Planning

In the first year, we use two questionnaires to assess your needs in the areas of investments, retirement income (including social security), estate planning, life insurance, college funding, spending, debt management and budgeting. This important information will be updated in our annual face-to-face meeting. If an in-person meeting is not practical or requested by the client, this annual meeting can be done by phone or videoconference.

Tom doesn’t like bundled services, like cable TV, where you are forced to pay for many stations that you will never use, to get the few that your family wants to watch. Many advisers do something similar by bundling extensive financial planning services under their basic fee structure. Just like cable companies, they charge for access to some services that their clients may not use or want. Inevitably, some clients “underuse” their advisor (and overpay), while others “overuse” them (and underpay). Also, a given client may need a lot of planning time one year (underpaying for that year), while not needing nearly as much time the next (overpaying for that year). In our opinion, bundling is unfair, whether it is for cable TV or financial planning.

At EnGarde! Investing, the middle-class family’s normal investment planning and other financial planning needs will be covered under our basic discounted fee schedule. Only in those circumstances when we determine that more extensive planning is called for, and only if the client agrees and authorizes the work in writing, will we charge an additional fee. We customarily charge a flat fee of $150 or $300, depending on the service provided. In the unusual circumstance that even more extensive work is required, it is likely that we will refer the work out to another professional. At EnGarde! the customer always comes first. This is just one of several ways that we can offer a deeply-discounted fee schedule.