Our Pricing

A Fee Structure Built for American Airlines Pilots

Traditional financial advisors make money primarily by managing assets — accounts they can charge fees on, like IRAs or taxable brokerage accounts, not your 401(k). They often require a minimum portfolio size to justify the relationship, because their revenue depends on the assets under management.

For pilots, this creates a major problem. Most of your wealth is accumulated inside your 401(k) during the early and mid-career years. Following smart, career-focused guidance — like the strategies in our Financial Operating Manual (FOM) — often involves prioritizing debt repayment, maximizing retirement contributions, or keeping assets in protected accounts. These decisions reduce the assets an advisor can manage, making you unprofitable to them until you near retirement.

Put simply: pilots are only considered “profitable clients” at the very end of their careers, long after the years when good advice could have had the greatest impact. Serving pilots earlier would require advisors to provide guidance that is sometimes in direct conflict with the advisor’s financial interest.

That model is simply unacceptable at Incline Financial Planning. We believe pilots deserve advice when it matters most, not just when it becomes convenient for an advisor. Early financial planning has exponential benefits, creating flexibility, security, and long-term wealth that compounds over decades.

How We Fix It

At Incline Financial Planning, we designed a fee structure that works for pilots throughout their entire careers — not just at retirement.

For pilots with less than $1,000,000 in investable assets — typically early- and mid-career pilots — we charge a $3,000 annual financial planning fee. This allows us to profitably provide the guidance pilots actually need when it matters most, including:

• Your Financial Operating Manual (FOM)

• Career-stage cash flow planning

• Tax and retirement strategies, including Backdoor Roth IRA planning

• Debt and mortgage strategy

• Benefits decision support

• Ongoing accountability and execution

Once your assets exceed $1,000,000, the $3,000 annual financial planning fee is rolled into our investment management fees, so you no longer pay it separately.

Our tiered investment management fees — approximately 25% lower than the industry average — apply to all clients, regardless of career stage. This structure is transparent, allows early- and mid-career pilots to receive the advice they actually need, and provides substantial savings compared to traditional firms — up to 25%.

Removing Conflicts That Hurt Pilots

In the traditional advisory world, firms are usually paid a percentage of the money they manage for you — called Assets Under Management (AUM).

This setup creates built-in conflicts — especially for pilots.

The smartest financial moves for your career often don’t grow an advisor’s revenue, so they’re rarely recommended. For example:

• Rolling money from Traditional IRAs into your 401(k) during your working years to enable a Backdoor Roth IRA. This is one of the most powerful strategies for pilots, but it reduces revenue for most advisors.

• Paying down consumer debt to increase career flexibility and protect against furloughs, downgrades, or loss of your medical license. Advisors can’t bill for this, so it’s often ignored.

• Paying off your home strategically. Freeing yourself from mortgage debt strengthens long-term security and creates freedom and flexibility well before you retire, but traditional advisors earn no fees from it.

Planning First. Investments Second. Always.

For pilots with less than $1,000,000 in managed assets, we charge a flat annual financial planning fee.

This allows us to:

• Focus on your Financial Operating Manual — not just your portfolio balance

• Work with early and mid-career pilots before large asset balances exist

• Act as accountability partners instead of transaction-based advisors

• Recommend what’s right for your career stage — even when it doesn’t increase assets under management

Our incentives are aligned with yours.

• If paying down debt is the right move — we say it.

• If rolling money out of your IRA and into your 401(k) is the right move — we say it.

• If investing less today creates more freedom tomorrow — we say it.

Lower Investment Fees — Because Pilots Are Our Specialty

When we manage investments, our advisory fees are on average 25% lower than the industry average.

Not because we cut corners — because we focus exclusively on American Airlines pilots.

We don’t need to spend time learning your:

• Pay structure

• Pension system

• Benefit elections

• Contract provisions

• Retirement timeline

We already know it and live it.

That efficiency reduces overhead — and those savings are passed directly on to you.

Our Investment Management Fees

We charge a blended, tiered fee schedule on assets under management (AUM):

• 0.75% on the first $0–$2 million

• 0.50% on the next $2–$5 million

• 0.25% on all AUM above $5 million

What “blended” means: Instead of one flat rate on all your assets, each portion of your portfolio is charged at the rate for its tier. This ensures you pay less as your assets grow.

Financial Planning Fee

For pilots with less than $1 million in AUM, we also charge a $3,000 annual financial planning fee.

• This fee covers your Financial Operating Manual, career-stage cash flow guidance, tax and retirement strategy, debt planning, and ongoing accountability.

• Once your assets reach $1 million, the financial planning fee is rolled into your investment management fees — you no longer pay it separately.

Because investment management is built into every client relationship, this structure ensures your portfolio is actively managed, aligned with your Financial Operating Manual, and always designed around what’s best for your career — at a lower cost than most advisors.

In Short

Our fee structure isn’t designed around revenue. It’s designed around clarity, accountability, and making the best decisions for your career and family.

It gives us the freedom to do what other advisors often can’t: guide pilots through complex decisions, avoid common mistakes, and provide advice that truly aligns with your life — not their bottom line.