Buy a one-time plan if your situation is settled and you’ll carry out the plan yourself. Choose ongoing planning if your life is changing fast, if you want someone to check the follow-through, or if you’d otherwise buy a new plan every year or two. At US fee-only firms that publish prices, a one-time plan costs a median $2,000, paid once, and ongoing planning costs a median $4,500 a year. Put simply, you’re choosing between buying a plan and hiring a planner.
The two side by side
| One-time plan | Ongoing planning | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | A written plan and a meeting to walk through it | A plan kept current, regular meetings, help between them |
| Typical price (US median) | $2,000 once, middle half $845 to $3,600 | $4,500 a year, middle half $2,400 to $7,200, or a percentage of assets if management is included |
| Typical price (Canada) | C$1,900 | C$2,300 a year |
| Who carries it out | You | You, with check-ins, or the planner if they manage your accounts |
| When life changes | You buy an update | It’s part of the service |
| Commitment | None | A yearly agreement, usually ended with written notice |
| Offered by | 38% of fee-only firms | 48% offer an ongoing fee; 62% a percentage of assets |
The shares come from 2,574 fee-only firms whose websites say how they charge. Most offer more than one option, so you can often start with one and move to the other at the same firm.
What five years costs each way
The price gap looks wide in year one and wider over time. Here’s what five years of advice costs under a few common patterns, using US medians.
Based on a $2,000 plan, $300 an hour and $4,500 a year. The last row holds the balance flat; a growing balance would cost more.
Even buying a fresh plan every two years costs about a quarter of what ongoing planning does over five years. So the case for ongoing help isn’t the price. It’s what happens between plans: decisions that come up mid-year, a planner who notices them, and help actually doing the work. Whether that’s worth about $3,600 a year more than the plan-and-check-up route (on these medians) depends on how much is changing in your life. The details of each price are in our guides to one-time plan costs and subscription planning costs.
A plan has a shelf life
A plan is a set of decisions based on assumptions: your income, your goals, tax rules, what markets have done. It stays good as long as those hold. It goes stale when:
- your job, pay or equity grants change
- your family changes: a marriage, a child, a divorce, a parent who needs care
- money arrives or leaves: an inheritance, a business sale, a home purchase
- you get within a few years of retirement, when withdrawal order, Social Security timing and Roth conversions become yearly decisions
- tax law changes in a way that touches your plan
If you expect one of these in the next year or two, price the update before you buy the first plan.
When a one-time plan is the better choice
- Your situation is settled. Steady jobs, a clear savings routine, no big changes ahead.
- You have a defined project. Can we retire in five years? How should we handle this inheritance? A plan answers a question; it doesn’t need to be a relationship.
- You run your own investments and are comfortable putting the advice in place.
- You want to try a planner first. A one-time plan shows you how someone thinks before you commit to a yearly fee.
- Cost matters most right now. A quarter of US firms that publish a price start at $845 or less.
When ongoing planning is the better choice
- The next few years are full of decisions. Equity pay vesting on a schedule, a business growing toward a sale, a young family, or the stretch either side of retirement.
- You know you won’t follow through alone. A plan nobody carries out is the most expensive kind. Regular check-ins fix that for many people.
- You want someone to call in a bad market, or when a job offer lands, rather than deciding alone.
- One person in your household handles the money and the other would need help if that changed.
- You want your investments managed too. That’s an ongoing service by nature, usually priced as a percentage of assets. Our guide to advice-only vs full-service planners covers that choice.
Moving between them
The choice isn’t permanent, and many people do both at different times:
- Plan first, then ongoing. Buy a one-time plan, and if you find you keep wanting help, sign on for ongoing planning. Ask whether the plan fee counts toward the first year.
- Ongoing first, then step down. Use ongoing planning through a busy stretch, then switch to occasional updates once life settles.
- Plan plus hourly. Buy a plan, then book a few hours a year for a check-up. Our guide to hourly vs retainer planners shows where hourly stops being cheaper.
If you sign up for ongoing planning, read how the agreement ends. Item 5 of every registered firm’s Form ADV Part 2A brochure explains how fees are billed and how you get back fees paid in advance if you leave mid-period.
Questions to ask before you choose
- What would a one-time plan cost for my situation, and what would ongoing planning cost?
- What does an update to a one-time plan cost later?
- If I start with a plan and switch to ongoing, does any of the plan fee carry over?
- What does ongoing planning include in a typical year: meetings, email, help putting things in place?
- How do I end an ongoing agreement, and what’s refunded?
- Do you or your firm earn anything other than what I pay you?
A fee-only planner answers no to the last one; you can check on the SEC’s adviser search. For the terms, see the glossary entries for flat-fee planning, a retainer fee and subscription planning. Then browse flat-fee advisors or advisors for pre-retirees, or see planners who list retirement planning as a specialty in the public graph.