Frequently Asked
Questions
Unlike commission-based advisors at large institutions, Sensible is a fee-only, independent financial advisory firm—meaning every recommendation is driven solely by what’s best for you, with no products, no commission-based conflicts of interest, and no hidden agenda.
Sensible is a retirement-focused financial advisory firm offering comprehensive income planning, investment management, and tax planning strategy for people approaching or already in retirement. We manage your portfolio with a focus on asset allocation, RMD planning, Roth conversion analysis, and tax-efficient drawdown, all tailored to your specific situation.
We start with a quick, no-pressure intro call to make sure we’re a good fit, then build you a complimentary retirement plan that shows you exactly what you can afford to spend in retirement. If you decide to move forward, we onboard you as a client and finalize your personalized investment portfolio. From there, we meet twice a year and stay available in between when life comes up.
No. At Sensible, we provide world-class investment and retirement advice, using industry-leading fund families (Dimensional Fund Advisors and Vanguard). Our financial planning services rely on sophisticated software—the same software used by advisors charging many times our fees.
Yes. While Sensible is a Nevada-based wealth management firm, we work with clients across the country. Our process is built around virtual meetings, so location is never a barrier. If you’re looking for a fee-only retirement planning firm you can trust, we’d love to connect no matter where you are.
“When can I retire?” is really a question about whether your money will support the life you want—and the answer changes depending on your spending, your tax strategy, Social Security timing, and dozens of other variables. Sensible builds a comprehensive retirement plan that models these factors together to give you a clear, confident answer. Whether you’re five years out or already retired and wondering if you made the right call, we can show you exactly where you stand.
The honest answer is: it depends on what you actually want your retirement to look like—and most advisors give you a range instead of a real number. At Sensible, we build a personalized retirement plan around your specific portfolio, income sources, taxes, and housing costs to tell you exactly what you need. And because we plan to age 100 rather than average life expectancy, the number we give you is built to hold up for the long haul.
Most planning tools ask how much you want to spend, then tell you your odds of making it work—but that’s not a plan, it’s a guess. Sensible does the opposite: we analyze your full financial picture and give you a near-certain number representing what you can confidently spend without the fear of running out. That moment of clarity—knowing your real number—is often what finally lifts the cloud of uncertainty that’s been hanging over retirement.
Fee-only financial advisors charge a transparent fee directly to you—not commissions from financial products—so their only incentive is to give you advice that’s actually in your best interest. At many large brokerage firms, clients are often paying 1% or more annually in fees without fully realizing it. Sensible was built as a fee-only practice from day one, with a fair, straightforward fee structure that makes it possible to keep things simple and always put clients first.
A fee-only financial advisor is one who is compensated solely by the client—not through commissions, product sales, or referral fees—which removes the commission-based conflicts of interest common at large brokerage firms. This structure is the foundation of fiduciary advice, meaning the advisor is legally and ethically obligated to act in your best interest. Sensible has operated as a fee-only, fiduciary advisory firm since its founding, long before the industry started paying attention to the concept.
At Sensible, we meet with clients twice a year—once in the spring to review your plan, cash flow, and priorities for the year ahead, and once in the fall to focus on year-end tax optimization. We’re also available in between whenever something comes up, and clients consistently tell us that we pick up the phone faster than any firm they’ve worked with before. It’s a relationship built on consistency, not quarterly check-ins designed to justify a fee.
The terms are often used interchangeably, but the key distinction is in what they actually do: investment advisors typically focus on managing your portfolio, while financial planners take a broader view of your full financial picture—retirement income, taxes, Social Security, estate planning, and spending strategy. Sensible operates as both, but we lead with planning because managing investments without a retirement plan is like building a house without a blueprint. We position ourselves as a retirement planning firm that also manages investments—not the other way around.
The most important question to ask is whether your advisor is a fiduciary—meaning they’re legally required to act in your best interest, not their firm’s. Commission-based advisors at large institutions are often held to a lower “suitability” standard, which means they can recommend products that benefit them as long as they’re not completely wrong for you. Sensible is a fee-only fiduciary, with no commissions, no products, and no hidden incentives—just straightforward advice built entirely around your goals.
Sensible works best with people who are approaching retirement or have recently retired, with $1 million to $4 million or more in investable assets—the kind of hardworking professionals who have saved diligently but have never had a truly clear picture of what retirement will actually look like. If you’ve been sitting at a large firm feeling like a number, unsure how you’re invested or whether you’re on track, you’re exactly who we built this for. The best way to find out if we’re the right fit is to schedule a no-pressure intro call.