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Fees & Value
The initial analysis costs you nothing to build. We go through the process together, pricing your bills, your worries, and your plans, and looking at every reasonable way to help you close the gap. If you decide not to become a client, you keep the information and pay nothing.
If you do become a client, our compensation comes from the pieces that make the plan run:
- An annual management fee of 1% on investment assets we manage for you.
- A one-time commission from the issuing insurance company, when a plan includes an individual product such as an annuity for lifetime income or life insurance for inheritance purposes. You don’t write us a check for this, but it isn’t free either. The compensation is built into the product’s pricing, which is part of why we price your plan first and only then talk about products.
Our standing rule: the plan decides the product. We size any recommendation to what your month needs, never to what your accounts hold, and if a product doesn’t have a job in your plan, it doesn’t get recommended.
When Our Answer Is No:
Some people shouldn’t buy what we offer, and part of our job is saying so. If Social Security and a pension already cover your bills, your income floor is finished, and we’ll tell you that. If your health makes a lifetime-income product a bad bet, we’ll plan around it a different way. If your cash reserves are thin, we help you fix that first. If you’re carrying expensive debt, paying it off will do more for you than anything on our shelf. Every one of those conversations has happened at our table, more than once, over 25 years. We think being able to say no is what makes the rest of our advice worth listening to.
What You Get for the Fee
We’ll agree with the skeptics on one point: the problem with a lot of advisory relationships isn’t the fee, it’s getting nothing visible for it. You should be able to see the value plainly.
So here’s what our clients get for theirs. Income designed to land on the first of the month, in good markets and bad. A portfolio that has the time to potentially to recover from its down years, because nobody is selling grocery money out of it at the bottom. Trips that can be taken, because they were priced and paid for in advance. A short tax meeting every December that can helps move money out of the taxed world at rates your family may never see again. And a plan simple enough that you could run it at 87, or your spouse could pick it up without a translator.
None of that shows up on a statement. Most of it is why people tend to stay with us for decades.
On a Personal Note
A few more things about S&Co.
Don't forget your cookies!
We bake fresh chocolate chip cookies for every client who comes to the office! Careful, they are hard to put down!
Our client events can't be beat!
Our client events aren't stuffy financial seminars! We have a lot of fun, and you are sure to meet some great retirees there!
We love Wolfson Children's Hospital
Ever since the Stratton family was helped so much through a difficult time with a child, we have tried to give back with regular toy drives to Wolfson.