A fee only planner is paid by their clients and only their clients. That means that you and only you pay me. I do not receive commissions or perks from investment companies who try and persuade me to use their investments, even if their investments are not best for you. We’re compensated only by you, so we do not have any conflicts of interest when working with you.

For that reason we are always trying to get the best investments possible, with the lowest costs possible that meet your risk tolerance level.

My fees are tied to your investments with Creative Financial Design. If your assets invested with us grow, I make more money. If your assets invested with us go down, I make less money. My future is tied to your future!

I am a fiduciary! That means that I have to put your interests ahead of my own. I have over 36 years of experience and knowledge built up that can help you get the most out of your investments, based on your personal risk tolerance level.

If you have suffered a loss, you want to try and make up that loss, but you do not want to take risks that could lose you even more. We can help guide you through the rough terrain ahead.

A great wealth, life and financial planner is like a Sherpa, guiding his client on the climb up the client's personal mountainside. The planner knows the terrain, can steer the client around the treacherous areas and has the tools and expertise to coach his client through the unavoidable rough spots. Like climbing a mountain, the challenge of the task is different every time, and subject to many outside forces. Like the Sherpa, the great planner has the knowledge and experience to lead his clients safely toward their goals but, perhaps more importantly, he has the perspective to enhance the joy of the journey itself.

I believe my fees are most advantageous to people with assets of $350,000 and more. However I love a challenge and will work with almost anyone who wants to grow.

Michigan is going through some pretty hard times and, although I would like to set my minimums high like other advisors, I believe it is more important to help people than to have an easy laid-back life style.

We can get a good start in 4 weeks, but the best plans take a lifetime. We may meet as few as three or as many as five or more times the first year we are working together. Then we will meet with clients between two and four times a year, depending on their needs. However, we are continuously revisiting each part of a clients life plan during our reviews.

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Our hourly fee is based on an estimate of the time and resources needed to develop, implement and monitor your financial plan. Our asset management fee is based on the amount of money we manage. The original fee is based on the original amount of money you invest. The following years fees are based on the value of your account on the previous years December 31 values, plus any money you might add to your account during the year.

In using this method if your ivestmet grows, we make more money. If your investments loss money, we make less money. This has always seemed fair to our clients in the past. Does this seem reasonable to you?

Finally, if we have charged you a fee to do a financial plan and you have us manage your assets, we will use the fee we charged you to offset any asset management fees for the first 12 months.

It costs you less than it cost you in 2008 because we were not managing your money. Rates are negotiable on a case-by-case basis depending on needs and assets to be managed.

Prospective clients sometimes ask to see our investment results. We can compute a global return for all assets under management; however we don’t believe that figure is meaningful to prospective clients. We do not have a "typical" client portfolio. Each client's portfolio reflects the appropriate time line, return objectives, risk tolerance, tax situation and personal financial goals of that client.  We could and do show the performance of the particular investments we used over various time periods.  Prospective clients can thus observe the range of actual returns of specific portfolios and of the component elements often used in those portfolios. However, this may not be accurate, as in the past we have (when economic signals showed troubles coming) put stop loss orders on investments. These stop loss orders have then sold off those investments placing the clients in cash. Thus the historical returns no longer apply.

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