Frequently asked questions

Two parts, and the math is simple. The financial planning fee is a flat $9,500 a year and covers the full planning relationship. Investment management is billed separately by asset tier, and your first $1,000,000 carries no management fee. Above it, each band of assets is charged at its own rate: 0.95% from $1M to $2M, 0.75% from $2M to $10M, 0.50% from $10M to $25M, and 0.35% over $25M. Fees are blended, tiered, and billed monthly in arrears, and the investment management schedule applies only to passive, index-based ETF portfolios.

Financial planning and investment management as one engagement. On the planning side: a written plan with prioritized action items, retirement and cash-flow projections, tax planning, equity compensation strategy, education and real estate funding, insurance review, and estate planning coordinated with independent attorneys. On the investment side: portfolio design, asset allocation, investment selection, rebalancing, tax-loss harvesting, performance reporting, and cash management, with support through the year. You work directly with a CFP® and CPA. Two things sit outside the core service: international estate structuring and business transition planning. When you need either, we scope it as a separate engagement at additional cost and agree on the fee before any work begins.

There is no asset minimum. The relationship starts at the flat $9,500 annual financial planning fee whether we are managing $200,000 or a full $1,000,000. Investment management fees begin only on assets above $1,000,000.

No. The financial planning fee is the same flat $9,500 every year, in year one and every year after, with no onboarding premium or setup charge. Investment management is billed by tier on assets above $1,000,000, and every year is billed the same way, monthly in arrears.

The integrated service is how we work best: financial planning and investment management together, because managing a portfolio well depends on the same information that drives the plan, your taxes, cash flow, retirement timing, and concentrated positions. Investment management on its own is available under a separate fee arrangement when that is what you need. Financial planning without investment management is the one split we do not offer, and we do not work hourly or on single-topic projects. It stays one relationship, with each fee stated in plain sight.

Yes. Fee-only means the only money we make is the fee you pay us: no commissions, no product sales, no third-party incentives. As a fiduciary, we are held to a standard that requires us to act in your best interest.

You are always in control of your money. Because your assets are held at an independent custodian in your name, you can access or transfer them at any time. If you choose to move on, you keep full control and access to your funds.

No. Wealth Habits works with clients across the U.S., entirely remotely, over video and secure online tools. We've worked in financial services since 2007 and built the practice to be location-independent, so where you live is not a constraint.

Not much. You upload what we need electronically, and most account data pulls directly from your financial institutions, which cuts the back-and-forth. Building a complete picture of your finances is the first real step, and we keep it as light as we can.

It starts with a complimentary intro meeting. From there the process is straightforward: we talk through your goals, organize your financial details into a clear picture, walk you through personalized recommendations and projections, put the plan into action, and review it as your life changes. You book the intro meeting; we handle the structure from there.

Often the opposite. Most people arrive unsure or a little stressed about where they stand. The first thing we do is build one complete picture of your finances, and that clarity is usually where the relief starts. From there we work on improving things one decision at a time.

The service includes 4 to 6 meetings a year with your financial planner, plus email support between meetings. When something changes in your life mid-year, we meet; the cadence serves the plan, not the other way around.

With Interactive Brokers or Altruist, our custodians. You get full online access to your accounts through their platforms and mobile apps. The assets stay in your name at the custodian, not with us. We manage the accounts; we never hold your money.

Goals first, then a low-cost, globally diversified portfolio built to match them. We use passive, index-based ETFs, keep turnover and costs down, harvest tax losses where it helps, and rebalance on a schedule rather than reacting to headlines. The aim is to control what we can (cost, diversification, taxes, and behavior) and stay disciplined through market cycles.

Yes. We offer tax preparation and filing for planning and investment clients through our partner accounting firm, billed separately from the planning fee. Because we plan with your tax return in view, keeping preparation coordinated with the plan stops the two from drifting apart.

Two levers do most of the work. On fees, we use low-cost index ETFs and keep trading down, so more of the return stays in your account. On taxes, we harvest losses where it helps, hold assets in the accounts where they are taxed most efficiently, and coordinate portfolio moves with your tax situation. It is the kind of coordination that gets missed when investments and taxes are handled by different people.

The general lay of the land, since the right mix is personal. Most high earners start with the workplace plan, a 401(k) or 403(b), because pre-tax contributions come off the top of a high bracket. Direct Roth IRA contributions phase out at higher incomes, but a backdoor Roth contribution can work around that, and some employer plans allow a mega backdoor Roth on top of it; whether yours does depends on the plan document, not on you. If you are self-employed, a solo 401(k) or SEP-IRA can shelter far more than an IRA alone, and an HSA, if you have a qualifying health plan, is a tax-advantaged account most people underuse. Which accounts fit, and in what order to fund them, depends on your income, your plan documents, and your goals. That is exactly what the plan works out.

The case for a 529: the money grows tax-free when spent on qualified education, many states offer a deduction or credit for contributions, and the rules have loosened over time, including a limited ability to roll leftover funds into a Roth IRA for the beneficiary under conditions set by law. The case against: earnings on non-qualified withdrawals get taxed and penalized, the investment menu is limited to what the plan offers, the account can factor into financial aid calculations, and overfunding is a real risk if plans change. Whether a 529 belongs in your picture, and how much goes into it, is a plan decision, weighed against retirement funding and everything else competing for the same dollars.