A flat-fee financial advisor charges you one set price for planning, the same way your accountant or attorney does. The price doesn't go up because your accounts went up. You know what you're paying before you start, and it's the same number next year.
That sounds obvious. In this industry, it's not.
Most advisors charge a percentage of your investments every year, usually around 1%. It's called assets under management, or AUM. On a $1 million portfolio, that's about $10,000 a year, and it keeps climbing as your money grows. The other part of that is you rarely see the bill. It comes straight out of your account every quarter, so it never feels like you wrote a check.
Here's the deal with 1%. Over 20 years on a million bucks, that's somewhere around $300,000 to $400,000 that went to fees instead of staying in your snowball. Every time the account rolls over, a chunk gets shaved off, and that compounds decade after decade.
Run your own numbers at 1percentfee.comAnd so here's the part people don't think about. When an advisor gets paid on your balance, it's in their best interest to keep your balance big. Pay off the house? That shrinks the account. Take Social Security early so you pull less from investments? Also shrinks the account. Those might be exactly the right moves for you, but the advisor's paycheck is quietly voting the other way.
With a flat fee, none of that is in the room. Our recommendation is the same whether your money is in the market, in your mortgage, or in a boat. It's your decision; our job is to help you make it with your eyes open.
You'll see both terms, and they get mixed up. Fee-only means the advisor earns nothing from selling products: no commissions, no kickbacks. That's good, and we're fee-only. But a fee-only advisor can still charge 1% of your assets. Flat-fee goes one step further: fee-only, and the price is a fixed dollar amount. That's what we do.
At Ignite, comprehensive planning is $12,000 a year for a couple, or $1,000 a month. That covers the whole puzzle: a custom allocation, tax planning and multi-year Roth conversion work, Social Security timing, retirement income guardrails, insurance and estate review, and the ability to call us anytime. Compared to 1% on a $1.5 million household, that's roughly $3,000 a year less today, and the gap gets bigger every year your money grows.
We also have a $6,500 a year option for households between $500,000 and $1 million, and one-time plans if you'd rather have a roadmap and drive it yourself.
See all of our services and feesFlat-fee makes the most sense once you've built up some real savings, roughly $500,000 and up. Below that, a flat fee can be too big a bite, and we'll tell you so. It makes the most sense of all if you're within about five years of retirement. That's when the tax decisions are biggest, and when a flat fee for the next 20 years beats a percentage for the next 20 years by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Just give us a holler. The first conversation is free, and there's no pitch at the end. We'll tell you plainly whether we're a fit and, if not, who might be.
Book a free intro call