Financial Planning Fees

Comprehensive Financial Planning
  • Basic Planning (12-18 hours): $4,200 to $6,300
  • Moderate Plan (19-28 hours): $6,650 to $9,800
  • Complex Plan (29-44+ hours): 10,150 to $15,750 (additional hours @ $360/hr)

Comprehensive financial planning covers review, analysis and advice on your financial position, cash flow, savings rate, debt use and management, cash availability (liquidity), tax efficiency, risk management and use of insurance, investment strategy, college funding, retirement strategy and end-of-life planning. We can further provide advice on more advanced matters such as charitable giving, annuities, Medicare and long term-care planning, social security, incentive equity compensation, etc. We provide levels of service based on the complexity of your situation and your financial planning goals and objectives. The factors that we consider in ascertaining complexity and the fee include:

  • Goals and objectives you wish to achieve and time horizon
  • Sources of compensation from work
  • Sources of income
  • Types of assets
  • Property interests and ownership structure
  • Family status (single, married, dependents, etc.)
  • Special circumstances or considerations (alimony, child support, inheritance, special needs, illness, etc.)
Hourly Financial Planning
  • $360 per hour

A complete financial plan is typically the most cost-effective means of providing financial advice in the long term, however, we recognize that some clients may have specific questions or want to set the pace of their financial planning service. For these clients we can provide services at a fixed hourly rate.

The E5 Approach to Financial Planning

We give customized advice and solutions because we know that each client’s situation, goals and values differ—two clients having the same situation, but different values will rarely want or follow the same financial advice and will require different investment solutions. We educate our clients on the elements of personal finance that they can control, like spending, savings, risk management and estate planning, and advise them on the areas they cannot control like the cost of inflation, outliving assets, unpredictable investment returns, tax consequences and unexpected events.

Elements 5 follows the Financial Planning Practice Standards promulgated by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards. This is our process:

  1. Identify the areas that you would like advice on
  2. Gather your financial data and other relevant information
  3. Review and analyze your financial situation Analyze and evaluate the client’s financial status (several meetings may take place to discuss your data, goals and objectives and further build the advisor-client relationship)
  4. Develop and present recommendations (additional meetings may take place to discuss solutions and fine-tune your plan)
  5. Implement the recommendations
  6. Monitor your plan which is also accessible online

Step 3: Elements 5 focuses on at least 3 areas for all clients: cash flow and net worth, tax efficiency and asset allocation. These 3 areas reveal important information about a client’s financial position and are critical to developing a successful financial plan.

Step 5: Elements 5 can provide Investment Management Services described in its Form ADV and on this website. We do not implement certain other recommendations related to risk management (insurance) or estate planning, nor do we sell any investment or insurance products (mutual funds, annuities, life insurance, etc). We can work with your accountant, attorney, insurance broker and other advisors as needed to assist with implementation of our recommendations. Elements 5 does not receive any compensation or referral fees from other professionals or from any third parties.

What Clients Can Expect

Together, we’ll explore your short term financial objectives, long term life goals and your core values. Elements 5 provides you with a customized financial plan that we can help you implement and monitor with ongoing advice. We can implement your investment portfolio solution through our investment management service. We explain the rationale for our advice, so you feel confident to implement the recommendations. Clients receive online access to a leading financial planning software platform that Elements 5 uses to gather data, perform analysis, make recommendations and monitor the plan which updates daily. Clients can track their financial plan, while Elements 5 manages it.