A look at what a financial advisor does, how fees typically work, and what a structured retirement planning process looks like in practice.
What Is a Financial Advisor, and What Does the Process Actually Look Like?
The term "financial advisor" covers a wide range of professionals, which is part of why it can be hard to know what you're actually signing up for.
What Does a Financial Advisor Do?
At a basic level, a financial advisor helps people make decisions about money, saving, investing, planning for retirement, and preparing for the future. Beyond that, the specifics vary. Some advisors focus narrowly on managing an investment portfolio. Others coordinate a broader plan that includes retirement income, taxes, estate planning, and insurance. Knowing which kind you're working with matters as much as knowing what they charge.
How Are Financial Advisors Paid?
Financial advisors are generally compensated one of three ways. Fee-only advisors are paid exclusively by client fees, with no commissions from product sales. Fee-based advisors charge fees but may also earn commissions on certain products. Commission-only advisors earn income solely from what they sell.
At MPM, we're a fee-based firm. We're paid an annual fee calculated as a percentage of the assets we manage, disclosed in writing before you become a client. We don't earn commissions on investments, transaction fees on trades, or kickbacks from product providers. If we ever recommend a product where a commission applies, such as life insurance, we tell you upfront, every time.
What Does a Financial Advisor Typically Cost?
For a planning-and-investment-management relationship, fees in the U.S. typically range from about 0.5% to 1.5% of assets per year. Our fee schedule sits at the lower end of that range and tiers down as assets grow, with specific numbers quoted in writing during the discovery process.
What Does a Structured Financial Planning Process Look Like?
Not every advisor works from a defined process, but we've found that a structured financial planning process tends to build a stronger plan. Ours runs about 10 meetings over 12 months.
Discovery Conversation. We start by listening. What does retirement actually look like for you? We also look at the numbers: current assets, income needs, and existing accounts.
Building the Retirement Vision. We model different retirement scenarios and test assumptions about spending, inflation, and longevity, while organizing accounts so everything's visible in one place.
Income & Social Security Strategy. We work through the "paycheck" question, modeling Social Security claiming strategies and account withdrawal order to help manage long-term tax exposure.
Investment Guardrails. We design a portfolio to support income needs, with clear ranges that signal when to rebalance and how much volatility the plan can actually handle.
Tax & Medicare Coordination. We look for Roth conversion opportunities, plan for Medicare enrollment timing, and account for IRMAA, the income-based Medicare premium surcharge.
Estate & Family Legacy. We review the estate plan and talk through family coordination, including whether a spouse or children know who to call and where things are.
Insurance & Risk Review. We review life, long-term care, and liability coverage. We don't recommend commissionable products unless they're genuinely necessary, and we say so upfront.
Coordinated Implementation. A dedicated session to confirm everything fits together before retirement arrives.
The Retirement Transition. Support through the adjustment immediately following retirement, including the cash-flow experience and new questions that only surface after the paycheck stops.
Portfolio Guardrails & Spending Strategy. We set specific, actionable thresholds, an early-warning system that flags small adjustments before they become larger problems.
What Happens After the Process Is Built?
The relationship doesn't end once the plan is in place. We review it regularly so it evolves alongside your life. Many relationships that start before retirement eventually grow to include adult children, grandchildren, and aging parents.
What's Included in a Financial Planning Relationship?
An extensive relationship typically includes full financial planning across retirement income, Social Security, tax, estate, insurance, and charitable giving, coordination with a CPA, attorney, or other professionals already in your corner, ongoing investment management, and annual reviews with availability in between when life happens.
How Do I Verify a Financial Advisor's Background?
Investor.gov, run by the SEC, and FINRA's BrokerCheck both allow you to search an advisor's registration, disclosures, and compensation structure at no cost. It's a useful step before starting a relationship with any advisor.
A Process Built Around the Whole Picture
A financial advisor's job isn't just managing investments. It's coordinating the full picture, income, taxes, estate, insurance, and the questions that come up along the way, into something that holds together.
If you'd like to see what this process looks like for your own situation, schedule an intro call.