How Financial Planning Payment Plans Work

A financial planning payment plan is an installment loan from a third-party lender that pays your fee, so the client pays monthly and your firm doesn’t carry the balance. Your firm shares one application link. The client applies from any device, sees the offers they qualify for, and picks a payment. Your discovery process, engagement agreement, and planning work stay the same.

Underwriting looks past the credit score, weighing income, employment, and bank account cash flow. That helps a client with strong income whose cash is committed elsewhere, such as a young family saving for a home while paying for childcare.

Planning Engagements Clients Can Pay for Monthly

Payment plans fit planning fees that are charged as a set amount for a defined engagement. Here’s where it works:

Estate strategy work can run alongside an attorney’s engagement. If your clients’ estate attorneys want to offer monthly payments on their own fees, see estate planning attorney financing.

Third-Party Payment Plans and Your Fiduciary Duty

Offering a payment plan fits inside the obligations you already have. The CFP Board Code and Standards require you to tell clients how they pay for your services and how your firm is compensated, to disclose material conflicts of interest, and to act in the client’s best interest. Here, the compensation story is simple: your firm receives no referral fees, points, or lender kickbacks. The payment plan settles your planning invoice, the same fee the client would otherwise pay you directly, so there’s no third-party compensation to disclose under Form ADV Item 14, and your compensation stays fee-only as the CFP Board and NAPFA describe it.

Listing the payment plan in your written fee disclosure, next to paying in full, covers how the client pays. For the best-interest part, present it as one option the client can choose, not a requirement, and use the same judgment you’d use with any recommendation. A client whose plan centers on paying down high-interest debt may be better served paying your fee another way.

Timing matters too. Because the lender pays your fee at the start, a fee for services far in the future can look like a prepaid fee. Form ADV Part 2A Item 18 requires an audited balance sheet if you require or solicit prepayment of more than $1,200 per client six months or more in advance, and the NASAA model rule for state-registered advisers uses a lower $500 threshold for its own financial requirements. A plan delivered within about three months sits well inside that six-month window, so offering a payment plan on it doesn’t trigger either requirement. If you’d offer one on a longer engagement, check with your compliance consultant first.

Offering Financial Planning Payment Plans to Clients

Bring up monthly payments when you present the planning fee, the same way you’d mention credit cards or ACH. It lands better as one of your standard payment options than as a fallback after the client hesitates.

1. 1Put the monthly option in your fee schedule: list it with the plan fee in your proposal and engagement agreement, so the client sees every way to pay before they decide.
2. 2Mention it in the discovery meeting: for example, “You can pay the planning fee in full, or some clients prefer to spread it out with monthly payments.”
3. 3Send the link with the agreement: include it in the follow-up email and the engagement agreement, so a couple can look at it together before signing.
4. 4Let the client choose: they review offers from multiple third-party lenders and pick the payment that fits their budget.

Legal Financing Solutions vs. In-House Installments and Credit Cards

Splitting a planning fee into in-house installments seems client-friendly, but it turns your firm into a lender, and a missed payment puts you in an awkward spot with someone you’re advising about their finances. Here’s how the options compare:

Timing and terms depend on the provider. Payment plan approval is subject to the applicant’s credit and set by the lender.

With a third-party payment plan via Legal Financing Soltions, if one lender declines the application, it moves on to others across credit tiers. Rates reflect the client’s credit, so a client approved by a subprime lender will usually pay more than a prime borrower, which is worth keeping in mind when you discuss the option.

Who Is Legal Financing Solutions?

Legal Financing Solutions is an online lending marketplace for legal, tax, and advisory service providers. We’re not a lender, and we don’t make credit decisions. We set up your firm’s application link, route each application to lenders across prime, near-prime, and subprime credit tiers, and help you add a monthly payment option to your fee disclosures. See how it works, or explore financial services financing for other advisory practices.

Start Offering Financial Planning Payment Plans

Clients who stall on a planning fee may not be doubting the value of a plan at all. They’re looking at a one-time number and weighing it against everything else their money is doing this month. Some find a way to pay. Others wait until a big decision is already behind them.

Financial planning payment plans let those clients start now and pay over time, while your firm gets paid at the start of the engagement. Request a demo and we’ll show you what a client sees when they apply, how lenders review the application, and how to add the option to your fee disclosures.

Financial Planning Payment Plans FAQ