WHAT DOES IT COST AND HOW DOES IT WORK?:
All engagements are on an hourly basis and there are three basic types**:
- 20 hours per month at $100/hour, and with an initial 3-month agreement, converting to month-to-month thereafter.
- 60 hours per Quarter at $100/hour, purchasable quarter by quarter.
- $500 per month minimum, $150 per hour for any hours worked. This engagement requires a 3-month commitment.
I track all my time and all tasks are rounded in 6-minute increments. You’ll get a detailed breakdown of all my time spent. This will be a 1099 arrangement and I will bill you monthly in arrears.
Why these engagement types? The first allows me the time to learn how you want things done during the 3-month initial period. Once I have that down, you can come back for monthly engagements as you need them. The second gives you flexibility in how you use the hours over the quarter to accommodate fluctuations in your workloads, like surge meetings, etc. In either engagement, the hours are "use them or lose them" in the time frame chosen. The third lowers the minimum point of entry and the ongoing commitment but raises the hourly rate for actual hours used.
**If any of these types doesn't quite fit your needs, schedule a meeting and we will talk about a custom arrangement that works for both of us.
WHAT’S THE CATCH?
No catch at all. I’m here to help your growth, revenue, and work-life balance by letting you do the work you enjoy while I get to do the work I enjoy. Easy wins for both of us.
WHY DOES YOUR LOGO LOOK LIKE THAT?
I'm a big fan of the art deco style from the 30's and 40's, along with the noir detective stories of that era, like "The Shadow" and others. The idea of a solo contractor out to solve their client's problems discreetly, behind-the-scenes, seemed a good fit for what I'm trying to do with Fractional Planning. I've had some comments that the logo looks like Rorshach from "The Watchmen" and I'm kinda cool with that as well.
WAIT, DON'T YOU OFFER FINANCIAL PLANNING SERVICES DIRECTLY?
Not anymore. I have another brand, French Press Finance, that offers education-only Q&A sessions to the general public but only via a very limited engagement that consists of a 2-hour video Q&A. I no longer offer direct-to-consumer financial planning services beyond that as I don't want to be seen as competition to my Fractional Planning advisor clients.
WHY DON'T YOU DO THE PORTFOLIO WORK AS WELL?
Honest answer? I "Marie Kondo'd It" because portfolio work doesn't bring me joy. Don't get me wrong, I'll help you however I can but my simple, low-cost passive buy-hold approach might not be to your or your clients liking. That's why I leave that portion to you, especially if you are an AUM advisor who likes that part of the work.
WHY DO YOU LIMIT YOUR CLIENT TYPE BY THEIR DESIGNATION? COULDN'T YOU WORK WITH ANYONE?
I do this on the advice of my compliance consultant. The idea is that the advisor(s) I work with should be qualified to a) understand the work I produce for them, b) to make edits and changes themselves, and c) to ultimately be responsible for its presentation to the final client. Now there are a LOT of advisors out there who could do that and don't have those designations but any outside examiner can't know that, so the designations are the objective standard by which they can be evaluated. It's a liability thing.
YOUR ENGAGEMENT MINIMUMS SEEM HIGH JUST FOR PLANNING WORK...
Fractional Planning is meant to be a boutique offering; it's not for everyone. I prefer a deeper level of engagement with my advisor clients, beyond just knocking out something for a client in MoneyGuide Pro or RightCapital. As a fully qualified and experienced CFP®, my goal is to be a collaborative partner that you engage with regularly. Small firms, especially solo advisors, can benefit significantly from having a second set of eyes on things or being a sounding board for thorny client issues, business management questions, and tasks that require an advisor-level understanding but aren't enough hours in the day for you to do alone.
- 60-90-minute weekly staff meeting, discussing current status of pipeline projects, questions, and upcoming items for the week
- 2-4 hours of onboarding new clients, processing documentation, setup of the client in the planning software, CRM, and starting initial models. Updating the CRM with any required missing data (there's always missing data), any insights gained in the data review and initial setup, and questions arising from the CRM notes from your client meeting
- 2-4 hours updating plans for existing clients as you have meetings with them and things need refreshing based on their life changes
- 1-2 hours of research on specific client questions or issues that arise (tax planning, equity comp, estate planning, and all the est) and providing a summary answer for you so you don't have to do all that research yourself
In an active and growing practice, it can be very easy to get to 5+ hours per week and exceed the 20-hour-a-month minimum. The catch is that you as the advisor have to be ok with delegating tasks you would normally do yourself; that's the point of the whole thing isn't it - to free up your time?
Put the Team to Work For You.
Think we’d make a good fit?
Schedule your first 30-minute consultation and let’s find out.