If not now, when?

By thoughtfully managing our overhead, and eliminating an expensive office space, it allows us to price our services competitively. This has led us to the decision of providing our full suite of services virtually to clients.

There are many benefits of collaborating virtually with a CERTIFIED FIANNCIAL PLANNER™ professional, which include:

• Meeting from the comfort of your home or office.
• Partners can participate from different locations.
• Avoiding lost time and frustration by not sitting in traffic and then having to find parking.

With web meeting technology, conference calls, emails, and secure file transfer, we are able to work with you from any location that has an internet connection.

We seek out clients who are the best fit for our firm, regardless of where they are located.

We’re a fee-only financial planning firm. The term “fee-only” (or “fee-for-service”) refers to how an advisor is compensated.

A fee-only advisor, in all circumstances, is paid solely by his or her client and does not earn commission or other compensation of any kind from product sales or referrals.

In addition, a fee-only advisor must act in his or her client’s best interest as a fiduciary 100% of the time.

The fiduciary duties of a registered investment adviser (RIA) include providing suitable advice for clients, full disclosure of all material facts and potential conflicts of interest, utmost and exclusive loyalty and good faith to clients, and the exercise of reasonable care to avoid misleading clients.

Milestones Financial conducts itself under a fiduciary duty to every client.

Conflicts of interest exist when compensation is exchanged between two parties. This dynamic exists in every profession.

We believe that fixed fee compensation does the best job of reducing conflicts of interest for financial advisory clients.

To better illustrate why conflicts of interest matter, here are a few common questions that people approaching or in retirement often ask financial advisors:

• Should I buy an annuity?
• Should I take my Social Security at age 62 or (draw money from my investment portfolio and) wait until age 70?
• Should I take my pension as an annuity or a lump sum?
• Should I make a gift to my children, grandchildren, and/or charity out of my investment portfolio?
• Should I spend money on ________?

If a financial advisor’s compensation is based on taking a percentage of the money he or she manages for you or receiving commissions from selling you financial products, his or her intentions may not always be in your best interest.

Fixed fee compensation eliminates that conflict of interest since the advice and recommendations given does not change our compensation, which frees us from that influence and allows us to really think strategically for the benefit of our clients.

Wealth Planning clients fit into a simple fixed fee schedule.

The fixed fees are primarily based upon the Wealth Planning Engagement Roadmap that we help clients navigate and are not based on the size of their investment portfolio.

We believe that charging clients different fees for similar services based on the amount of investable assets they have is not justifiable. Advising on a $2 million versus $1 million investment portfolio does not double the work, so it should not double your fee.

To learn more about this engagement, please visit the Wealth Planning page for more information.

Do you want to pay out of your investments?

• Securely input your checking/debiting (ACH) enabled brokerage account information and pay fees.

Do you want to pay out of your income?

• Securely input your bank checking (ACH) account or credit/debit card information and pay fees.

We use an independent, third-party payment system in which clients can securely input their payment information.

We do not have access to your payment information at any time. You will be provided with a secure portal in order to make or schedule payments.

On a limited, case-by-case basis, we may offer other short-term engagements, depending upon the scope of financial planning work desired.

Financial Fitness Review: Get a specific financial planning issue addressed through one scheduled meeting.

Great question! But first, let us explain why you shouldn’t hire us.

If you’re looking for a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional who will try to help you “beat the market,” you’re in the wrong place. Why? Because we only focus on what you can control. Predicting if the stock market will go up or down, or guessing what interest rates will do next, are not things anyone can control.

But if you’re interested in things like getting recommendations for creating a reliable income stream in retirement, lowering your tax bill, and investing smarter (while retaining full control over your money), you’re in the right place.