Fee-Only Financial Advisors for FIRE and Early Retirement

A fee-only advisor is paid directly by you, through a flat project fee, an hourly rate, or a retainer. They earn no commissions from selling insurance, funds, or other products. This removes the main conflict of interest in financial advice: recommendations that pay the advisor instead of you. Fee-only advisors are typically fiduciaries, legally required to act in your interest.

Usually no. The math of FIRE is well documented, and tools like the Fire Planner model it in detail. We backtested 154 years of market data on this question: self-managed index portfolios come out ahead in most scenarios once you account for a typical 1% assets-under-management fee. An advisor earns their fee in specific situations: complex taxes, equity compensation, an inheritance, or a one-time review of your plan before you quit your job.

By hand. Each listing charges fee-only or flat-fee, works with FIRE and early-retirement clients, and was reviewed before being added. No one pays to be listed. Cards link straight to the advisor's own site.

Retiring at 45 breaks the assumptions most retirement advice is built on. The advisors here work with drawdowns that start decades before traditional retirement age, withdrawal access before 59.5 through Roth conversion ladders or 72(t) payments, sequence-of-returns risk over 40+ year horizons, and clients whose plans rest on the 4% rule.

Typical ranges: $150 to $400 per hour, $1,000 to $5,000 for a one-time plan, or $2,000 to $10,000 per year on retainer. That sounds like a lot next to a 1% of assets fee, and it is usually the cheaper option: 1% of a $1,500,000 FIRE portfolio is $15,000 every single year.