We Partner With People Under 60 To Guide Them Through Two Distinct Phases Of Financial Life Planning. Which One Are You In?

Full Financial Life Planning For A Unique Flat-Dollar Fee

We are on a mission to make truly comprehensive financial advice available to anyone who needs it, regardless of how much they currently have to invest. By working 100% virtually (though we are always happy to meet in person for a coffee or drink) we are able to keep our operating costs low and pass those savings on to you. We are one of the rare financial planning firms that charges a flat-dollar fee instead of charging you based on how much you invest. When you partner with us, you get  access to a dedicated experienced, fiduciary CFP® who only works with no more than 40 clients at a time (much lower than the industry average). So you can be confident you will receive the personalized attention your financial well-being deserves. 

We Believe You Deserve Better Than The "Typical" Client Experience

Many of the traditional financial advisor business models are too sales-based and complex, riddled with conflicts of interest, and ineffective in helping people achieve their goals. So we decided to create a better way. 

How is HCP Wealth Planning Different?

Our Solutions Include

 

Cash Flow & Spending Analysis

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Cash Flow & Spending Analysis

Understanding how your day-to-day spending impacts the rest of your financial picture is a big step toward taking control over your finances. It’s important to ask yourself:

• How much should I have set aside in my emergency fund?
• What percent of my paycheck should I save in my 401(k)?
• How should I prioritize saving for different things vs. paying down debt?
• How much should I allocate towards fixed vs. discretionary expenses?
• How should I organize and track my expenses?

And if you’re faced with a credit score that’s less than ideal, we can help you answer:

• How can I improve my credit score?
• How can I monitor my credit score and credit reports?
• What is the best way to start building my credit?
• Should I close old credit cards?
• Should I freeze my credit?

 

Employer-Sponsored Plan Investments & Benefits

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Employer-Sponsored Plans & Benefits

If your hospital or practice offers a 401(k) or 403(b) plan, there are some questions to keep in mind:

• How should I invest in my employer savings plan?
• How do I know how much risk I should take with my investments?
• Should I contribute pre tax or Roth money into my 401(k)/403(b)?
• Should I rollover my 401(k)/403(b)?
• What steps should I take to be a successful investor?

And when it comes to understanding your benefits, we can help you answer:

• Should I sign up for the high deductible plan?
• What is an HSA?
• What is an FSA?
• How much can I contribute to my HSA and FSA?
• Should I purchase additional insurance through my employer plan?

 

Student Loan Debt

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Student Loan Debt

Most medical professionals earn a degree before entering the field, which means many are left facing significant student loan debt. We can help you understand:

• How do I determine exactly what kind of student loans I have?
• What are all of my student loan repayment options?
• What is the best income driven repayment plan?
• Which repayment plan will save me the most money?
• How much money can I actually save using an applicable student loan?

And as you work toward repaying your debt, you should be considering:

• How do I qualify for public service loan forgiveness?
• Does my state offer any programs to help me pay off my student loans?
• Which federal repayment plan makes the most sense for me?
• Should I consolidate my loans?
• How do I consolidate my loans?

 

Insurance and Estate Planning

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Insurance Planning

It’s always hard to think about the worst case scenarios, but as part of our fiduciary duty, we know it’s important to make sure you’re keeping your family, your finances and yourself protected. We’ll help answer:

• How much life insurance do I need?
• How much will life insurance cost?
• What is the difference between term and permanent life?
• Should I buy term or permanent life insurance?
• How much disability coverage do I need?
• Should I buy long term care coverage?
• How much home and automobile coverage do I need?

 

Retirement Planning

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Retirement planning

It's never too early to address the following questions about your retirement plan

• How much do I need in order to retire?
• Am I on track to retire?
• How much should I be saving?
• Should I contribute pre tax or Roth dollars to my 401(k)/403(b)?
• How long will my money last?

And as you’re preparing for retirement, we can help you address important estate planning questions as well, including:

• Is estate planning only for the ultra-wealthy
• What estate planning documents do I need and how do I get them
• What is a last will and testament
• How do I make it easy for my spouse to access all of our key financial documents and passwords when I pass away
• How do I protect my digital assets when I pass away

 

College planning

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College planning

You’ve already put yourself through college, so it comes as no surprise that earning a degree can set anyone back quite a bit. When it comes time to save for your child or grandchild to head off to school, together we can answer:

• How much will college cost?
• How can I save for college expenses?
• What are the benefits and drawbacks of using 529's, Roth accounts, and prepaid plans for college expenses?
• What happens if I don’t need to use my 529 funds?
• Can I use 529s to pay student loans?
  
  

 

Tax Planning

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Tax Planning

While we will recommend you work with a tax professional for the actual preparation of your tax returns, we’re happy to help you understand the tax ramifications of your various retirement contribution strategies, student debt repayment strategies, roth conversions, changes in income and any other strategy that could have the potential to impact your taxes year-after-year. As we work to create your overall plans and consider various solutions, we will provide a detailed 1040 estimate for both current and all future years that reflects any potential strategies that may be implemented

Investment Management Included 

In addition to helping you select the investments in your employer-sponsored retirement accounts, we strategically manage your other non-employer investment accounts when appropriate (Traditional and Roth IRAs, taxable brokerage accounts, Solo 401k's, SEP IRAs, etc).  This service is included in our Unlimited Plan along with all the above services for one simple, flat fee.  

Our unique portfolio management strategies are anything but cookie-cutter. They combine active and passive management to keep costs low and minimize taxes, while attempting to maximize risk adjusted returns. Since we charge a flat dollar fee, the amount you pay us each year doesn't increase just because your portfolio balance does.

Learn About Our Unique Hybrid Investment Approach

The financial advice industry is riddled with conflicts of interest and and the typical method for charging fees is a big reason why

At HCP Wealth Planning, we believe the fees you pay your advisor should only be based on the expertise and services you receive, not the size of your portfolio. We don't think it's fair that someone should pay an advisor higher fees, just because they have more money. Why is this? Because the little secret that many financial advisors don't want you to know is that it generally doesn't cost them any more time or require any more expertise to manage a $1,000,000 portfolio than it does a $100,000 portfolio.  Just because someone has a larger portfolio, that doesn't automatically mean their financial planning needs are more complex. 

Unfortunately this type of pricing model, which is known as the Assets Under Management (AUM) model, is still the most popular fee method in the industry.  Take a look at the below chart which reflects the difference in fees between our flat fee "Unlimited Plan" option, versus the industry average AUM fees. 

 *The AUM fees used in the below chart are from the AdvisoryHQ study, "Average Financial Advisor Fees and Costs, 2019 Report"

Not only does the AUM model create conflicts of interest, it creates incentives for advisors to purposely try to avoid working with younger professionals simply because they don't yet have enough money to invest to make it worth the advisor's time. Many of these younger people need more financial guidance than anyone.  The AUM model is not going to go away unless more consumers demand a better alternative because it generates too much easy income for those advisors. Our mission at HCP Wealth Planning is to  be a leader in the movement towards a better model.

Conflicts of Interest

One of the biggest issues with the traditional AUM model is that it creates many conflicts of interest when the advisor is delivering advice.  

• Paying off debt:  What happens if it's in your best interest to pay down debt such as student loans or paying down a mortgage? That means less money to invest and less money in your advisor's pocket. They have a financial incentive to recommend you do not pay off that debt.
• Real Estate Investing: What if it makes more sense for you to diversify some of your savings and create passive income by investing in real estate? Let's say for example you want to spend $200,000 on a rental property. That's $200,000 that could otherwise be in your investment portfolio which means your advisor could be making $2000 per year in fees from that money. Can you trust that advisor to be unbiased when helping you decide if that rental property is a good investment? The same applies if you are considering paying a lump sum to buy into a business. 
• Inheritance: Over the course of the next couple of decades, the greatest generational wealth transfer will take place. Let's say you inherit an IRA worth $200,000 and it makes sense for your advisor to invest that for you. Should your advisor all of a sudden be paid $2000 more a year because you inherited this money, even though it will barely take them any more time to invest it? What if you inherit $500,000 or even $1,000,000?  Should they all of a sudden be paid $5,000 or $10,000 more per year?
• Social Security: In many scenarios, it makes sense to delay receiving Social Security benefits until you are eligible for the max benefit at age 70. This can be true even if delaying SS means you have to draw down more of your investments in the mean time. In this instance, your financial advisor has a financial incentive to recommend you take SS as early as possible, to reduce the drawdown of your investments and therefore prevent their fees from decreasing.
• The Rollover Conversation: There are many scenarios where it could be in your best interest not to rollover your 401(k) or 403(b) after you stop working for your employer. But if the only way an AUM advisor is going to get paid is by managing those investments in an IRA, they have a financial incentive to convince you to rollover out of your 401k and into an IRA.   A flat fee advisor can give you an unbiased recommendation on whether or not to rollover because they get paid the same amount no matter how much you invest with them. 

The Typical AUM Advisor Excuses:

1) They will tell you that with the AUM model, their fees actually decrease if your portfolio value decreases.  So this provides them extra incentive to get you the best returns as compared to a flat fee advisor. There are multiple issues with this excuse:

• Sure, over a short period of time, the markets may drop and your portfolio may decrease in value, so your advisor's fees temporarily decrease. But if you have a long term relationship with your advisor, odds are that over time, your portfolio value will increase and therefore your fees will increase. This is true even accounting for short term market corrections.  In fact, after every single stock market correction in history, the market has gone on to reach all time highs. 
• If your advisor's fees stand to increase if your portfolio balance grows, don't they a financial incentive to take on more risk in order to try to achieve higher returns?

2) They will say that a flat fee financial advisor has no financial incentive to try to get you the best returns on your investments since flat fee advisors get paid the same no matter how your portfolio is performing.

• This couldn't be any further from the truth. Most flat fee advisors charge their fees on a monthly or quarterly basis. What's more, is these fees are right in your face since you usually pay them with a debit or credit credit card, or as a recurring draft out of your checking account.  Under the flat fee model, you know EXACTLY how much you are paying your advisor, and if you aren't happy with any part of your service, portfolio performance or otherwise, you can simply cancel the relationship before the next month's payment.  This creates extra pressure for a flat fee advisor to deliver an amazing client experience.
• The majority of clients who work with an AUM advisor could not tell you exactly how much in dollar terms they paid their advisor last quarter. This is because those fees are buried in account statements that you probably won't look at and it's unlikely that advisor is going to be proactive in explicitly telling you how much you paid.  This is less likely to happen when you see the transaction fees on your bank account statements every month. 

If 100% of your advisor's fees are based on your investments, how much time are they really going to want to spend discussing and helping you with other aspects of your life that are just as important?

At HCP Wealth Planning, we believe that creating and maintaining a suitable investment strategy needs to be a part of the financial planning process, but not the only part.  Our flat fee solutions include helping you with every aspect of your financial life.  Whether you already have over $500,000 in investments, or are just getting started with investing, our unique "Unlimited Plan" and "By the Gig" flat fee models allow us to provide you custom, comprehensive financial advice. 

Learn More About How We Specialize In Helping People Under 60 Achieve Financial Independence

* I want to be clear that just because an advisor works under the AUM model, that does not make them a "bad" person. Throughout my career, I have gotten to know many advisors who work under this model, many of them I would call good friends, and I have 100% faith that they would never steer their clients wrong.  They just happen to be stuck working in a bad model because that is the one their employer has chosen and not everyone is in a position in life where they can go off and start their own firm with a flat-fee model. However, it would be naïve to say that there aren't any bad apples out there. Otherwise the financial services industry wouldn't be as highly regulated as it is. A flat fee model would minimize the chances that those bad apples would give conflicted advice.

We Offer Two Flat Fee Service Models

Unlimited Plan

This is designed for those who are seeking an ongoing relationship that includes financial planning, tax planning, investment management, and all our other solutions for one all-inclusive fee that doesn't increase just because your portfolio balance increases.  We provide an extremely hands-on and personal client experience. Because of this, we limit the number of households in the Unlimited Plan to forty so we can dedicate the time necessary to deliver a world class experience. 

By The Gig Plan

Do you have a fear of commitment? That's OK! For those of you who don't need ongoing professional investment management or just need help getting organized and advice on a few topics, we are happy to provide our "By The Gig" project plans.  We'll accomplish everything you need for a pre-determined, flat fee, without you having to agree to continuously work with us year after year. For less than most people spend on dining out each month, you can create a plan to secure your financial future. 

Which Service Model Is Best For You?

Not ready to commit? You can schedule an informal video chat to get to know us better. If you live in the Jacksonville area, we would also love to meet you for a coffee or drink

We are not a robo advisor and we don't just copy generic model portfolios that anybody can find online. We believe our clients deserve better. We partner with First Ascent Asset Management to provide investment management services to our clients. You can be confident that your portfolios are in sound hands as their investment team has a combined 147 years of investment experience.  As an independent asset management firm, they are able to pick from the universe of investment options when building your portfolio and they don't receive any compensation from any of the firms whose investment products they use. So they can be objective in their research and put your best interests first. All of our client's managed investments are held at TD Ameritrade, so you can be sure they are safe and secure.

Focus On What You Can Control

All of our client's portfolios are invested based on the philosophy that you should focus on what you can control.  You cannot control the direction of the financial markets, but there are many things you can control to achieve your objectives and improve your investment experience. This includes the following:

1. Creating an investment plan that matches your needs and risk tolerance
2. Your portfolios should be designed to achieve the goals set forth in that plan
3. You should be diversified globally
4. Combing active and passive management allows you to get the best of both approaches
5. Your portfolios should keep costs low by managing expenses, turnover, and taxes
6. You should stay disciplined through market dips and swings (we know this is easier said than done but don't worry, part of why you hire us is to help you with this)

How Your Portfolios Are Designed

The core is the foundation of each portfolio.  It gives you broad exposure to global stock and bond markets. Then we can add funds to the portfolio that we call “satellites” when First Ascent has high conviction that they provide an opportunity to improve the returns or reduce the risk of the portfolio.

The core consists of low-cost exchange traded funds (ETFs) that provide a widely diversified mix of US and international stocks and bonds. First Ascent selects ETFs for the core based on the breadth of the exposure they give us to global markets, their liquidity, and their low cost.

First Ascent adds satellites to a portfolio to complement the core. Satellites may consist of actively managed mutual funds, passively managed index funds, or ETFs. The goal of adding satellites is to benefit from an asset class, skilled manager, or specialized strategy that may improve returns, create a new source of diversification, or control risk.

One of the benefits we can gain by combining actively managed funds with passively managed ETFs is that active and passive styles tend to outperform in cycles. During certain periods more passively managed funds tend to outperform and during other periods more actively managed funds tend to outperform.  The timing of these cycles is unpredictable, so First Ascent includes both actively and passively managed funds in the portfolio.  

If your advisor is using investments with expense ratios that are close to 1% or more, they are doing it wrong. 

We keep the expenses of the funds we use very low. If fund fees are lower, you get to keep more of what you earn. This savings could add up to thousands of dollars per year depending on your portfolio size. 

Our focus on fees, costs, and expenses pays off for our clients. The median global mutual fund has internal expenses of about 95 basis points (.95%).  The First Ascent Global Explorer Portfolio expense ratios average between 18 and 23 bps (.18% and .23%).

This unique style of professional investment management is included for all of our Unlimited Plan clients at no additional costs. Since you only pay one all-inclusive flat fee for our unlimited plan, you don't have to worry about paying increasingly higher fees as your portfolio grows over time.

Most people aren't even sure exactly how much they are paying their advisor in dollar terms each year.  We will help you figure that out with a complimentary portfolio review. 

Reach Out To Schedule A Free Portfolio Review

Unlimited Plan Clients:

Once we build out your financial foundation and address everything on the agreed upon initial to do list (we will hold as many meetings as necessary to do this), we will hold three official meetings each calendar year. In between, we will proactively stay in contact with you via email.  Our team of experts will continue to manage your portfolios and make changes as they deem necessary. We also highly encourage you to reach out to us in between each official meeting whenever you feel the need. This could be because you have experienced a life event, you are contemplating a life change, you have concerns about your plan, the markets, or anything else. We also love to simply hear from you about any positive changes or events that have happened in your life.

By The Gig Clients:

Step 1: We begin by helping you determine your top priorities and provide an agreed upon scope of engagement which will include what topics will be discussed in our meetings, and the price. 

Step 2: We help you organize your finances and create your personal financial portal.

Step 3: We conduct online video meetings where we provide custom, straightforward recommendations based on your top financial priorities. 

Step 4: We help you you implement the recommendations and provide you a detailed summary.

Step 5: You can take advantage of having 90 days of unlimited email follow up if you end up having any additional questions. 

Step 6: You can continue to track your financial life and progress towards your goals in your personal financial portal using our custom app.

Ready To Take The First Step?

Let's Get Started

Flat Fee Financial Advisors Based In Jacksonville, FL and Serving Clients Nationwide Through Virtual Meetings