What it costs and what you get.
The whole fee schedule is on this page, with the arithmetic worked out. Nothing here requires a phone call to find out.
The Process
The planning process
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Conversation
Thirty minutes, no cost. I find out what you have and what you are trying to decide. You find out whether I am useful to you.
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Plan
I build a written plan around your income, taxes, Social Security, investments, account consolidation, estate coordination, and the questions that matter most to your retirement.
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Implementation
I help consolidate accounts, put the investment strategy in place, complete needed elections, and prepare you for conversations with an attorney or tax professional when appropriate.
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Ongoing
I review the plan with you each year, revisit tax planning opportunities, check beneficiaries, and adjust the plan as life changes.
Services
What’s included
Retirement income planning
I help you turn savings, Social Security, pensions, and retirement accounts into a practical income plan for the years ahead.
Tax planning
I look at withdrawal order, Roth conversions, required minimum distributions, and other decisions that can affect your lifetime tax picture.
Investments and account consolidation
Rolling the old employer plans in, closing what should be closed, and building one allocation sized to the income the plan says you need rather than to a risk questionnaire.
Estate and beneficiary coordination
Reviewing what your beneficiary designations actually say right now, which is often not what people remember setting, and writing out the questions worth taking to an estate attorney.
Planning for both of you
Every plan includes a separately modeled survivor scenario: what the income becomes, what the pension pays under the election you chose, and what the tax brackets do when the filing status changes. Both of you sit through it while both of you can still change the inputs. There is a worked example on the home page.
Fee schedule
One-time
Financial plan
$5,000 for most households
- Comprehensive written retirement plan
- Social Security timing analysis
- Tax strategy and Roth conversion planning
- Investment allocation recommendations
- Estate coordination overview
- You own the plan regardless of next steps
Fees range to $10,000 depending on scope. Your exact fee is agreed in writing before any work begins. Plans are delivered within 90 days.
Ongoing
Investment management
Tiered, declining as assets grow
| Assets | Annual rate |
|---|---|
| First $500,000 | 1.25% |
| $500,001 to $3,000,000 | 0.75% |
| Above $3,000,000 | 0.60% |
Each rate applies only to the assets within that tier. Billing begins the day assets arrive at Averton Wealth.
Working minimum: $250,000 in investable assets. There is no minimum for planning-only work.
In actual numbers
What that works out to.
Tiered pricing is easy to state and harder to picture. Two worked examples, so you can see the arithmetic rather than take my word for it.
Example one
A $750,000 portfolio
| First $500,000 at 1.25% | $6,250 |
| Next $250,000 at 0.75% | $1,875 |
| Total each year | $8,125 |
A blended rate of 1.08%.
Example two
A $1,500,000 portfolio
| First $500,000 at 1.25% | $6,250 |
| Next $1,000,000 at 0.75% | $7,500 |
| Total each year | $13,750 |
A blended rate of 0.92%.
Questions about the fees
How much does a financial plan cost?
$5,000 for most households, up to $10,000 depending on scope. The fee is agreed in writing before any work begins, so there is no version of this where the number moves after you have committed. Plans are delivered within 90 days, and you own the document regardless of what you decide to do next.
Scope drivers are usually a business, rental property, equity compensation, a complicated estate situation, or more than about six accounts to untangle. If your situation is straightforward, the fee is $5,000 and I will tell you so on the first call rather than after a discovery process.
Do you have an asset minimum?
$250,000 in investable assets for ongoing investment management. There is no minimum at all for planning-only work. If you are below $250,000 and want ongoing management, I will tell you that the fee is not worth what you would get and point you toward something more suitable.
The reason for a minimum is arithmetic rather than preference. At smaller balances the annual fee is either too small to fund real ongoing work or too large a share of the portfolio to be defensible. A one-time plan does not have that problem, which is why that side has no minimum.
How do you get paid?
Two ways only: the flat planning fee and the tiered percentage on assets under management. No commissions, no revenue sharing, no proprietary funds, no insurance appointments, and no referral fees from attorneys or CPAs. Nobody other than you pays me anything.
Advisory fees are billed from the account at Charles Schwab, which is also where your assets are held. I never take custody of your money.
Can I hire you for the plan without the investment management?
Yes, and a meaningful share of people should. You own the written plan regardless of what happens next. If the right answer is to implement it yourself, or to keep the advisor you already have, that is a legitimate outcome and it happens.
Some people come back a year or three later once something has changed. Some never do. Neither one changes the work I do on the plan itself.
What is the effective fee on a typical portfolio?
Because the tiers are marginal rather than flat, the effective rate falls as the balance rises. A $750,000 portfolio costs $8,125 a year, a blended rate of 1.08%. A $1,500,000 portfolio costs $13,750, a blended rate of 0.92%. The arithmetic for both is shown above.
Who this works for, and who it doesn’t
The minimum for ongoing investment management is $250,000 in investable assets. Below that the fee stops being worth what you get out of it, and I would rather say so than take the account.
Planning-only work has no minimum. If you have one pension election to get right and $90,000 in a 403(b), a $5,000 plan may be the correct and final purchase.
This is a bad fit if you want someone to pick individual stocks, trade around the news, or countersign a decision you have already made. Most of what I am worth shows up in the two years before a decision and the twenty after it, not in the week you make it.
Two places to start: retirement transition planning, or planning after a spouse dies.
Let’s Talk
Questions about any of this?
Ask them on a free thirty-minute call. If the numbers on this page don’t work for your situation, I’d rather we both found that out early.
Schedule a free conversation