Fees
The written agreement: what it holds, and how either side can end it
Nothing is billed before it is signed. What it says about the work, the fee and the ending, and the papers a real adviser gives you beside it.
AI-generated illustration. Not a real home or business.
Before any paid work
What it holds
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.
Read the part about what the work won't cover as closely as the part about what it will. That is where a plan's limits are written down, and where the questions for your CPA, your agent or your attorney begin.
This website shows no sample agreement. A sample would be a document for a practice that does not exist.
When each fee is billed
A written plan is billed in two halves: $1,200 (or $1,800 for a detailed plan) when you sign the written agreement, and the same again when the plan is delivered, which is within ten weeks of the agreement. No fee is billed more than three months ahead.
Questions after a plan are $300 an hour, billed by the half hour. You get a written estimate of the hours before the work starts, and the hours are billed at the end of the month they were worked.
A year of planning is $3,000 for twelve months: two meetings, questions by e-mail, and the plan updated when your life changes. It is billed $750 at the end of each quarter, for the quarter just worked, so nothing is paid ahead. It ends after twelve months and never renews by itself: a second year is a new agreement.
No payment is taken on this website. A real practice sends a bill with the agreement it comes from, and is paid by check or bank transfer.
Ending it
You can end any agreement at any time, in writing. You pay only for the work done up to that day, and anything you paid for work not yet done is refunded within thirty days.
The papers a real adviser hands over
Each rule is linked to its source, with what it says in plain words.
A real New York planning practice gives you its Form ADV brochure, which describes its services, its fees and its conflicts, before or when you sign. This demonstration practice has none, and this site shows no sample of one.
- 13 NYCRR 11.15 (opens the source in a new tab) A New York investment adviser delivers its Form ADV brochure to a client before or at the time it enters into an advisory contract.
- 17 CFR 275.204-5 (opens the source in a new tab) An adviser registered with the SEC posts its current relationship summary prominently on its website.
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.