How I'm Paid
You deserve to know exactly how your advisor earns a living. Here's every dollar — no surprises, no fine print, no awkward conversations later.
Why I'm Telling You This
Most advisors bury their compensation on page 47 of a disclosure document written in legal language. You'd need a law degree to figure out what you're actually paying.
I think that's backwards.
You've spent your career in a classroom, a hospital, a fire station, or a church — serving other people. You deserve someone who looks you in the eye and explains how they earn a living before they ask to manage yours.
Being fee-based means I'm compensated in three ways: planning fees for the work I do building your retirement blueprint, asset management fees for ongoing investment oversight, and commissions when I place insurance or annuity products that your plan calls for. Every one of these is disclosed to you in writing before you pay a penny.
I chose this model deliberately. Your retirement doesn't fit neatly into one revenue box. A pension election is planning work. An investment portfolio is management work. A guaranteed income annuity or a long-term care policy is product placement. Trying to force all of that into a single fee structure either overcharges you or underserves you.
So here's the full picture.
Three Ways I'm Compensated
Each one serves a different part of your retirement plan. Here's what they are, what they cost, and why they exist.
Planning Fees
This is where everything starts. Before I manage a single dollar or recommend a single product, we build your plan. The Retire Blessed Income Blueprint is a comprehensive retirement analysis built around the G.R.A.C.E. framework — five pillars that cover every dimension of your financial life.
The planning fee pays for the work of understanding your situation, stress-testing your options, and building a strategy custom to your household. Social Security timing. Pension election analysis. Roth conversion modeling. Tax bracket management. Estate review. It's deep work, and it takes time to do right.
What This Covers
- Full G.R.A.C.E. assessment across all five pillars
- Social Security optimization and claiming strategy
- Pension election analysis (lump sum vs. annuity, survivor options)
- Roth conversion and tax bracket modeling
- Insurance gap analysis (life, LTC, Medicare bridge)
- Estate and beneficiary review
- Written Retire Blessed Income Blueprint delivered in three meetings
What It Costs
The Retire Blessed Income Blueprint starts at $1,522. Depending on the complexity of your household — number of income sources, pension structures, tax situations, and estate needs — the fee may be higher. I'll quote you a specific number on our Swan Fit Call before any commitment.
Asset Management Fees
If your plan calls for ongoing investment management — and you choose the Ongoing Partnership path — I charge an annual advisory fee based on the average daily balance of the assets I manage for you. The fee is billed monthly, so there are no large lump-sum charges and it adjusts naturally with your account value. When your portfolio grows, my compensation grows. Our incentives are aligned.
Your investments are held at Altruist, a registered custodian. I never take custody of your money. You can see every holding, every transaction, every fee — any time you want, through your own login.
What This Covers
- Ongoing portfolio management and rebalancing
- Tax-loss harvesting and tax-efficient placement
- Retirement income distribution strategy
- Annual plan reviews and updates
- Unlimited access to me for questions and life changes
What It Costs
An annual percentage of assets under management, billed monthly based on average daily balance. The specific rate is disclosed in our advisory agreement and depends on the size and complexity of your accounts. You'll know exactly what you're paying before we begin.
Insurance & Annuity Commissions
This is the part most advisors don't talk about. I'm going to.
When your plan identifies a need for a specific insurance or annuity product, I help you place that product with an insurance carrier. The carrier pays me a commission for that placement. You don't write me a separate check — the commission is built into the product by the carrier. But I want you to understand that it exists, what it covers, and why it's there.
Here's the key: I will never recommend a product to earn a commission. Commissions are the output of good planning, not the reason for it. Your G.R.A.C.E. assessment identifies the need first. If the planning says you need guaranteed income, we look at annuities. If it says you have a long-term care exposure, we look at coverage. If the planning doesn't call for it, I don't recommend it. Period.
The Problems These Products Solve
Most of the products I place fall into three categories — each solving a specific problem the plan identified:
- Guaranteed Income Annuities (SPIAs, DIAs, FIAs with income riders) — covering your Daily Bread so your essential expenses never depend on market performance
- Hybrid Long-Term Care Products — leveraged LTC riders that protect your assets and your family from catastrophic care costs without "use it or lose it" risk
- Estate & Legacy Products — life insurance or annuity riders that create efficient wealth transfer or survivor income for your spouse
What You Should Know
I'm an independent agent — I'm not captive to any carrier or product family. I shop across the total market to find the most competitive rates and terms for your specific situation. When I recommend a product, I'll show you the alternatives I considered and explain why this solution fits your plan best.
The Order Matters
I don't sell products and call it planning. I don't collect assets and skip the plan. Here's the sequence — every single time.
Plan First
We build your Retire Blessed Income Blueprint. The planning fee covers this work — the G.R.A.C.E. assessment, the stress testing, the strategy. No products. No investment decisions. Just clarity about where you stand and what you need.
Solve the Gaps
If the plan reveals a gap — income that isn't guaranteed, a long-term care exposure, an estate need — we address it with the right product. I'll show you what I'm recommending, the alternatives I considered, and why this solution fits your plan. Then you decide.
Invest What's Left
After your income floor is secure and your gaps are closed, we invest the remaining assets for growth. The management fee covers this ongoing work. Your portfolio is built on a foundation of certainty — not hope.
Monitor Together
Life changes. Tax laws change. Markets move. We review your plan annually, adjust as needed, and make sure every piece is still doing its job. The ongoing fee means I'm here for the long haul — not just the sale.
What I Promise
No product without a plan
I will never recommend an annuity, insurance policy, or investment until we've completed the planning work that identifies the need. The plan drives the recommendation — not the other way around.
Full disclosure before you sign
Before you commit to any product, I'll walk you through the alternatives I considered and why I'm recommending this specific solution for your plan. You'll understand what you're buying, why it fits, and what the trade-offs are.
Your money stays yours
I never take custody of your assets. Your investments are held at Altruist, a registered custodian. Your insurance contracts are between you and the carrier. I'm your advisor — not your gatekeeper.
Fiduciary on every recommendation
As a registered investment adviser, I'm held to a fiduciary standard on my advisory services. For insurance recommendations, I follow the same principle: your best interest, documented and transparent. Always.
You can always ask
If you ever have questions about how I'm compensated on a recommendation — ask. I'll give you a straight answer. Transparency isn't a page on a website — it's how I operate.
Common Questions
A fee-only advisor is compensated exclusively through fees paid by the client — no commissions of any kind. A fee-based advisor (that's me) charges fees for planning and investment management, but also earns commissions when placing insurance or annuity products. I chose the fee-based model because many of my clients genuinely need products — guaranteed income annuities, long-term care coverage — that can only be placed through a commission structure. Forcing those clients into a fee-only box would mean either recommending against products they need, or charging them an additional consulting fee on top of what the product already costs.
Because the planning comes first — always. Your G.R.A.C.E. assessment identifies whether you have a gap that a product can solve. If you don't have the gap, I don't recommend the product. And when I do recommend something, I walk you through the alternatives I considered and why this solution fits your plan. My practice is built on referrals from teachers, nurses, and first responders who talk to each other. One bad recommendation would cost me far more than any commission could earn me.
No. When you purchase an insurance or annuity product, the commission is paid by the insurance carrier — it's built into the product. You don't write me a separate check. That said, commissions can affect the product's internal costs, which is why I shop across dozens of carriers to find the best rates and terms for your specific situation, not the highest commission for me.
Then I don't recommend any. Some households have strong pensions and Social Security that already cover their essential expenses. Their plan might be entirely focused on investment management, tax strategy, and estate planning — with no annuity or insurance need at all. In that case, my compensation comes from the planning fee and the ongoing management fee. The plan dictates the recommendations, not my revenue model.
Your advisory agreement discloses the management fee clearly. For product recommendations, I'll walk you through the alternatives and the reasoning. And if you ever want to know more about how I'm compensated on a specific recommendation, just ask — I'll give you a straight answer. I'd rather you feel confident than wonder.
Yes — as a registered investment adviser, I'm held to a fiduciary standard on my advisory services, meaning I'm legally required to act in your best interest. For insurance product recommendations, the fiduciary standard doesn't technically apply in the same way, but I hold myself to the same principle: I will only recommend a product if I believe it is the best available option for your situation. My ADV Part 2A disclosure document is available on the SEC website and linked in the footer of this page.
Clarity Before Commitment
A 15-minute Swan Fit Call is free, no-pressure, and the first thing I'll tell you is exactly what working together costs. If it's not a fit, I'll tell you that too.