Firm Footing Financial Planning

Firm Footing Financial Planning is a fee-only independent advisory firm that provides limited-scope, primarily one-time financial planning engagements to individuals, couples, and families, and also offers a Financial Planning as an Employee Benefit program for employers to make planning available to employees. The firm additionally provides standalone financial education services focused on improving clients’ understanding of personal finance topics.

The firm does not provide portfolio management or custody of client assets; instead it delivers written financial plans and investment recommendations that clients implement on their own, and when securities are discussed the firm references principles such as asset allocation and modern portfolio theory. Services are tailored to client-selected topics — including retirement and distribution planning, estate planning, business planning, cash flow and debt management, insurance review, and tax-aware strategies — and are billed on an hourly basis.

What is distinctive relative to peers is that the firm explicitly does not manage client assets and does not use percentage-of-AUM billing, choices that differ from the majority of independent advisers that offer discretionary management or AUM-based fees. The firm’s principal also maintains a disclosed outside tax-preparation practice, and the adviser’s small client base and focus on limited, consultative engagements set it apart from firms that provide ongoing discretionary investment management.