We have an initial 90-120 minute meeting to get to know each other and begin discussing your money stories, goals and values, and financial pain points. If you have a partner, you may want them to participate in this initial meeting, but if disagreement about money with your partner is a pain point you may want to share your perspectives solo to start. (Hourly rate)

I use eMoney Advisor to provide best-in-class information exchange and financial plan modeling for my clients. Your private client website on the eMoney platform is complementary as part of our professional relationship, and enables us to easily, efficiently, and securely exchange information. You will receive an email inviting you to set up your private website where you can link financial accounts, enter important information about yourself and your loved ones, and upload important documents. Later in the process, you will also be able to use this website to track your financial health and progress towards goals.

If you would like help setting up your private client website, we can schedule a meeting for me to guide you through the process with Zoom screen-sharing or in person. Meetings to get your website set up or negotiate the roadmap (next step) will be charged at my hourly rate, but credited towards my flat fee for your initial financial plan.

Based on our initial discussions, I will prepare a proposed roadmap for working together, which may include preparing a comprehensive financial plan or more limited-scope financial advice, additional meetings before written recommendations are presented, a list of information and documents you will need to provide me before I can prepare written recommendations, a regular schedule of meetings for coaching and accountability, and a plan for staging topics of discussion and recommendations if there is too much to address at once. Everything in the roadmap is open to discussion, clarification, and negotiation.

After we reach agreement on the roadmap, I will send you a written version for your approval and signature. When I receive your signed agreement and the initial payment we have agreed upon, we will have an established client-advisory relationship, and I will have a fiduciary duty to exercise care, skill, prudence, diligence, and loyalty. At all times I owe you the duty of confidentiality and following your instructions.

We will likely have some additional meetings to schedule included in our agreement. These might be to meet with your partner (if they did not come to the initial meeting), or with elderly parent(s) or adult children, or to dig into detail on your budget together, or have some one-on-one financial education or coaching. I charge the usual hourly meeting fee for these when they occur.

After I have received and analyzed all the information I need to provide the financial advice or planning we agreed upon, I will schedule a meeting with you to review the written recommendations. You can invite other people to this meeting if you like. The balance of any flat fee we have agreed upon will be due upon receipt of these recommendations.

If you would like to get additional advice building upon my written recommendations, such as analysis of alternative scenarios or additional topics of interest, we will negotiate an addendum to our original agreement to cover the additional time and work involved.

We will schedule periodic meetings to check in on your progress towards your goals, address life changes, or continue to work on your knowledge and narratives around money. This may be as often as monthly if you are looking for substantial accountability and coaching, or as seldom as annually if you feel like you have things handled well on your own. These will be charged at the usual hourly rate and can be rescheduled or discontinued at any time, subject to a $150 fee for less than 72 hours’ notice.