What we will not claim
No free retirement review over dinner. What a first meeting is instead.
Why this practice holds no seminar with a meal attached, and what a first meeting here is instead.
AI-generated illustration. Not a real home or business.
What you will see advertised
“Join us for a free retirement income review over dinner.”
Quoted in order to be refused: this practice never says it, and the rest of this page says why.
New York City requires the conditions of anything free to stand beside the word. Regulators who examined free-lunch seminars found all of them were meant to end in a sale. The first meeting here costs nothing on stated conditions: no advice, nothing sold, no obligation.
What the rules say
Each read against its source in October 2026.
- The conditions of anything offered as free are stated beside the word, never in a footnote reached by an asterisk (6 RCNY § 5-06).
- Regulators who examined free-lunch sales seminars found that all of them were intended to result in product sales (Free-lunch report, 2007).
- An adviser's advertisement may not include an untrue statement, a statement it cannot substantiate, a misleading implication, or benefits without fair and balanced treatment of the risks (17 CFR 275.206(4)-1).
The sources, to read in full:
What we say instead
The first meeting costs nothing. It takes about forty-five minutes, at the office or by video. We listen, explain what a written plan would cover and tell you its price. We give no advice or recommendations in it, and you don't have to hire us afterwards.
A first meeting is not advice, not a sales meeting and not a look at any insurance policy, annuity or pension option. Nobody asks for statements, account numbers or tax returns, and there is nothing to sign at the end of it.
- We do not offer a free review, and the first meeting gives no advice.
Why planners' websites say it, and why it doesn't hold
A meal at a good restaurant and an evening of talk about retirement income is a pleasant invitation, and for somebody close to retiring it arrives at exactly the moment the questions feel largest. Nothing seems to be asked of anybody but an hour of attention.
The second source above is the reason to be wary: an evening built to end in a sale gives a sale's account of the choices, and the meal makes it harder to say no at the end. The first rule above asks that anything offered at no price carries its conditions beside the word, and the conditions of a dinner can turn up later, at the kitchen table, in a form to sign.
What a planning practice can honestly say, and do
What a practice can honestly offer is a first meeting with its conditions said in full, and nothing to prepare for it:
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.
And it can say what happens after that meeting, step by step, with nothing signed until the second step:
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 to ask any planner
Put them to any planner before you sign anything. A plain answer tells you something, and so does a vague one.
- Who is paying for the meal, and what do they sell?
- Will anybody ask me to sign anything tonight, or to bring statements next time?
- Is the speaker paid when somebody in the room buys what is described?
- What does a meeting with you cost, and what are its conditions?
- Will you give me advice at this meeting, or only describe what you sell?
The other things this site will not claim
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.