Flat-Fee Financial Planning
You've drafted your plan. Now you want to harden it — and there's a last ten percent worth running past someone who's built hundreds of retirement plans.
A flat-fee financial advisor charges a fixed price for a defined piece of work, and the fee isn't tied to how much money you have. Ours is $4,500.
Already working with an advisor? What you probably want is a comparison, not a plan — here's what that looks like. It costs nothing to start.
What you actually get out of it
A number you can spend. Not a range, not "you're on track" — an actual figure, with the tradeoffs behind it. Most people have never been told what they're allowed to spend. It changes how you plan a year.
Permission to put the cash to work. You've probably got more sitting in cash than you'd rather admit. Usually that's not a strategy, it's the absence of one. Once the income floor is built, the rest can go to work.
What happens if the first five years go badly. Your spreadsheet probably uses an average return. Retirements don't. A bad opening stretch does damage a good average never undoes — and knowing you can absorb one is most of what makes spending feel safe.
A Social Security decision you can stop second-guessing. Claiming is mostly a survivor question, not a breakeven question. You'll see both scenarios side by side and be done deliberating.
A straight answer on the mortgage. Low rate, cash flow you'd rather have back — the math and the feeling point different directions. You'll see what paying it off actually costs you and what it buys.
A tax plan, not just a Roth conversion. Conversions get all the attention, and they're often the right place to start. But they're one lever. Which account you draw from first, when to take gains, how a withdrawal today shows up in your Medicare premium two years from now — the sequencing over twenty years matters more than any single move.
Whether you can help the kids now. You already know you're leaving them something. The question is whether you can afford to do it while you're around to watch it land.
What it costs, and what's in it
$4,500. Two meetings — 60 minutes to gather, 90 to walk through what we found — over about a month. Thirty days of email support afterward, and an optional third call if you want to talk something through once you've lived with it.
Retirement stress test. A sanity check on what you can sustainably spend — run against market shocks and a long-term care event, not just a smooth average.
Social Security and pension. When to claim, and how the pension decision interacts with it.
Tax strategy. Roth conversions are the starting point. We run your situation against a handful of strategies, including several that don't show up in the DIY playbook.
Portfolio analysis. What you're actually paying, how much risk you're carrying, and whether you're as diversified as you think. We'll also show you how your portfolio would have held up in 2008, the dot-com unwind, COVID, and 2022 — the year stocks and bonds fell together.
You'll leave with our recommendations and the reasoning behind them. Implementation stays with you. If you'd rather someone managed the portfolio, prepared the tax return and carried the plan forward year to year, our ongoing relationship is the better fit.
What happens after you book
A checklist, first. Account statements, recent tax returns, your Social Security estimate, pension paperwork. We send the full list at the start and help you track down anything you can't put your hands on.
Two meetings, about a month apart. Sixty minutes to gather, ninety to walk through what we found. Both work over video; if you're in the western suburbs we'd rather sit down together.
Thirty days of email support. Then an optional third call, if you want to talk something through once you've lived with it.
Who this is a good fit for
Someone who:
- manages their own investments, and intends to keep doing it
- is five years out from retirement or a few years into it
- has built something substantial and is capable of running it
- has two or three decisions in front of them where the stakes are high enough to want a second set of eyes
You want to be told what you're missing, not reassured that you're fine.
Who it isn't
Someone who wants Heritage to:
- manage the investments continuously
- prepare and file the tax return
- monitor the plan as things change
- handle implementation over time
A one-time plan will frustrate that person. That's what our ongoing relationship is for.
And if you're already working with an advisor and mainly want to know whether you're in the right place, this isn't the way to find out. Start here instead — that begins with a look at what you have now, and it's free.
Common questions
Do you manage my investments as part of this?
No. The plan tells you what to do with your portfolio and why. Executing it stays with you.
What if I want to keep working together afterward?
Some people do, and we welcome that conversation. But the one-time plan is self-contained — it isn't a trial run for something bigger. You get the whole engagement whether or not anything follows it.
What do I need to have ready?
The things you'd expect — account statements, recent tax returns, your Social Security estimate, pension paperwork. We'll send a full checklist at the start and help you track down anything you can't put your hands on.
Can we do this remotely?
Yes. Both meetings work fine over video and many of our flat-fee clients are outside Illinois. If you're in the western suburbs, we'd rather meet in person.
Is the fee negotiable?
No.
How is this different from a free consultation?
A consultation is a conversation. This is analysis — your actual numbers run through actual modeling, with decisions at the end. If you already have an advisor and want to know how your current arrangement stacks up, that's a different process — a couple of meetings comparing what you have now against what you'd get here. It doesn't cost anything, and it's the better starting point.