Try this experiment. Call three financial advisory firms, say you are twelve years from retiring, and ask what a plan would cost. You will hear some version of the same reply from all three: it depends on your situation, let us set up a time to talk.
The reply is not evasive by accident. Under the arrangement that has dominated the advisory industry for decades, a firm bills an annual percentage of the assets it manages for you, commonly somewhere around one percent, and sets a minimum account size that decides who gets in the door. Neither number can be turned into a dollar figure until the firm knows your balance. The first conversation is not a consultation. It is a qualification.
One Detroit firm has taken the opposite approach and simply published its prices. Becker Retirement Strategies Inc. lists three flat-fee retirement planning engagements on its site, starting at $1,500 for a one-time roadmap, running to $2,800 plus a $200 monthly retainer for ongoing guidance, and reaching $10,000 a year for clients who want hands-on portfolio management. There is no account minimum, and the contents of each tier are itemized alongside the price.
Whether that is cheaper depends entirely on the household, and it is worth being honest about the arithmetic. On a $400,000 portfolio, a one percent fee runs $4,000 a year, so a $2,800 setup and $2,400 in retainers lands in similar territory. On a $2 million portfolio, the percentage model costs $20,000 a year and the flat fee looks like a bargain. On a $150,000 portfolio, one percent is $1,500 and the flat arrangement may well cost more, assuming a firm with a minimum would have taken the account at all, which is the part that usually goes unmentioned.
What the published price actually buys is the ability to do that math before committing to anything.
There is a second, subtler difference. A percentage fee is deducted from the portfolio rather than invoiced, which means most clients never see it leave. Anyone who has ignored a small recurring charge on a credit card statement understands the mechanism. A fee that arrives as a number you have to approve gets evaluated. A fee that quietly reduces a balance you were not going to spend for fifteen years does not.
The households most affected by all this tend to be the ones a decade or two out: solid income, retirement savings scattered across two or three former employers, no clear picture of what any of it produces as monthly income. They are precisely the households that benefit most from coordination, and precisely the ones a minimum-driven practice cannot afford to spend an afternoon with. Becker says it has built more than 420 individualized plans for over 180 households and oversees more than $30 million in assets under guidance, and it argues that a practice organized around a few hundred relationships does not need to keep raising its minimum to stay viable.
The work itself is not exotic. Retirement income projection, contribution analysis across 401(k), IRA, and Roth accounts, Social Security timing, then tax-efficient withdrawal sequencing, Roth conversion analysis, Medicare and healthcare cost planning, and estate coordination at the higher tiers. Most competent firms do a version of it. The variable is what you are charged and whether you can find out in advance.
For anyone shopping, a few questions cut through quickly. What is the total dollar cost in year one and year five. Is the fee invoiced or deducted. Is there a minimum, and would you meet it. Does anyone earn a commission on what gets recommended. Firms that answer plainly are telling you something about how they operate, and so are the ones that steer back to scheduling a call. Becker, for its part, still opens every engagement with a complimentary discovery call, which is a sensible thing to use as a test drive no matter where a household ends up signing.
Disclaimer: This is informational and not investment, tax, or legal advice. Retirement outcomes depend on individual circumstances; no result is guaranteed, and prospective clients should review a firm’s disclosures and consult their own tax and legal professionals.
