Overview—Fee Only

Dunn Financial Advisors is a fee only financial planning firm. Our only sources of compensation are the fees paid to us by our clients. Fee only planners sell no products and receive no commissions. Fee only planners are different from fee based planners in that fee based planners sell products, receive commissions, and charge fees. Being fee only eliminates one potential conflict of interest when brokerage houses, insurance companies, and banks offer a higher commission to their agents for selling one product over another..

Fees Paid by the Client

The different fee structures are designed to provide a fair and reasonable fee for clients who have different needs, income, and types of wealth. The purpose of the different fee structures is to reflect the client who simply wants some financial advice on specific questions or topics, the client who wants advice and/or implementation on a specific project, and a client who wants on-going planning advice on his assets, liabilities, and responsibilities. For example, three clients may have identical income and net worth. Client A may simply want advice on a project; Client B may have all his assets in liquid assets such as cash, stocks and bonds; and Client C may have all his assets in illiquid assets such as commercial or residential properties, a closely held business, land, paintings, or antiques. The maximum fee options, subject to negotiation, are designed to reflect the appropriate advice in each case. The options are:

Financial Plan Only

The fee for a stand-alone financial plan with no further help, advice, or implementation by the advisor is an hourly or a project fee.

Hourly or Project Fee

An hourly fee may be charged for consultation, planning, or investment advice. On some occasions, a flat fee will be charged for a specified project. The advice given is for that meeting or project only and no on-going help, advice, or implementation is required by the advisor after the meeting or project has ended unless agreed to in advance.

Annual Retainer

- Gross Assets. A retainer fee is based on a planning fee (if applicable and appropriate), income (excluding interest, dividends, capital gains and appreciation), a weighted percentage of gross assets, and the complexity of issues addressed.

- Invested Assets. A retainer fee is based on a planning fee (if applicable and appropriate), and the schedule outlined in the ADV Part II (see disclosures ) beginning at 1% of invested assets and decreasing based on the amount of money invested.

Tax Deductible Fees

- The fees you pay Dunn Financial Advisors may be a tax deductible item on your Schedule A, (line 22 miscellaneous expenses greater than 2%), Schedule C (if appropriate) or corporate expenses if offered as a benefit to executives and/or employees.

How Much is an Advisor Worth? Paying for Value.

Years ago, goes an apocryphal story, the production line stopped at Ford Motor Company. Each minute the production line was not running was costing the company thousands of dollars. After hours of trying to get the line up and running again, the in-house staff gave up. So Henry Ford called in the worlds top expert in production lines. The consultant came in, took one look at the line, and flipped a switch. The line started moving again.

A few days later, Ford received a bill from the consultant. The price tag: $10,000.

Ford called the consultant. Come on, Ford said. Ten thousand bucks for flipping a simple switch? After thinking about it, the consultant agreed that $10,000 was too high for switch-flipping. So he rewrote his bill and submitted it to Ford.

Flipping switch: $5, it read.

Knowing which switch to flip: $9,995.