Five-minute read
What fee-only means, what it doesn't, and how to check
Fee-only, fee-based and commission: three ways a planner is paid, the pull each one has, and the questions that tell them apart.
The journal
The journal: how planning works, written plainly
Six articles on how planners are paid, what a plan holds and the questions to ask before you hire anybody. None of them is advice.
AI-generated illustration. Not a real home or business.
Six articles, written plainly
How planners are paid, what a written plan holds, the questions to ask before hiring anybody, and two subjects that come up often in Queens: saving for a child's education and leaving a city job. Each article describes; none of them tells you what to do.
Five-minute read
What a written financial plan holds, and what it should never promise
The sections of a written plan, the questions each one answers, and the promises a plan should never make.
Five-minute read
Questions to ask any financial planner before you hire one
How they are paid, in dollars; whether they are registered and where; what they will not do; and what you will have in writing at the end.
Four-minute read
How to look up a financial adviser before you meet one
The SEC's public database, what a record shows, and what it means when a practice cannot be found there — as this demonstration one cannot.
Five-minute read
Saving for college in New York: the accounts, described, and the questions first
What a 529 account is, what New York's own deduction allows as of October 2026, and the questions to settle before any account is opened.
Five-minute read
Before you retire from a city job: the questions to ask first
A pension, a deferred compensation plan, retiree health coverage and Social Security: the questions to put to each, and who answers them.
What these articles are, and are not
Everything on this website is general description. Advice is personal: it depends on everything about your household, which this site does not know and never asks. A page here can tell you what a planner would look at; it cannot tell you what to do.
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.