How We Work and What We Charge

Whether Queen City Wealth Planning is the right fit for you usually comes down to how you are paid — equity-heavy tech compensation with real tax and concentration decisions attached to it — and how we are paid, which we want to be completely transparent about before you become a client. This page covers how our fees work, what is and is not included, who we are built for, what "fee-only" and "fiduciary" actually mean as legal terms rather than marketing language, and how often you can expect to hear from us once you sign on.

How does Queen City Wealth Planning get paid?

Our policy is fee-only: every dollar we are paid comes directly from our clients, and we take no commissions, no referral fees, and no asset-based kickbacks from any product, custodian, or manager. We offer two engagement shapes. For an ongoing advisory relationship — open once you have at least $500,000 of managed assets — we charge 0.75% per year of the assets we help manage, billed quarterly in arrears — never in advance — so you are only ever paying for work already done. For a single, defined planning need rather than an ongoing relationship, we offer a flat-fee financial plan priced at $4,500 and delivered over 90 days, and a narrower $2,500 flat-fee project for a single major equity-compensation decision such as an IPO or a tender offer. Clients already working with us on an ongoing basis can also engage us for extra, out-of-scope work at $350 per hour. Because none of our compensation depends on which products you use, which custodian holds your assets, or how much you trade, our advice is not shaped by anything other than what serves you — that is what "fee-only" is designed to guarantee, and we structure every engagement to keep it true.

What does your fee cover?

Our advisory fee covers ongoing financial planning as a whole, not a narrow slice of it: help thinking through equity-compensation decisions as they come up (a vest, a tender offer, an IPO), coordination with your CPA at tax time so your planning and your tax return stay consistent with each other, and a standing concentration and rebalancing review of your overall portfolio rather than a one-time exercise. What we'd do, for example, when your first RSU tranche vests, is walk through whether to sell at vest or hold — the same concentration decision, not a tax decision, we cover for every vest after it, not just the first. It also includes unlimited questions between scheduled meetings — you do not need to wait for your next review to ask about a decision that comes up in between. What the fee does not cover is preparing or filing your tax return yourself; we coordinate closely with your CPA rather than replacing that relationship. If you are not an ongoing client, a single major equity-compensation decision such as an IPO or a tender offer can instead be engaged as a standalone $2,500 project, separate from the 0.75%-per-year ongoing advisory fee on managed assets. The goal of the fee structure is that a single, predictable cost covers the full range of decisions that come up around equity compensation over the course of a year, rather than charging separately every time something new happens.

Who do you work with, and who are you not a fit for?

Our policy is to build the firm around one client profile: engineers and other tech employees whose compensation includes meaningful equity — RSUs, ESPP shares, or stock options — alongside a base salary, because the planning problems that come with equity compensation are what we have built our process around. That focus means we are explicitly not a fit for some other kinds of clients, and we would rather say so upfront than take on a relationship that will not serve either side well. We are not the right firm for active or day traders looking for tactical trade ideas, for portfolios built primarily around cryptocurrency, or for clients whose main goal is picking individual stocks rather than managing a broader financial plan — we do not offer stock-picking advice, market-timing calls, or crypto trading support as part of any engagement. If your situation is dominated by one of those needs rather than by equity-compensation and broader planning, another advisor built around that specialty will likely serve you better than we would.

What does fee-only and fiduciary mean in practice?

Two terms show up on almost every advisor's website, and they mean specific, defined things rather than general marketing claims. "Fiduciary" describes a legal duty: an investment adviser's fiduciary duty comprises a duty of care and a duty of loyalty, meaning the adviser must, at all times, serve the best interest of its client and never subordinate the client's interest to its own. "Fee-only" is a narrower, compensation-based term: it means an advisor's only compensation is fees paid directly by clients, with no commissions, no referral fees, and no other product-based payments of any kind — a definition maintained by the CFP Board as part of its compensation-disclosure rules, distinct from "fee-based," a similar-sounding term that still permits commissions on top of fees. Before you sign an advisory agreement with any registered adviser, federal rules require the firm to give you its written disclosure brochure describing its fees, conflicts, and business practices, before or at the time you enter into that agreement.

How often will we meet?

Our policy is two scheduled reviews a year for ongoing clients: a spring meeting focused on tax planning and your equity calendar for the year ahead, and an autumn meeting focused on rebalancing and year-end planning moves. Beyond those two scheduled meetings, you can message us with questions at any time, and that access is included in your fee rather than billed separately — a quick question about an upcoming vest or a market drop does not need to wait for the next scheduled review. New clients go through a structured onboarding before the regular meeting cadence begins: three meetings over roughly six weeks covering discovery, a plan presentation, and implementation, so the relationship starts with a complete picture of your situation rather than jumping straight into ad hoc advice. If something significant happens between scheduled meetings — a job change, an acquisition, an unplanned liquidity event — we will meet sooner than the regular cadence calls for; the two-meeting schedule is a floor, not a ceiling, on how often we are in touch.

Key numbers (2026)

• Ongoing advisory fee — 0.75% per year of managed assets, billed quarterly in arrears (our fee schedule).
• Minimum for ongoing advisory — $500,000 of managed assets (our fee schedule).
• Flat-fee financial plan — $4,500 one-time, delivered over 90 days (our fee schedule).
• Equity-compensation project fee — $2,500 one-time, for a single decision such as an IPO or a tender offer (our fee schedule).
• Hourly rate — $350 per hour, for existing clients only (our fee schedule).
• Fiduciary duty — an investment adviser's fiduciary duty comprises a duty of care and a duty of loyalty, requiring the adviser to serve the client's best interest at all times (SEC Release IA-5248).
• Form ADV Part 2A — a registered adviser must give a firm brochure to each client before or at the time you enter into an advisory agreement (SEC Rule 204-3(b)).

Current as of 2026-09

Sources

• SEC, Release IA-5248, Commission Interpretation Regarding Standard of Conduct for Investment Advisers (Federal Register text) — https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2019-07-12/html/2019-12208.htm
• SEC, General Instructions for Part 2 of Form ADV (Rule 204-3(b)) — https://www.sec.gov/files/form-adv-part2.pdf
• 17 CFR §275.204-3 (SEC "brochure rule," law.cornell.edu mirror) — https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/17/275.204-3
• CFP Board, "Focus on Ethics: Disclosing and Accurately Representing Compensation to Clients" — https://www.cfp.net/ethics/compliance-resources/2018/07/focus-on-ethics---disclosing-and-accurately-representing-compensation-to-clients

Sample content for demonstration purposes — not financial advice.