About Flat Fee Advisors
Flat Fee Advisors was built from a personal experience most people can relate to: trying to find honest, unbiased financial advice and not knowing where to look.
After researching and meeting with advisors from large firms and local practices, a clear pattern emerged. Most advisors were either focused on selling financial products or managing investment portfolios for a percentage of assets. Very few offered holistic financial planning without a conflict of interest baked into how they got paid.
Flat fee, fee-only advisors were different. They charged directly for their work, with no commissions and no percentage of your portfolio. The problem was finding them, and then figuring out which ones were actually good.
That problem is why Flat Fee Advisors exists.
Our Mission
We connect people with fiduciary, flat fee financial advisors who are well suited to their specific situation. Advisors based on your needs, your occupation, your goals, and where you are in life.
We're still growing and we welcome feedback as we continue improving the service.
How We Vet Every Advisor
We’ve approved less than 1% of all financial advisors in the country. Only the ones who meet each standard on our list are included. Every advisor in our network has been individually interviewed, and both their website and their SEC Form ADV have been thoroughly reviewed.
Form ADVs are registration documents that all professional investment advisers are required to file with the SEC or their state regulators. They disclose fee structures, investment styles, assets under management, key personnel, and potential conflicts of interest. We run every advisor's Form ADV through 32 specific verifications before they're approved.
Those verifications confirm that each advisor is:
- Fee-only and exclusively flat fee (hourly, monthly, quarterly, annual, or project-based)
- A fiduciary at all times
- Properly educated, credentialed, and experienced
- Following evidence-based, Nobel Prize-winning investment philosophies
- Free of conflicting relationships with banks, broker-dealers, insurance companies, venture funds, private funds, and other entities that could influence their advice
If an advisor doesn't pass, we don’t include them.
What Our Advisors Can Do
Every advisor in our network focuses on specific areas of financial planning. Their profiles include their services, specializations, certifications, average fees, location, and a short bio so you know exactly who you're connecting with.
We currently have 92 firms on board with offices in 29 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Map here
About Our Founder
Josiah Peterham started Flat Fee Advisors from his personal journey of finding a financial advisor.
He grew up in a small town outside of Rochester, NY, where his father gave him an early financial education in earning, budgeting, and investing. He holds two degrees from the Rochester Institute of Technology: a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology and a Master of Science in Human Computer Interaction. He worked in RIT's entrepreneurial incubator and has spent his career at the intersection of technology and problem-solving.
When he helped his mother find a financial advisor after his parents divorced, he saw firsthand how confusing and conflicted the advisor landscape could be. That experience, combined with his own search for an advisor years later, planted the seed for Flat Fee Advisors.