We are one of only a few Fee Only Certified Financial Planners in the area

Only approximately 1% of financial planners are compensated directly and only from their clients, or can be considered "fee only." Clients often say they love the fact that we sit on their side of the table. We are FEE ONLY Advisors (NOT to be confused with "fee based", which is a combination of fees and commissions.) We believe it's only fair that clients know exactly what price they are paying, so they can then decide if it matches the value they feel they are receiving.

We offer different levels of services for different client needs. We don't think you have to "meet a minimum" in order to benefit from good financial planning.

While we can provide "do it yourselfers" with a complete financial plan, we find that most of our clients prefer to retain us throughout the year. They know that their financial lives are constantly evolving and like the idea that objective advice is always just a phone call or email away.

We view financial planning as an interactive, ongoing and progressive event in which we feel very privileged to partner with clients in defining, and then accomplishing their own, and often very personal, life dreams.

We understand that if you do what everyone else does, you won't end up being financially independent. (Or else most people would be financially independent!) We understand that financial planning is more than purely an intellectual process.

I know that I work differently than many other planners. When I first meet with a client, I tell them that I am going to help them figure out what their ideal calendar looks like, and then put it on paper and develop a written time line and action plan to get them from where they are now, to the actual living of their ideal calendar.

We not only help you meet your financial goals, but go way beyond the financial goals to help you figure out what is your very best end in mind and then help you to achieve it. After all, usually financial goals are mere tools that people use to realize their dreams. We start with setting some goals along with realistic steps that we can work to accomplish in the next 90 days, 6 months and 1 year to move toward reaching the exciting and big goals.

I also understand that many financial decisions are made emotionally. While I know this will always be the case, I want you to be aware when your decisions might be emotionally based. I believe that many times the biggest determining factors in your financial life isn't the rate of inflation or how well Large Cap Growth Funds perform, but how you handle your fear and greed with regards to your financial decisions.

We aren't going to try to sell you anything. You are paying us for objective advice.

We respect that you are intelligent and need objective advice. We want you to become educated and feel confident in making financial decisions.

We ask you a lot of questions. We want to do a complete job.

If a job is worth doing…. it's worth doing right. And for us, that means a complete, comprehensive review of your financial assets and integrating all the pieces together. We include everything from helping you understand your credit score, to teaching you how to pick a good mutual fund, to which retirement plan you should fund first. We also include tax planning and preparation because we know that without reducing the amount you owe in taxes, the road to financial independence is much longer. We find that the most successful and effective plans are those where everything is working together toward one common goal. Goals are reached much faster when ALL pieces of the train are all running on the same track.

We only work with clients we like.

As you begin your search for a "wealth coach, " our advice would be to look for traits we look for when deciding which clients we want to work with:

1) Do you like them?

2) Do you respect them? What are their credentials? Do they hold the CFP® license? In your initial client meeting, were your questions answered in a way you could understand? Did the CFP® seem to have a solid grasp of your overall financial issues (investment choices, tax code, estate planning laws, etc.)?

3) Do you trust them? Are there inherent conflicts of interest built into the relationship? (i.e. part of you thinks their recommendation makes sense, but the other part of you is questioning whether this is truly the best recommendation for you…. or if it is one whereby they earn the highest commission?) Do they always disclose in dollar terms how much they are paid when you choose one of their recommendations? When they refer someone to you, does that person give them a referral fee? Did the person who referred you to the planner get a referral fee?

We want your feedback. Always. Good or Bad.

We periodically hire a third party to survey all clients so that we can continuously use their feedback to improve our services. It's because of this feedback, that we learned that instead of long, complicated reports, you want to know "how am I doing in reaching MY goals?" And so, that's the progress we help you monitor. Clients have also praised our open retainer, stating that they have "peace of mind" knowing we are "always in their corner."

We want you to be part of the process.

We have structured our meetings so that we are able to accomplish as much as possible while you are with us. We understand that we could take all your information and then just produce a "black box" financial plan for you, but we feel it is important that you are part of the process. By participating in the process, you not only learn a great deal, but you also share ownership in the plan's design.

Our Fee Structure.

Our fees are based upon a clients investment assets and the complexity of their situation.