Financial Planning Packages and Rates

Why Choose Me?

Looking for topnotch financial planning expressed in plain English, which puts your interests first and is done on your terms? Consider working with me.

I am both an independent financial planner with 3 distinguished financial planning designations plus over 10 years’ experience as a planner, and a practicing lawyer. Previously, I was a director of estate and financial planning for a large Canadian insurance company who worked preferred clients and their advisors throughout B.C. and represented the company nationally. Currently, I am also a contributing editor to Canadian Moneysaver Magazine and am regularly published online and in print. Moreover, I do not sell insurance or investments but either work with your existing advisors, recommend additional advisors to bring in or help you do it yourself. This means that any investment or insurance recommendations I make are not restricted to a single company’s offerings and that I welcome working with anyone already on your team. In fact, I am regularly used to working with a wide variety of other professionals. I may even be able to do some of the legal work myself.

Looking for specialized advice in a specific area? I have a large circle of contacts I can call upon in many different fields. Some even provide referral fees that I use to reduce what you pay so that many clients can get my services for free. This program also offers better savings to clients who send new clients my way- see the information on my fee rebate program for more details. Want to manage your own investments but want help with the rest of your financial picture or advice on a specific issue? Pay for the help you need and handle the rest yourself.

How I Get Paid

I charge $300 plus GST per hour for my services, minus any savings through the fee rebate program or package rates. Want to know your costs in advance? I completely understand how many of us desire cost certainty and dislike unpleasant surprises. Accordingly, you can pay by the hour and take things one step at a time or you can commit to one of the following packages so you know what you will be getting and what it will cost. I am also happy to work on an hourly basis after you have completed any of the packages below if that works best for you or to negotiate a follow up package, particularly if you are working with one of my referral partners for ongoing investment services. In fact, it is likely through my work with you after we’ve first your plan where I add the most value as we take steps to implement the suggestions course of action, as ideas are useless if not acted upon.

The Plan: $3,5000 plus GST

I currently use Visionworks. This program can show your current net worth, holdings and cash flow in meaningful ways and also allows us to show what your future can look like using assumptions we select together.

My recommendations include:

a list of ways to save money on taxes, fees and charges, now and in the future;
comments on your current health and life insurance – is it enough / too much / too expensive;
comments on your current investments and, if applicable, additional ways of diversifying;
suggestions regarding your small business, from share ownership structure, to family trusts or integrating companies with your insurance or investment products;
Pension recommendations and suggestions on the best ways to integrate and combine your different sources of retirement income; and
Estate and incapacity planning suggestions, which may include comments about your current Will, identifying any potential problems and their solutions.

The Review: $2,500 plus GST

Want a more comprehensive plan but not a fan of charts, graphs and projections or looking to save a few dollars? Instead of multi-page report with charts, graphs, calculations and retirement / insurance projections, perhaps the Review is the solution for you. This package includes an initial 1.5 hour meeting for me to gather information. I then review the material and prepare a lengthy letter outlining your situation with a number of suggestions in all aspects of financial planning. We then meet again for another 1.5 hours to walk through the letter so you better understand your choices, can ask questions and perhaps discuss next steps.

Services After the Plan or the Review

If you need additional services after I’ve presented the Plan or the Review, I will charge my hourly rate, although I’m open to suggestion. As noted in the fee rebate program, I also credit 50% of any referral fees or commissions I receive within 3 months after presenting the Plan or the Review against your initial costs. I am also happy to credit 50% of additional lump sum referral fees or commissions against future planning fees as discussed in more detail below.

The Chat: $500 plus GST

On a budget or just want to talk about a few issues? Let’s talk for an hour and I’ll send you an email briefly summarizing my suggestions. It might be the best $500 you ever spend.

The Fee Rebate Program

Most financial planners get paid not for providing you advice but for selling you insurance or managing your investments. Accordingly, most Canadians aren’t used to paying for financial planning advice directly since these costs are built into the costs of the products they buy or deducted automatically from their investments. As a result, many people are reluctant or don’t believe they can afford to pay for stand-alone financial planning advice that they believe that they are getting “for free” from their investment or insurance advisors, even though these indirect fees can often be quite substantial.

In order to make my services more affordable and attractive, while also offering a place to go for my clients looking for insurance products or someone manage their investments, I have introduced the fee referral program. I have built strong working relationship with several top insurance and investment advisors. Most advisors charge my clients their regular rates out of which they offer me a referral fee. I then use this referral fees to reduce my costs to you as follows:

50% of any lump sum commissions or referral fees net of GST are applied against any financial planning fees you currently owe me, have paid me over the last 3 months or incur over the next 12 months.
100% of any ongoing referral fees I receive each year are applied against any planning I have done for you that year or do the next year, or, in some cases, the investment advisor discounts what they charge you and I either charge you a rate equal to the discount but reduce what I’d otherwise charge you for my hourly services accordingly.

Please always remember that you are never under any obligation to work or continue working with anyone I recommend and that I am delighted to work with clients who already have a strong team of investment and insurance advisors, or prefer to do it themselves.