Investments
Portfolio guidance connected to taxes, cash flow, risk, and your broader plan.
Minnesota fee-only financial planning
Flat Fee Financial Planning for Families Building and Managing Significant Wealth
Choose comprehensive Planning or advanced Premier. Both pair your investments with tax, retirement, estate, and family decisions through a dedicated advisor relationship—without a 1% AUM fee.
$900 / quarterPlanning: a dedicated advisor and comprehensive ongoing planning.
$1,650 / quarterPremier: advanced planning, implementation, and professional coordination.
0% AUMYour advisory fee is not a percentage of your portfolio.
Minnesota-basedLocal roots with virtual planning flexibility.
The answer in 20 seconds
One Advisor Relationship for Decisions That Rarely Happen Alone
Investment choices affect taxes. Tax choices affect retirement. Retirement choices affect estate planning and family wealth. Flames FP connects those decisions under a flat quarterly membership instead of charging a percentage of your assets.
See how the planning relationship worksWhat's covered in a coordinated planning relationship
Tax planning
Year-round tax decisions, with tax-return review in Planning and eligible preparation and filing in Premier through an independent tax partner.
Retirement
Income, Roth conversions, Social Security, Medicare, RMDs, and withdrawals.
Estate planning guidance
Legal documents, beneficiaries, legacy decisions, and family coordination.
Ongoing advice
A second set of eyes for decisions that come up throughout the year.
Who Flames FP helps
Financial Planning for Connected Decisions
Flames FP helps Minnesota households coordinate investments, taxes, compensation, retirement, and family decisions instead of handling each one separately.
- High-income familiesCoordinate taxes, goals, and growing wealth.
- Corporate employeesConnect RSUs, stock options, and bonuses to the broader plan.
- Pre-retireesPlan retirement income, Social Security, Medicare, taxes, and withdrawals together.
- Business owners and executivesCoordinate business, equity, taxes, investments, and family wealth.
- Minnesota householdsGet local roots with the flexibility of a virtual planning relationship.
Flat-fee memberships
Two Ways to Work With Flames.
Planning coordinates the full financial picture. Premier adds deeper modeling, implementation, tax filing, and professional coordination when the work becomes more complex.
Shared foundation
Included in every Flames membership
- Dedicated Flames advisor
- Personalized investment management
- Financial Dashboard
- No AUM advisory fee
Comprehensive ongoing planning
Flames Planning
$900 / quarter
$3,600 annualized
For established professionals and families who want investments, taxes, retirement, insurance, and estate planning coordinated.
Included in Flames Planning
- Comprehensive ongoing financial planning
- Personalized investment management, monitoring, and rebalancing
- Proactive tax guidance and review of one completed personal tax return
- Retirement, insurance, and estate decisions coordinated in one plan
- Wealth.com will- or trust-based estate documents from day one
- Ongoing planning conversations, plan updates, and Dashboard updates
Advanced planning and implementation
Flames Premier
$1,650 / quarter
$6,600 annualized
For high-asset households, pre-retirees, retirees, and families facing advanced tax, retirement-income, estate, or implementation decisions.
Everything in Flames Planning, plus
- Advanced planning led by your dedicated Flames advisor
- Ongoing tax projections, Roth-conversion, and capital-gain modeling
- Retirement-income, Social Security, and withdrawal implementation
- Eligible tax-return preparation and filing with an independent tax partner
- Equity-compensation, concentrated-position, and charitable planning
- Advanced estate strategy, professional coordination, and priority access
Billed quarterly in advance. No annual commitment.
1% AUM vs Flames Premier
See What a Percentage-of-Assets Fee Means Over 10 Years
Move the slider to compare an advisor charging 1% of a growing portfolio with the Flames Premier Membership's fixed $6,600 annual fee. This illustration assumes 8% annual portfolio growth.
Year-one 1% AUM fee
$10,000
10-year 1% AUM fees
$144,866
Portfolio grows 8% annually; the 1% fee grows with it.
10-year Flames Premier fees
$66,000
$6,600 flat quarterly membership fee for 10 years.
Estimated 10-year savings with Premier
$82,866
Hypothetical educational illustration only, not a performance projection or guarantee. Assumes the selected starting portfolio grows 8% annually, applies a 1% AUM fee to each year's beginning balance, and holds the Premier fee at $6,600 per year. Excludes withdrawals, taxes, investment expenses, other fees, and the effect of paying fees from the portfolio.
Client perspective
Advice Should Feel Personal, Understandable, and Useful
Short excerpts from Google reviews highlight the parts of the relationship that matter most: personal fit, coordinated advice, and trust. See Google reviews.
Personal fit
"Working with Joel has been a life changer."
Advisor relationship
"Financial planning is accessible, personal and enjoyable through Joel's expertise!"
Trust and confidence
"Joel at Flames is an exceptional financial planner who has consistently exceeded our expectations."
Client testimonials from Google reviews. Reviewers were not compensated. Individual experiences vary and are not indicative of future results or outcomes.
Common questions
Clear Answers Before the First Meeting
Pricing, services, and the planning model should be understandable before you ever share a financial statement.
Browse financial planning guidesDoes Flames Financial Planning charge AUM fees?
No. Flames FP uses flat quarterly membership pricing instead of charging a percentage of assets under management. Your membership fee is based on planning complexity rather than portfolio size.
What can a Flames FP membership include?
Depending on the membership, Flames FP can include financial planning, investment management, tax planning, retirement planning, family wealth coordination, and ongoing advisor access. Planning and Premier include Wealth.com estate-document access, while eligible Premier members also receive individual tax-return preparation and filing through an independent tax partner.
How much does Flames Financial Planning cost?
Flames Planning is $900 per quarter ($3,600 annualized), and Flames Premier is $1,650 per quarter ($6,600 annualized). Both are billed quarterly in advance with no annual commitment and no percentage-of-assets advisory fee.
Does Flames FP work with Minnesota clients?
Yes. Flames FP is Minnesota-based and can work with local and virtual clients where permitted by registration and compliance requirements. See the flat-fee financial advisor in Minnesota guide for comparison questions.
Explore Flames FP
The Main Pages for Understanding Flames Financial Planning
Start with transparent pricing, the planning process, the membership chooser, services, households we serve, and the firm behind the advice.
Pricing
Compare Planning and Premier at $900 or $1,650 per quarter, including the audience and planning work each relationship is designed to serve.
How It Works
Follow the process from discovery meeting through organization, recommendations, implementation, and ongoing advice.
Get Started
Choose the membership that fits your needs, then schedule the matching no-cost discovery meeting.
Services
See how investments, taxes, retirement, estate guidance, and ongoing decisions work together without AUM fees.
Who We Help
Review the households and planning situations that are most likely to fit a coordinated flat-fee relationship.
About
Learn about the fee-only fiduciary model, Minnesota roots, planning philosophy, and professional standards.
Watch and learn
Financial Planning, Explained Clearly
Start with three videos selected for this page, then use the controls to explore every published Flames FP video guide.
Videos 1–3 of 14
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Flat Fee vs 1% Financial Advisor
See how a percentage fee changes in dollars as a portfolio grows and what to compare beyond the headline rate. -
The 6 Levels of Wealth for $200K+ Households
Use six stages to separate a high income from the wealth it actually creates. -
How to Decrease Your Tax Bill
Review practical tax-planning decisions that can connect income, investments, retirement, and withholding. -
What Nobody Tells You About Earning $400K a Year
See why a $400K income can still leave too little investable margin and how taxes, lifestyle growth, and deliberate investing change the result. -
The 3-Account System for a $250K Income
Use cash reserves, tax-advantaged accounts, and a taxable brokerage account to turn a strong income into a repeatable wealth-building system. -
The RSU Strategy Most $300K Tech Earners Miss
Understand taxation at vesting, check the withholding gap, and turn each RSU vest into a deliberate diversification and household-planning decision. -
The Most Underrated Retirement Account
How a taxable brokerage account can support retirement flexibility alongside tax-advantaged accounts. -
Should You Invest or Spend Your HSA?
A practical framework for deciding how an HSA fits healthcare costs, taxes, and retirement planning. -
Four Common Backdoor Roth IRA Mistakes
Understand contribution, conversion, pro-rata, and reporting mistakes before they create tax problems. -
Direct Indexing vs ETFs in a Taxable Account
Compare diversification, tax management, cost, and complexity before changing an investment strategy. -
My New Favorite Account to Gift Money to Kids and Grandkids
Compare the new child investment account with 529 plans, custodial accounts, Roth IRAs for earned income, and the family's actual goals. -
Estate Planning Documents You May Need
A plain-English review of wills, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, beneficiaries, and trusts. -
How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?
Think through income replacement, debt, children, childcare, education, and family risk. -
Five Money Mistakes High Earners Make
Common coordination gaps involving taxes, cash flow, investments, insurance, and estate planning.
Your next step
Find Out Whether a Flat-Fee Planning Relationship Fits Your Life
Use a discovery meeting to talk through your priorities, the planning work involved, and which membership may fit. Understand the options before deciding whether to move forward.