small business owner planning

Entity and payroll design, solo 401(k) and SEP choices, buy-sell funding and succession.

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401(k) rollovers

Whether to move an old plan at all, and how to avoid a withholding mistake that costs 20%.

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What it costs

What planning engagements cost by model

Benchmarks drawn from Kitces Research and the FPA survey data it cites. Our own quotes sit inside these ranges and are given in dollars before you engage.

ModelTypical priceBest fitWatch out for
One-time comprehensive plan$2,400 median, $1,800 to $5,000 rangeA clear decision point: retirement date, business sale, inheritanceA plan with no implementation help attached
Modular plan, one topic$850 median, $550 to $1,000A single question such as claiming age or a conversionScope creep into unrelated advice
Hourly$220 to $240 an hour medianConfident do-it-yourself investors wanting reviewOpen-ended hours with no estimate
Ongoing retainer, planning only$2,400 to $5,000 a yearComplex cash flow, equity compensation, business incomeRetainers that quietly scale with income
Assets under management1.00% to $1M, 0.85% over $1M, 0.50% over $5MHouseholds wanting implementation and rebalancing done for themBlended rates above the tier you were quoted
All-in cost including funds1.65% up to $1M, 1.50% over $1M, 1.20% over $5MThe only number worth comparing across firmsFund expense ratios above 0.20% when index options exist

Fee benchmarks from Kitces Research and the SEC fee disclosures cited below, current as of August 2026. Our fees are disclosed in Item 5 of our Form ADV Part 2A brochure. Availability and pricing vary by state and complexity.

Rating factors

Seven signs you are getting planning, not a pitch

Use this list on us and on every other firm you interview. Real planning leaves an audit trail of numbers; sales leaves an illustration.

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  • A written fee in dollars. Not a percentage you have to convert, and inclusive of fund and platform costs.
  • Tax projections, not tax talk. A plan should name your bracket, the top of it, and the dollar amount of any conversion.
  • IRMAA in the model. Medicare surcharges start above $109,000 single or $218,000 joint MAGI in 2026, and the look-back is two years.
  • A survivor scenario. The single-filer brackets a widow or widower faces change every conclusion in the plan.
  • Insurance sized, then shopped. Coverage amounts come from the plan; the policy comes from a separate competitive quote.
  • Beneficiary and titling review. Forms beat wills, and stale forms are the most common expensive error we find.
  • A written implementation list. Dated actions with an owner for each, not a 60-page bound document nobody opens twice.

What a comprehensive plan actually contains

A plan that deserves the word comprehensive answers six questions with numbers attached.

  • Can I retire, and when? A target portfolio built from your spending, not from a generic multiple. Morningstar puts the safe starting withdrawal rate for a new 30-year retirement at 3.9% with a 90% success rate, which is roughly 25.6 times the spending your portfolio must cover.
  • What order do I spend accounts in? Taxable first, traditional next, Roth last is a default, not a rule. The right order depends on brackets, IRMAA and heirs.
  • How much tax can I prepay cheaply? Conversion planning inside a bracket, using the window between your last paycheck and required distributions at age 73.
  • What breaks the plan? Long-term care, an early death, a disability, a 40% market drop in year two of retirement. Each gets a funded answer.
  • Am I over or under insured? Life, disability, umbrella and property limits checked against the balance sheet the plan just built.
  • Who decides if I cannot? Powers of attorney, health care directives, trustee and beneficiary designations, all cross-checked.

Notice how much of that has nothing to do with fund selection. Our retirement number guide shows the arithmetic behind the first question with three worked examples, and Roth conversion basics covers the third with 2026 brackets and Medicare thresholds.

How our planning engagements run

Four meetings over roughly six weeks, then an annual cycle.

StageWhat happensWhat you receive
1. DiscoveryGoals, deadlines, cash flow, documents and the two or three things keeping you up at nightA written scope and a fixed fee quote
2. AnalysisRetirement projection, tax projection, insurance audit, estate document reviewDraft findings with the assumptions listed
3. RecommendationsOptions with tradeoffs, not a single prescriptionA dated action list with owners
4. ImplementationAccount moves, beneficiary updates, coverage shopped competitivelyConfirmation of each completed action
Annual reviewReproject with actual numbers, resize conversions, re-shop insuranceUpdated plan and a fresh action list

How we are paid. Advisory services are offered through a registered investment adviser and billed as a flat planning fee, an hourly rate, or a disclosed percentage of assets we manage. Insurance placed through PolicySherpas pays a commission from the carrier, which we disclose in writing before you apply, and never as a condition of the planning engagement.

Who benefits most, and who should wait

Strong fit: anyone within ten years of retirement, households with more than one income source or equity compensation, business owners, recent inheritors, newly single people after divorce or a death, and anyone holding more than about $400,000 in pretax retirement accounts, because that balance grows into a required distribution problem.

Wait, or start smaller: if you carry credit card debt, have no emergency reserve, or have never used your employer match, the first $500 of value is free and does not need us. Fund the match, build one month of expenses, then buy a modular plan for a single question rather than a comprehensive engagement.

Households above roughly $500,000 in investable assets usually need the coordination described on our wealth management page instead, where portfolio construction, asset location and estate work run continuously rather than once a year.

Sources & further reading

  1. IRS — 401(k) limit increases to $24,500 for 2026; IRA limit increases to $7,500
  2. IRS — Tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2026
  3. Kitces.com — How Much Does A Comprehensive Financial Plan Actually Cost?
  4. Kitces.com — Independent Financial Advisor Fee Comparison: All-In Costs
  5. Morningstar — What's a Safe Retirement Withdrawal Rate for 2026?
  6. SSA — Delayed Retirement Credits
  7. CMS — 2026 Medicare Parts A & B Premiums and Deductibles

Learn first, buy second

Guides for planning clients

Calculator

How much do I need to retire?

Withdrawal rates, replacement ratios and three worked examples at different income levels.

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Costs

Financial advisor fees explained

AUM tiers, all-in costs and what one percentage point does over 30 years.

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Checklist

How to choose a financial advisor

Fiduciary standards, credentials, Form ADV and BrokerCheck, plus 12 questions.

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Questions

Frequently asked questions

What does a comprehensive financial plan cost?

Kitces Research puts the median standalone comprehensive plan near $2,400, with modular single-topic plans around $850 and hourly work at $220 to $240 an hour. Ongoing planning retainers run about $2,400 to $5,000 a year. We quote a fixed dollar fee after the discovery meeting, before any work begins.

What is the difference between fee-only and fee-based?

Fee-only firms are paid by clients only: flat fees, hourly rates or a percentage of managed assets. Fee-based firms take client fees plus commissions or third-party payments. Our advice is fee-only. If we place insurance for you, the carrier pays a commission on that policy and we disclose it in writing before you apply.

Do I need a planner if I already index my portfolio?

Often yes, but for the decisions rather than the funds. Withdrawal sequencing, conversion sizing inside a bracket, Social Security timing worth 8% a year of extra benefit after full retirement age, IRMAA avoidance and beneficiary structure are where advised and unadvised households diverge. Indexing well already solves the part most people worry about.

How is planning different from wealth management?

Planning produces decisions and a written action list; wealth management runs the portfolio and the tax coordination continuously. Many households buy planning first, implement themselves for a few years, then move to ongoing management when the balance sheet gets complicated enough that quarterly attention pays for itself.

Will you work with my CPA and attorney?

Yes, and a plan is weaker without them. We prepare the tax projections your CPA can check before December, and flag document changes for your attorney, such as trust funding gaps or an outdated power of attorney. We do not prepare tax returns or draft legal documents.

How often should a plan be updated?

Annually, plus any time something structural changes: a job change, a business sale, an inheritance, a death, a divorce, a move to another state, or a retirement date shifting by more than a year. Tax figures also move every year, so a plan built on 2024 brackets is already using the wrong numbers.

Start with a scope and a price, not a sales meeting

Tell us the decision you are facing. You will get a written scope, a fixed fee in dollars, and our Form ADV brochure before you commit to anything.

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