Flat Fee Financial Advisors for Planning and Investment Management

Arnold & Mote Wealth Management charges one flat fee, billed monthly or quarterly, that covers both financial planning and investment management. The fee doesn’t move with your account balance or with the stock market. Current pricing is on our Services page.

We’ve always been a fee-only fiduciary, so we don’t take commissions or payments from insurance or investment companies for recommending their products. Moving to a flat fee takes that a step further: your cost for advice and wealth management is fully visible up front.

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What Is a Flat Fee Financial Advisor?

A flat fee financial advisor charges one fixed price for planning and investment advice, instead of a percentage of your account balance. Most of the industry works differently. Commission-based advisors earn money by selling products like life insurance and mutual funds that pay them for the sale. AUM advisors charge a percentage of your investment accounts, so a 1% fee on a $1 million portfolio costs $10,000 a year, and that fee rises to $12,000 if your balance grows to $1.2 million, whether from investment returns or a new deposit.

Arnold & Mote is one of a small number of firms that charge a flat fee for both planning and investment management. The fee doesn’t change based on whether you buy insurance, which funds you hold, or how much you deposit into your accounts.

Why a Flat Fee Reduces Conflicts of Interest

Fee structure shapes advice, whether an advisor intends it to or not.

A commission-based advisor only gets paid when a product sells, so a life insurance policy or an annuity tends to come up in conversation more than it should. That advisor may talk about your Social Security strategy or your withdrawal plan, but the incentive still points toward the sale.

An AUM advisor is better aligned with your interests than a commission-based one, but the conflict doesn’t disappear. Adding cash to your investment accounts raises their fee. So does keeping money invested with them instead of using it to pay down debt, buy a rental property, or fund something outside their management. If you ask that advisor whether a large withdrawal makes sense, their compensation depends on the answer.

A flat fee model removes that link entirely. We’re paid the same whether you invest more, invest less, pay off your mortgage, or buy a CD elsewhere. You can move money for a home purchase, a debt payoff, or anything else without wondering if the advice is shaped by our fee.

What’s Included in the Flat Fee

Financial planning covers more than investments. Here are the 39 elements we build into every plan, organized by category.

Tax Planning

1. Annual Tax Review. Every year brings a new set of credits, deductions, and surcharges that may apply to you. See a sample report showing how we review returns for savings opportunities.
2. Roth Conversion Plans. Our Roth conversion guide walks through how and when a conversion makes sense.
3. Tax Loss and Gain Harvesting Check. If you have a brokerage account, tax loss harvesting can provide up to $3,000 in deductions each year.
4. Withholding Review. We check your paystub, pension, and Social Security withholding so you avoid surprise tax bills and penalties.
5. Charitable and Family Giving Plan. Whether you’re giving $100 or $100 million, giving in a tax-efficient way gets you the largest deduction and leaves the most for the people and causes you care about.
6. Tax Letter and Organizer. You’ll know which tax documents to expect each year, so nothing gets left off your return by mistake.

We also cover the cost of your tax return preparation each year through one of our trusted CPAs, for clients receiving investment management services.

Insurance Review

We don’t sell insurance and don’t earn commissions on any policy.

7. Health, Medicare, and Part D Insurance Review. A high-deductible plan with an HSA, Medigap, or Medicare Advantage can each save or cost you thousands depending on your situation.
8. Employee and Retiree Benefit Review. We compare what your employer offers against what’s available elsewhere.
9. Long Term Care Insurance Review. These policies are costly and complex. We help you decide if one makes sense and, if so, which type fits your situation.
10. Disability Insurance Review. You’re more likely to become disabled than to die during your working years. Disability coverage protects against decades of lost income.
11. Life Insurance Review. We help you decide how much life insurance you need, and we’ll also tell you when an old policy is safe to drop.
12. Auto, Home, and Umbrella Review. These policies, including umbrella coverage, often get skipped by advisors focused on life insurance sales. See a sample report showing how we help clients cut premiums while keeping coverage adequate.

Estate Planning

13. Beneficiary Review. Correct beneficiary designations get your assets to the people you intend, quickly and with less tax cost.
14. Will, POA, and Trust Document Review. These documents carry out your wishes after you’re gone, so we check that they still reflect your intentions.
15. Estate Plan Illustrations. We show you, visually, how your assets would be distributed under your current plan.
16. Trusted Contact on File. As financial scams and fraud increase, having an advisor and a trusted contact on record adds a layer of protection to your accounts.

Every client gets free access to Wealth.com, where you can create and update your estate documents at no added cost.

Investment Review

17. Investment Policy Statement Review. We set your stock and bond allocation based on your risk tolerance and research on how markets have historically behaved, then adjust it as your situation changes.
18. Rebalancing Support. Every account drifts from its target over time. We monitor and rebalance so your accounts keep working the way they were designed to.
19. ETF and Mutual Fund Fee Evaluation. High-cost funds can quietly cost you thousands a year. We check that your holdings use funds priced fairly for what they do.

Social Security Review

20. Benefit Claiming Plan. The right claiming age can add tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in lifetime benefits and reduce the risk of outliving your savings.
21. Social Security Statement Review. More than 100,000 earnings-reporting errors reach the Social Security Administration each year, and each one can lower your benefit for life if it goes uncorrected.

Withdrawal Planning

22. Required Minimum Distribution Planning. Once you reach a certain age, the IRS requires you to withdraw a set percentage of your retirement accounts each year. That requirement affects both your withdrawal plan and your taxes.
23. Withdrawal Plan Review. We map out which accounts to draw from and in what order, to reduce your tax bill and support your plan over the long run.
24. Inherited IRA and Roth Planning. Recent law changes made inherited account rules more complex, often adding both an annual withdrawal requirement and a 10-year deadline to empty the account.
25. Spending Guardrails. You’ll know how much you can withdraw each year and what account balance would call for a change.
26. Monte Carlo Analysis. We run your portfolio through more than 1,000 simulated market scenarios to see how it holds up against a stretch of poor returns.

Savings and Cash Flow Planning

27. Pension and Workplace Retirement Plan Options. We help you decide when you can retire and when to start any retiree benefits.
28. Cash Flow Report Review. We walk through detailed projections of your income, expenses, and withdrawals for the rest of retirement.
29. Current Savings Plan. Roth 401(k) or pre-tax 401(k), brokerage account or non-deductible IRA: we help you choose where new savings should go.
30. Cash Options. A low-interest checking account isn’t the only place for cash. We help with money markets, CDs, and Treasury bonds so idle cash earns more.
31. 401(k) Statement Review. Even when we don’t manage these investments directly, we recommend fund allocations and contribution amounts, and help with rollovers once you leave a job.
32. Goals and Expense Review. Understanding what you want and what you spend shapes how we invest your accounts and how we plan for using them in retirement.

College Planning

33. College Tax Strategies. Whether you’re saving for college or paying tuition now, several strategies can lower the total cost.
34. 529 Investment Review. 529 accounts need proper investment selection just like retirement accounts. We help make sure yours are positioned well, even though we don’t manage them directly.
35. Financial Aid. From FAFSA questions to deciding how much federal student loan debt makes sense, we help you piece together a plan for paying for college.
36. School Choice and Funding. We help you find a school that fits your budget and lay out exactly how to pay for it.

Cybersecurity and Beyond

37. Cybersecurity Reminders. Financial fraud costs people tens of billions of dollars a year. We help you understand the risks and put safeguards in place.
38. Credit Report Review. Errors on your credit report can cost thousands in added interest over time and affect everything from apartment applications to job offers.
39. Unclaimed Property Search. More than 30 million people have a combined $70 billion sitting in unclaimed or abandoned assets. We search the state databases with you to see if any of it is yours.

Who Is a Good Fit for Flat Fee Financial Planning

A flat fee model tends to work well for:

• People who want ongoing advice across taxes, investments, retirement, and estate planning, not just portfolio management. Investments matter, but they’re one piece of a plan that works best when every part is coordinated.
• Clients nearing or in retirement who need a coordinated withdrawal and RMD strategy. Most new clients come to us close to retirement, when decisions about rollovers, health insurance, and withdrawal order all need to happen at once. The early retirement years are also a strong window for Roth conversions or for lowering income to qualify for ACA premium credits.
• DIY investors who want a second opinion on a plan they built themselves or one built with another advisor. Because we have no requirement to manage your assets, we can review your plan without a stake in changing where your money sits.
• Professionals and high-net-worth investors with growing portfolios who want to avoid a fee that climbs every year their assets do.
• Clients making large decisions, such as buying property, making a gift, converting to a Roth, or retiring early, who want guidance that isn’t shaped by how the decision affects their advisor’s paycheck.

Commission-based advisors face an obvious conflict, since their income depends on which products they sell. AUM advisors are an improvement, but the conflict doesn’t disappear entirely. A flat fee removes the link between your decisions and your advisor’s pay.

What We Offer

• Transparent, predictable costs, with no percentage-based fee on your portfolio.
• A comprehensive financial plan built around your specific situation.
• Fiduciary advice focused only on your best interest.
• Independent guidance, with no commissions or kickbacks accepted.

How Flat Fee Wealth Management Works

Our advisory fee is debited from your investment accounts directly, each quarter, the same way an AUM fee would be. The difference is that ours doesn’t rise just because your balance does.

You’ll receive a quarterly report showing your recent portfolio performance, your current allocation, and the fee deducted from your account, so there’s nothing to track down or ask about.

How to Find a Flat Fee Financial Planner

We provide flat fee financial advice to clients across the country, not only in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. Schedule a free introductory meeting to see if we’re a good fit.

We’re members of two organizations built entirely around fee-only advisors: NAPFA, the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, and the XY Planning Network. Fee-only is common among their members. A true flat fee is not.

Frequently Asked Questions About Flat Fee Financial Planning

1. What is a flat fee financial advisor, and how is it different from an AUM advisor?

A flat fee financial advisor charges one fixed cost for planning and investment advice instead of a percentage of your assets, so the price stays predictable no matter how your portfolio performs. An AUM advisor charges a percentage of your investment balance instead, which means their fee rises as your accounts grow. Fee-only is a broader category that includes both models, so not every fee-only advisor uses a true flat fee.

2. Who is a good fit for the flat fee model?

Retirees, pre-retirees, high-income savers, and anyone who wants pricing that doesn’t rise with their portfolio tend to get the most value from this structure.

3. Do I need to hold my investments at Schwab, or move all my assets to work with you?

No to both. Managing your investments isn’t a requirement for working with us, and our financial planning service is also billed as a flat fee, so your assets can stay wherever you choose. It’s common for clients to keep some money in a 401(k), an annuity, or an account like Treasury Direct, and we’re glad to advise on those even though we don’t manage them directly.

4. How does this compare to a robo-advisor?

A robo-advisor can build and maintain an index fund portfolio, but it stops there. It won’t help with tax planning, estate planning, insurance, or the other parts of a full financial plan.

5. Is Arnold & Mote a fiduciary?

Yes. As a fiduciary, we’re legally required to act in your best interest whenever we give advice, make a recommendation, or provide financial planning guidance.

6. Are there any costs beyond the flat fee?

The investments we use carry small expense ratios, since our approach leans heavily on low-cost, passively managed index funds. These typically run between 0.04% and 0.06%, and that portion goes to the fund managers, such as Schwab, Vanguard, or iShares, not to Arnold & Mote.

7. How is the flat fee determined?

Your fee is based on the complexity of your financial situation, not your investment balance, and it stays consistent from year to year unless your planning needs change significantly.

8. Will you coordinate with my CPA or estate attorney?

Yes. We’re happy to include your CPA or attorney in a planning meeting.

9. What happens when I get started?

We’ll send you a list of documents to gather before your first meeting, which gives us time to build an initial version of your plan in our planning software. That first meeting is a getting-organized conversation, where we answer your questions and lay out an agenda for the meetings that follow.

10. How often will we meet or communicate?

New clients typically meet with us four to six times in the first year. After that, most clients meet twice a year. We also send a monthly client newsletter, and we’re available for additional meetings whenever something comes up.

11. Do you work with clients outside Cedar Rapids and Iowa City?

Yes. We serve many clients in the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City area, and we also work virtually with clients nationwide.

Ready to Get Started?

We’ve helped hundreds of households build a plan around their goals. Schedule a complimentary conversation to talk through your situation and see how a flat fee approach could work for you.

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