How we work
How a plan gets written, in six steps
From the first conversation to the questions afterwards: what happens at each step, what is asked of you, and when.
AI-generated illustration. Not a real home or business.
How we work
Six steps, from a conversation to a plan
Nothing is billed before the second step is signed, and nothing is asked of you before the third.
A first meeting
About forty-five minutes, at the office or by video: what is on your mind, what a plan would cover, and its published fee. No advice, nothing to sign.
A written agreement
Before any paid work there is a written agreement: what the plan or the hours will cover and what they won't, the fee in dollars, when it is billed, and how either of us can end it. Nothing is billed before you sign.
Gathering what the plan needs
A short questionnaire and only the documents the plan will use, returned when it is done.
The written plan
A written plan is a short document in plain words: what you told us matters most, what you have and owe, the decisions in front of you in the order they should be made, and who makes each one: you, your employer's benefits office, your CPA or your attorney. Every assumption it makes is written down and labeled as one.
Going through it together
A meeting to read the plan with you, change what doesn't fit and agree the first steps. You act on it in your own accounts.
Afterwards
Sixty days of questions by e-mail are part of every written plan; after that, questions by the hour or a year of planning, if you want either.
What is asked of you, and when
Bring nothing to a first meeting but your questions. Documents are gathered only if you decide to have a plan written, and then only the ones the plan needs.
The questionnaire comes after the agreement, not before it, so nothing about your money is asked until you have decided to have a plan written and know what it will cost.
Owen Kearney-Abara gathers the documents a plan needs and prepares its first draft for a planner. He asks only for the documents a plan will use, and gives each one back. He checks every figure in a draft against the document it came from.
A person writes every plan
A person writes every plan. The practice uses ordinary planning software to add up figures, and nothing on this site claims a computer can plan for you.
Inés Valderrama-Hollis writes retirement and household plans, and holds most first meetings herself. She reads every plan aloud with the people it is for before it is final.
Where, and in which language
The office is on the second floor at 37-32 61st Street, a block from the 61st Street–Woodside station. Meetings are held there or by video, whichever you prefer; the planning is the same either way.
Meetings can be held in English, Spanish, Bengali or Tagalog, with the planner who speaks it. Written plans are in English.
Ask for a first meeting
A first meeting costs nothing, gives no advice and asks nothing of you afterwards: about forty-five minutes, at the office or by video. The office replies in office hours.