Founder and financial planner
Joel Miller, CFP
Joel founded Flames Financial Planning to build a clearer way to pay for coordinated financial advice: fixed quarterly memberships, no AUM fees, and one planning relationship for the decisions that affect each other.
Direct answer
Who Is Joel Miller, CFP?
Joel Miller is the founder of Flames Financial Planning, a Minnesota-based flat-fee financial planning firm. His work focuses on coordinating investments, tax planning, retirement planning, estate guidance, and ongoing household decisions without charging AUM fees.
Why Flames exists
Build the relationship around advice, not asset size
Flames was created around a simple question: why should the cost of financial advice automatically rise because a portfolio grew?
Transparent quarterly pricing
Clients can see the quarterly membership cost and its annualized equivalent in dollars, then evaluate it against the planning work included.
Connected decisions
Investments, taxes, retirement, insurance, estate guidance, and family priorities are treated as one planning system.
A company beyond the founder
Joel's role matters, but the long-term goal is a durable Flames planning experience, process, dashboard, and standard of care.
Planning philosophy
Good advice should make the next decision clearer
A plan is not valuable because it is long. It is valuable when it helps a household understand tradeoffs and act with more confidence.
Start with the household
Goals, values, family responsibilities, cash flow, and risk come before product or portfolio recommendations.
Explain the tradeoff
Clients should understand the cost, tax effect, risk, timing, and alternatives behind an important recommendation.
Keep updating the plan
The planning process should respond when markets, income, taxes, health, family, or goals change.
Public education
Teach the decision before asking for the meeting
Flames publishes detailed videos, written guides, calculators, and a free dashboard so people can learn and organize before deciding whether to hire an advisor.
Financial planning videos
Long-form explanations make advisor fees, taxes, retirement, investing, insurance, and estate decisions easier to inspect.
Browse videosWritten planning guides
Answer-first pages provide examples, comparisons, FAQs, and source material that can be revisited.
Read planning guidesFree financial dashboard
Organize net worth, budgeting, goals, debt, insurance, estate documents, and planning questions before hiring anyone.
Explore the dashboardWatch and learn
Learn Directly From Joel
Use the video for the walkthrough, then use the written guide for the details, examples, and next steps.
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.
Watch and read the guide
Five Money Mistakes High Earners Make
Common coordination gaps involving taxes, cash flow, investments, insurance, and estate planning.
Watch and read the guideCommon questions
Joel Miller and Flames FP Questions
Is Joel Miller a CFP professional?
Yes. Joel Miller is a Certified Financial Planner professional and the founder of Flames Financial Planning.
Where is Joel Miller based?
Joel and Flames Financial Planning are based in Minnesota, with virtual planning flexibility for eligible clients.
Does Joel charge AUM fees?
Flames Financial Planning uses fixed quarterly membership pricing instead of charging a percentage of assets under management.
Is Flames FP intended to be bigger than one advisor?
Yes. The brand, planning process, dashboard, educational library, and service standards are being built around Flames Financial Planning as the durable company.
How can I learn before scheduling a meeting?
Use the free financial dashboard, watch the Flames FP YouTube videos, read the planning guides, and compare transparent pricing before deciding whether to schedule.
Next step
Meet the company Joel is building, not only the founder.
Explore Flames FP's process and pricing, or schedule a discovery meeting when you want to talk through your planning needs.