How to evaluate any planning fee
Ask what you walk away with. A real plan includes discovery that surfaces your actual priorities, an income design you can live by, protection analysis someone will actually implement, and a defined review rhythm. If the deliverable is a hundred-page projection nobody opens twice, the fee, any fee, was too high.
Also compare the alternative: many firms charge nothing up front and roughly 1% of your assets forever, planning included. On a large portfolio that's thousands per year, every year. A flat fee with no account minimum can be the cheaper and cleaner way to find out what you actually need.
Why we publish ours
Our Signature Retirement is $2,500 flat, standalone, with no obligation to continue into Signature Retirement Continuum, our ongoing management (0.30%–1.00% for those who want it). We publish that because price transparency is rare enough in this industry to be a differentiator, and because you deserve to compare planners with real numbers instead of 'it depends' meetings.
Written by the team at The Retirement Life, led by Rc Arseneau, CFP®. This is education, not individualized advice. Your situation deserves a real conversation before any decision.