Interested in moving forward? Take a look at our services pricing below!
My perspective is that you’re hiring me to help you manage life’s issues, not to add to them. I don’t like getting hidden fees and “gotchas” in real life, and I certainly won’t do that to my clients and their families.
The Common Pricing Questions & Clarification section goes into the details.
Please contact me if you have other questions.
Ongoing Daily Money Management Services
$125/hr Onboarding & Assessment
Minimum Deposit
Set meetings as needed / flexible use through the month
3-hour per month minimum
Smaller “catch-up” projects or standard estate administration services.
Minimum deposit required.
Deposit applied to final bill
More complex Estate situations have higher hourly rates
2-hour per month minimum
2 or 4 hours time to help a family navigate and decide on a good “plan of action.”
Can be in meetings w/family, research or other tasks.
Includes 30 minutes round-trip travel time for an in-person meeting.
*See Common Pricing Questions and Clarifications below for details
Shannon helped me to navigate through some rough seas. Specifically, she helped me to supply what Computershare needed to transfer the title of the four stocks from either my mother, father, or owned as joint tenants to transfer all stocks to my Mother’s Estate.
I had been working on my own for six months without any success. This started in August of 2022 until my wife hired Shannon in February of 2023.
After struggling to figure out where all of my money was going Shannon really dug in deep to discover what I was missing! This was an amazing relief and now I am getting back on track with my spending and saving! Thank you so much!
“Shannon is a consummate professional. I would recommend her highly and wholeheartedly. We feel very fortunate to have found her through an old mutual friend who also found her so helpful.
Shannon has the rare quality of being able to anticipate issues before even we might. She can diffuse situations that have emotionally fraught aspects with her calm and methodical and respectful manner. She has added considerable value to our family by helping my father manage his finances, giving me more time to be present with him during the time we have. Just to name a few salient examples of specific ways she has helped, she helped us implement a system to curtail potential for fraud, and has helped reduce or medical cost through better application of insurance. One would be well served by her skilled talent. “
“When looking for a person to handle your finances/assets/property, you want the person to be detail oriented, organized, honest, and knowledgeable
Not only was Shannon able to organize my hot mess, she broke it down so that I could understand how and why it was being done that way.
Promptly answered my questions, and usually offered better suggestions/solutions. Appreciated the candid answers, if my choices were dumb.
No hesitation in recommending her services to any of my friends and colleagues. Fixed my book keeping, helped me organize my business, and helped me avoid long term liabilities.”
“My son & I have enjoyed working with you. It seems that when one gets into their eighties as I have that financial complexities just seem to increase.
You are very thorough and professional. You have made both of our lives much easier. You have excellent instincts! Thank you for your invaluable assistance.”
The fees are based on hourly usage. For what I call “financial cleaning,” going through boxes of papers, throwing out envelopes, and flyers, and generally organizing and sorting these documents so I can then work with the information, the hourly fee is $60/hr.
For context, the most common basic daily money management service would be about 3 hours per month: which includes 1 monthly face-to-face meeting to go over mail/bills, plus bill paying and recording/reconciling banking, investment, and credit card information in Quickbooks, preparing a monthly report and reviewing medical claims for accuracy. Of course, this includes making sure the charges are legitimate and working with the client on budgeting matters, and the books and records I keep would be “CPA Ready” at tax time. This would be $285 per month once onboarded.
There are no “$250 set up fees” or such per se. That said, it does take time to onboard a client and get them set and ready.
The standard deposit is $625 for DMM work and $1,250 for estate work which is held and the final bill is billed against. Any deficits are billed, and any excess is refunded. So, for a multi-month estate assistance contract, I would take a $1,250 deposit, bill every 2 weeks (or once a month if billing is less than $1,000), and then the final closing bill would be netted against the deposit and a final payment or refund is done accordingly.
For onboarding a DMM (Daily Money Management Client), I obtain the $625 deposit and charge my standard consulting rate until they are onboarded. Sometimes, especially if they’re already using online software and the transactions are up to date, then the process is fairly quick and simple. If the situation is more complex, then, of course, more time is needed. Once I have the major issues addressed and the larger issues triaged and managed, I can move to the DMM pricing structure. It is not uncommon where a bill will reflect the onboarding rate and also the standard DMM rate when providing those services concurrently. If the client transitions to a pre-paid retainer situation once onboarded, the monthly retainer fee is netted against the deposit until it is gone, after which standard retainer billing cycles apply.
In addition to the contracted services paired with my skills and education, I also offer mobile notary services for no additional fee if incorporated into an already scheduled face-to-face meeting, or for a greatly reduced rate for established clients. The SOC2 and HIPAA-compliant portal, which either you or loved ones of your choosing can access, is also included as well as knowledge-based authentication (KBA) electronic signature for your convenience.
Fees for accounting software (such as Quicken, Quickbooks Online, Simplifi, or Xero) are separate; we can discuss various very affordable and flexible options.
Service hours are weekdays from 8 am to 6 pm. Services needed outside of these hours may incur a surcharge.
I can accept credit card, check, or ACH (bank account) transfers. Invoices can be sent to the client portal or presented in person or via e/mail as per client preference. For clients in retainer or set monthly recurring, we can set up an automatic recurring payment.
The main difference has to do with whether a service is ongoing or a temporary project, plus the number of predictable hours.
The Life Transitions or Estate Administration rate is for those who may be behind due to life’s circumstances and need someone to step in and get it organized and caught up. Same idea with Estate Administration – they need help getting through this event. After that, either the estate is closed or, in the case of Life Transitions, the person can resume control. These are pretty much one-off projects or every quarter or so.
Most of these folks had some major life event that got them behind. This may include death in the family, extended illness, moving, divorce, new birth/adoption, and other circumstances that took their focus.
Daily Money Management Services has two components: Onboarding and Continuing. Onboarding is the initial rate charged for new clients I’m reviewing who want ongoing services. We may know in general what services are needed, but need to work out the specifics once we get into the facts of the matter. If it becomes apparent what service level is the best fit, I transition the client, if they wish, to a less expensive (per hour) retainer plan if that makes sense for them.
Pre-Paid Retainer Plus is for established clients who require a minimum of 5 hours or more of service per month and pre-pay in full for these hours at the beginning of the month. These hours are set aside specifically for the client. Some clients use them all, while others may like knowing there’s a “bank” of service hours available. Unused time does not carry forward to the next month, except if otherwise agreed to.
If service hours go over their retainer, the difference is billed at the retainer computed hourly rate. (Honestly, I don’t nickel-dime this in tracking. If I performed 4 hours one month for a 5-hour/month contract, but the next month is 6, I’m not going to surcharge for the 6-hour month. I try to be reasonable.)
I bill in 6-minute increments or 1/10th of an hour. For face-to-face assistance or doing errands for clients, time starts while driving to the location and the time billed is 1/2 rate if for meetings (with the first 15 minutes free) but 3/4 rate if for errands. Mileage is only charged if over 60 miles round trip. However, there may be added per diem, parking, and travel charges for special projects, but that’s not typical, and any expenses (such as postage and shipping) are billed to the client.
DMM Services are billed every two weeks until the client is onboarded. Then it is monthly.
Estate Services and Transitions Services (Special Projects) are billed every two weeks or once $1,000 in billing is reached, whichever is sooner.
Yes, we can explore such options if we can arrange for one bill. I can also offer group discounts for organizations, such as churches or assisted living centers.