What does a financial planner in Austin cost?

Most Austin firms do not publish a price, and of the 10 ranked on this page only two do. Archer Investment Management publishes a standard schedule of 1.00 percent on the first $2,500,000 in asset value, 0.50 percent on the next $7,500,000, and 0.15 percent above $10 million. Oakwell Private Wealth Management publishes 1.00 percent to $2,000,000, 0.80 percent to $5,000,000, and 0.55 percent above that, applied progressively so each dollar is charged in its own bracket, and states that fees are negotiable. Everyone else quotes after a conversation. Ask for the number in writing on the first call, and ask whether planning is billed separately from asset management.

What is the difference between fee-only and fee-based?

Fee-only means the firm is paid by its clients and nobody else, so it earns nothing from selling you a product. FMP Wealth Advisers states it plainly on its own site: as a fee-only firm it receives no commissions for trading securities or selling products. Fee-based means client fees plus commissions from products such as insurance and annuities, which is legal, common, and disclosed, and which introduces an interest the fee-only model does not have. On this page Austin Asset, Century Management, FMP Wealth Advisers, Archer, Pioneer Wealth Management Group, Lucien, Stirling and Gray, and Black Barn Financial describe themselves as fee-only. Ask any firm to say which it is out loud, because the words look nearly identical in print.

Do I need a minimum amount of money to hire a financial planner in Austin?

Often yes, and it is rarely published. Lucien, Stirling and Gray states a minimum of $500,000 in investable assets and says it deliberately limits its client count to stay high-touch. Archer Investment Management says it does its best work with people who have accumulated $1,000,000 or more across brokerage, IRA, 401(k), 403(b), and options accounts. AtlasMark Financial, held on the bench here, asks new inquiries to select a household net worth band starting between $500,000 and $2 million. Firms that publish no minimum may still have one, so ask before you invest an hour in an introductory meeting.

Is an Edward Jones or Ameriprise advisor in Austin a financial planner?

They do financial planning, and many hold the CFP mark, but they are not independent Austin firms, which is the standard this page applies. Of the 112 Austin planning listings in our census, 48 are branch or franchise pages belonging to nine national brands, and Ameriprise alone accounts for 23 of them while Edward Jones accounts for 13. If you want an adviser whose firm is owned and run in Austin, those listings are noise in your search results, which is most of why this page exists.

How do I check an Austin financial advisor’s background before hiring them?

Read the two disclosure documents every registered adviser has to give you, and the firms on this page link them from their own footers. Austin Asset posts Form ADV parts 2A, 2B, and part 3, which is the Form CRS client relationship summary. Watercolor Financial posts its Form CRS and ADV Part 2A. Oakwell Private Wealth Management posts its Form CRS and points readers at FINRA’s BrokerCheck from its own site. Form CRS is the short one and states in plain language how the firm is paid and what conflicts it carries, which is the fastest read available.

Which Austin financial planning firms are employee-owned?

Two on this page say so in their own words. Austin Asset states it remains 100 percent employee-owned and its history page tracks ownership passing from founder John Henry McDonald to a widening group of advisers through 2024. FMP Wealth Advisers states that it is owned, managed, and controlled by its employees, and says that structure is what lets it keep a close-knit team. Century Management is family-led rather than employee-owned, run by the second and third generations of the family that founded it in 1974.

Which Austin financial planners work with startup founders and equity compensation?

NEST Financial in East Austin is built around it, stating that its purpose is to serve innovators, with a CFP professional as managing partner and a second CFP professional as chief investment officer. Black Barn Financial’s Kacie Swartz works specifically in equity compensation and tax-advantaged accounts. Century Management publishes a named stock option planning service and a separate windfalls and liquidity events service, and Oakwell Private Wealth Management publishes an equity compensation planning line for corporate executives. Archer names tech professionals as one of its two client focuses.

The Austin Shortlist · Updated September 2026 · 10 picks

The best financial planners in Austin.

The best financial planners in Austin are independent firms run from Austin rather than branch offices of national brands. Austin Asset, incorporated in 1987 and 100 percent employee-owned, calls itself a fee-only wealth management firm and names 13 CFP professionals on its team page. Century Management, founded in 1974 and now led by second and third generation family members, describes its advisers as fee-only fiduciaries. FMP Wealth Advisers says it is owned, managed, and controlled by its employees and comprised of seven Certified Financial Planner professionals and one Chartered Financial Analyst. Archer Investment Management publishes its full fee schedule, starting at 1.00 percent on the first $2,500,000. Of the 112 Austin planning listings in our census, 48 belong to nine national brands, so the first question to ask is who the advice actually works for.

Carissa.

Writer, The Austin Newsletter · Updated September 2026

Two standards govern this page, and the first one removes most of the search results. Every firm ranked here is independent and run from an Austin office, and where a firm keeps offices in other cities this page names them. That cuts 48 of the 112 Austin listings in our census in a single stroke, because those 48 are branch and franchise pages belonging to nine national brands, and 36 of them belong to just two: Ameriprise carries 23 Austin listings and Edward Jones carries 13. Those advisers may be perfectly good. They are not what a reader means when they search for an Austin financial planner, and a page that mixes them in is a directory, not a shortlist.

The second standard is that advice is the product. To be ranked, a firm has to publish a fee-only, fiduciary, or registered investment adviser statement in its own words, and its own site has to name the credential behind the advice, meaning the CFP, CFA, or CPA marks attached to real people rather than a vague line about experience. That is a low bar on paper and a real filter in practice. It moves a retirement shop that sells annuities through a separately licensed insurance company into the cut list, along with a solo practice whose published designation is a retirement income certificate and whose site never uses the word fiduciary. Compensation is the whole ballgame in this category, so the entries say plainly which firms describe themselves as fee-only and which say fee-based, and one entry says its own site cannot keep the two straight.

About price, which is the question nobody in this business likes to answer. Of the 10 firms ranked here, two publish an actual fee schedule you can read without a meeting, and a third publishes the investable-asset minimum it works from. The rest publish nothing on cost, which is normal for the category and worth knowing before you book five introductory calls. Where a firm publishes a number, this page prints it. Where a firm does not, this page says so rather than guessing, and points at the disclosure documents that every registered adviser has to hand you anyway.

01 · Northwest Hills, on North Mopac
Austin Asset
The deepest bench on this page, and the clearest compensation story. Austin Asset was formally incorporated in 1987 by founder John Henry McDonald, became by its own account one of the first fee-only firms in Central Texas in 1995, and registered federally with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1997. Its own footer still reads fee-only wealth management firm on every page. The succession is the part worth noticing: the firm’s history page tracks ownership passing from the founder to Eric Hehman, Greg Van Wyk, Jonathan Davison, Will Wike, Allie Bequette, and Allison Loots, and states that the firm remains 100 percent employee-owned as of 2024. Thirteen people on the team page carry the CFP mark, two of those also hold the CPA, one holds the CFA, and one holds the CIMA. The firm describes its own posture as telling clients what they need to hear rather than what they want to hear.
No fee schedule is published. Services listed include investment management, wealth planning, life event planning, charitable planning, and family office work, plus nonprofit institutions. Form ADV parts 2A, 2B, and 3 (Form CRS) are linked from the site footer, and the firm’s own site notes it is not a CPA firm.
Visit their site
02 · Las Cimas, West Austin
Century Management Financial Advisors
The oldest firm on this page by its own founding date, and the one that reads least like a startup. Arnold Van Den Berg founded Century Management in 1974 and still serves as CEO and a portfolio manager, and the firm’s own homepage says it is now led by second and third generation family members who act as fiduciaries and client advocates at every step. That succession is visible on the team page: Scott S. Van Den Berg, CFP and ChFC, is president and a principal, Jim Brilliant, CFA, joined in 1987 and is chief financial officer and co-chief investment officer, and Greyson Brilliant, CFA, came onto the investment team in 2016 having learned the business from his father and his grandfather. The compensation language is unusually blunt for the category: as fee-only fiduciaries, we work for you, and only you, compensated directly by our clients, so our advice is shaped by your goals rather than outside interests. The planning menu is correspondingly specific, with named services for stock option planning, windfalls and liquidity events, divorce planning, and loss of a spouse or partner.
No fee schedule is published. The team page names four CFA charterholders and three CFP professionals across investment management and wealth planning, including David B. Lloyd, CFP and CTFA, as director of wealth planning, and John B. Dixon, CFP, CPFA, and EA, as a senior wealth advisor.
Visit their site
03 · West Courtyard, off RM 2222
FMP Wealth Advisers
The firm that writes down every part of the arrangement a reader should be checking. Milton Hixson founded FMP in 1987, by the firm’s own account as one of the first fee-only personal wealth management firms, with a stated vision of treating clients and employees as he would want his own family treated. Three things follow on the same page, each in the firm’s own words. It is owned, managed, and controlled by its employees. As a fee-only firm it takes no commissions for trading securities or selling products, so it works for the client rather than a brokerage or an insurance company. And as a registered investment adviser it says it carries a fiduciary responsibility and legal obligation to act in clients’ best interests, explicitly rising above the suitability standard. The credential count is published rather than implied: seven Certified Financial Planner professionals, one Chartered Financial Analyst, and one Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, with advisers who belong to the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors and the CFA Institute. Four Hixsons appear on the team page, the founder among them.
No fee schedule is published. The firm’s own site labels its Austin office the corporate headquarters and lists a second office in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Service lines are financial planning, investment management, qualified retirement plans for employers, and private investments.
Visit their site
04 · Rosedale, in central Austin
Archer Investment Management
The transparency pick, and the reason this page has a price paragraph at all. Archer describes itself as an independent, fee-only investment advisory firm based in Austin, Texas, and it puts the number where a reader can find it without booking a call: a standard fee schedule of 1.00 percent on the first $2,500,000 in asset value, 0.50 percent on the next $7,500,000, and 0.15 percent above $10 million, charged against the investment accounts the firm manages. The firm’s own answer on fit is equally direct, saying it does its best work with high-achieving professionals who have accumulated $1,000,000 or more across brokerage, IRA, 401(k), 403(b), and options accounts. On the fiduciary question it skips the jargon entirely: yes, we are a fiduciary, which the site glosses as a fancy word for never steering you into buying something you do not need. Richard J. Archer, the owner and president, holds the CFA, the CFP, an MBA, and the CDAA, partner and senior financial planner Emily C. Rassam holds the CFP among other marks, and financial planner Cheyney Scarbrough holds the CFP and a master’s in financial planning.
Fee schedule published on the process page: 1.00 percent on the first $2,500,000, 0.50 percent on the next $7,500,000, and 0.15 percent above $10 million. The firm names tech professionals and retirees as its two client focuses and links its Form CRS from the site.
Visit their site
05 · Market District, downtown
Pioneer Wealth Management Group
A partner-heavy structure that says something about how the work is done. Pioneer leads with fee-only financial planning and describes its advisers as fee-only fiduciaries who have served individuals and families since 2004. The team list carries eight CFP marks, several stacked with a second credential: Milad Taghehchian holds the CPA, CFP, and PFS, Chris Cyndecki holds the CFA and CFP, April Busby holds the CPA, CFP, and PFS, Nicole Renaux holds the CFP and CCFC, and Shirley Sanchez holds the CFP alongside a master’s degree. Five advisors are named partners, one of them, Ian Tennant, a ChFC rather than a CFP. The firm’s own framing of what that buys is the sharpest line on the page: we are advisors, not a platform, a close team that knows your plan, your numbers, and your priorities. It aims at analytical professionals and their families, which in this city means a lot of engineers.
No fee schedule is published. The site carries an FAQ section and a get-started flow rather than a published minimum, and its own summary of the client type is analytical professionals and their families. Three offices are listed in the footer of every page, Downtown Austin first, then Albuquerque and North Dallas.
Visit their site
06 · North Mopac, northwest Austin
Lucien, Stirling & Gray Advisory Group
The firm that answers the two questions readers are most reluctant to ask, in its own footer. It describes itself as an independent, Austin-owned, fee-only, registered investment advisory firm located in central Austin, established in 1992, which makes it one of the longer-running independents in the city. Then it publishes the thing most firms make you extract from a discovery call: it works with a select group of clients who have a minimum of $500,000 in investable assets, and it says it deliberately limits how many clients it takes in order to keep the service high-touch. The four client types it names are pre-retirees, business owners, successful professionals, and independent women, and its own description of the role is equal parts guide, fiduciary, operations specialist, and financial coach. Mark Ward carries the CFP, the ChFC, and the RICP and is a vice president, Thomas G. Twombly is president, and Chris Vasquez holds the ChFC as a senior advisor associate. The written approach leans on behavioral coaching, which is a fair description of what most of this job actually is.
Minimum published: $500,000 in investable assets. No fee schedule is published, though the site states the fee-only structure means no sales or commissions. Quarterly reports and important disclosures are posted publicly on the site.
Visit their site
07 · North Shoal Creek, off Steck Avenue
Oakwell Private Wealth Management
The second firm on this page that publishes its price, and it publishes the mechanics too. The fee page carries a three-bracket schedule, 1.00 percent on the first $2,000,000, 0.80 percent from $2,000,000 to $5,000,000, and 0.55 percent above $5,000,000, and then does something most firms skip: it explains that the rates are progressive and each dollar is charged within the bracket where it falls, which is the difference between a fee that steps down and one that resets. It adds that financial planning fees are set to the client’s needs and that fees are negotiable, which is a rare thing to put in writing. The firm states plainly that it is a registered investment advisor, points readers at FINRA’s BrokerCheck from its own footer, links its Form CRS, and notes it is not a CPA firm. The client pages are unusually specific about who it is built for, naming business owners, corporate executives, retirees, doctors, military leaders, and newfound wealth.
Fee schedule published: 1.00 percent to $2,000,000, 0.80 percent to $5,000,000, 0.55 percent above, applied progressively, with planning fees quoted to need and fees described as negotiable. Three offices are listed, in Austin, New Braunfels, and a Cedar Park office at a Leander address.
Visit their site
08 · Rosedale, on Hancock Drive
Black Barn Financial
The firm whose public work you can attend before you ever become a client. Black Barn describes itself as financial planning and investment advice grown in Austin, Texas, run by future-focused fiduciaries, and states the compensation question in one line: we are fee-only and fiduciary, no commissions, no kickbacks, no product sales. Founder and managing partner Sara Glakas came out of the hedge fund industry, where she advised institutional clients through the 2008 and 2009 financial crisis and, in her own telling, watched what happens when people do not understand the risk in their own portfolios. She founded the firm on the premise that it is not enough for the advisor to understand investing, and in 2011 she founded Austin Women’s Investing Group, which the site says has grown past 3,000 members. Managing partner Kacie Swartz is a CFP practitioner and CIMA with more than twenty years in planning, benefits optimization, and wealth management, works in equity compensation and tax-advantaged accounts, and belongs to the Financial Planning Association, NAPFA, the Investments and Wealth Institute, and the Women Presidents Organization. Assistant financial planner Lindsay Thorstenson served as a Marine Corps officer and then an Austin Police Department patrol officer before moving into financial services.
No fee schedule is published. The site runs a webinar library, a blog, and a podcast alongside the practice, and its stated client types are entrepreneurs, family stewards, and mid-career professionals.
Visit their site
09 · East Austin, on Comal Street
NEST Financial
The one on this page built around founders rather than retirees, and the only ranked office east of the interstate. NEST states its purpose as giving innovators the freedom to be exactly who they were meant to be, and its own shorthand for the difference is local team, local values. Two CFP professionals run the practice: Gloria Park is a CFP professional and managing partner who also owns a family business, which the site offers as the reason she works well with owners on risk and goals, and Sean McDougle is a CFP professional and chief investment officer who maps and measures economic data into the portfolio strategies. Founder Dan Dillard has more than twenty years in finance and created founding_media and foundingAUSTIN, which explains both the client base and the fact that the firm publishes more than most. If your financial life includes a cap table, a lumpy income, or a business you might sell, this is the shape of practice to look at first.
No fee schedule is published. The service framing is built around cash flow first, and the site runs a blog and a client portal. Contact is through the site rather than a published minimum.
Visit their site
10 · Brentwood, on Burnet Road
Austin Wealth Management
A coordination-first practice with real credential depth and one unresolved thing on its own website. The firm presents itself as financial planners based in Austin, Texas, and organizes its entire site around the reader’s actual situation rather than its own service names, splitting into a life-event door for job changes, inheritances, company stock, business sales, and divorce, and a planning door for tax, retirement, and business exit work. Its stated model is coordination: rather than leaving a client’s broker, accountant, banker, and attorney to work past each other, the team engages those professionals directly, with permission, and builds the plan from what they collectively know. The stated principle is no sales pitch, just education. On the team page four people carry the CFP, partner Derek Ripp, wealth advisor John Toungate, Manisha Gupta, and David Lowe, while managing partner Kevin X. Smith holds the CFA and senior portfolio manager Erin M. Hay holds the CFA and the CMT. One caution this page will not resolve for you: the site’s page title calls the firm fee-based while its own structured data calls it fee-only. Ask which it is on the first call.
No fee schedule is published, and the fee model is stated inconsistently on the firm’s own site. The team page names a managing partner, a partner, a wealth advisor, two financial advisors, a financial planner, a senior portfolio manager, and an insurance specialist, and the site publishes an education and questions section.
Visit their site

Every Thursday

Independent Austin picks like these, three a week, in a free email from Carissa.

Considered and cut

Places that came up in the research and did not make the list, and why.

Ameriprise Financial advisorsThe single largest presence in this category and the clearest illustration of why the independence rule exists. Our census carries 23 separate Austin listings whose websites are advisor pages on ameriprise.com or ameripriseadvisors.com, most of them one named advisor at a shared suite address on Jollyville Road, North Capital of Texas Highway, or Pecan Park Boulevard. Several of those advisors hold real credentials. None of them is an independent Austin firm, which is what this page ranks.
Edward Jones advisorsThirteen Austin listings, every one of them a single-advisor branch page on edwardjones.com, spread from Avery Ranch to Seton Center Parkway. Edward Jones is a national partnership and its branch model is the opposite of the standard this page applies. Worth saying plainly: several of these advisors publish the CFP, ChFC, and AAMS marks, so the cut is about who the firm is, not about competence.
Merrill Lynch, Fidelity Investments, and Wells Fargo AdvisorsThe wirehouse and national brokerage offices in the census, including a Merrill Lynch Wealth Management office and an individual Merrill advisor page on North Capital of Texas Highway, a Fidelity investor center at the Domain, and a Wells Fargo Advisors office on McNeil Drive. All national, none Austin-headquartered.
Raymond James practicesFour census listings covering three practices operate under independent-sounding names while their own websites resolve to raymondjames.com or their business names carry Raymond James: Sage Creek Wealth Management, Ciani Thomas Financial, and Sparkman Wealth Management, which is listed twice. The independent branding is genuine as far as it goes, but the firm behind the advice is national, so these sit on the wrong side of the line this page draws for everyone.
Republic Wealth AdvisorsA cut this page did not expect to make. Republic was a well-known Austin independent and still holds an Austin listing on Seton Center Parkway, but its own domain no longer serves a Republic website: following republicwealthadvisors.com now lands on Mercer Advisors, a national registered investment adviser. Old roundups that still name it as an Austin independent are describing a firm that has been absorbed.
Capital Advisors, Inc.The same story on North Mopac. Capital Advisors carries an Austin listing in the census, and following its own domain, capitaladv.com, now lands on Corient, a national wealth management firm. The Austin office may well still be staffed by the same people. The firm behind it is no longer an Austin independent, which is what this page is for.
Austin National Financial ServicesAn Austin office on Spicewood Springs Road with a genuinely useful blog, cut on the first standard rather than the second. Its own site footer states that securities and advisory services are offered through LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor and member of FINRA and SIPC, which makes the practice part of a national platform rather than an independent Austin firm.
CapStar Financial ServicesCut on the second standard, and the disclosure that does it is CapStar’s own. The firm describes itself as an independent financial services firm helping individuals create retirement strategies using a variety of investment and insurance products, and its site states that insurance products and services are offered and sold through owner Suzette Porter as an individually licensed and appointed agent, with CapStar Insurance Services and CapStar Financial Services, LLC named as separate companies. This page ranks firms whose product is the advice, and a practice that also earns on the annuity it recommends is a different arrangement, honestly disclosed and honestly cut.
Austin First FinancialA solo practice downtown on West Avenue run by Scott Campbell, who has taught retirement, Social Security, investment, and tax classes through the University of Texas informal classes program for years, which is real teaching work. It is cut on the second standard: the published designation is the RICP, an insurance-industry retirement income certificate, and the site’s own description of the model is that being independent lets it build strategies from a wide array of products. Neither the word fiduciary nor a fee-only statement appears on the readable pages.

On the bench

Real places we did not rank this time, and what we would need to.

Maslow Wealth AdvisorsA long Austin history under a name most people have not learned yet. The firm describes itself as an Austin-based private asset management firm and says that, previously known as Durbin Bennett, it has served business owners, families, and individuals in Austin as a fiduciary for more than 30 years, with a homepage panel reading 100 percent independent and fiduciary. Its house framework is a trademarked Hierarchy of Wealth, inspired by Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which sorts financial goals into six tiers and holds that the lower tiers must be planned for before higher tiers are addressed. Held rather than ranked on the credential half of the second standard alone: the team page answers every fetch with an empty body, so no CFP, CFA, or CPA mark could be read against a named person.
Griffin Financial Group, Bearing Financial Advisors, and Grand Oak FinancialThree Austin firms whose websites returned no readable page to any fetch attempt, two of them answering 403 outright, so not one first-party fact could be read about any of them. That is our tooling failing, not a judgment about the firms, and all three are held here rather than ranked or cut.
Watercolor FinancialOperates as a DBA of CBM Financial, LLC, and states that investment advisory services are offered through CBM Financial, LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor. It posts a Form CRS and an ADV Part 2A under a plain-English disclosures heading, which is more than most. Held rather than ranked because the credential half of the second standard could not be met at all: the team page is built on a platform that returns nothing to a plain fetch, so no advisor name or mark could be read.
Horizon Wealth StrategiesA Northland Drive firm that calls its advisers fee-based fiduciaries and names them with their marks, Mark D. Olson with the CFP, MSFS, AIF, CLU, and ChFC, Michael A. Ferrara with the CFP and LUTCF, and Irene Stolte with the ChFC, CLTC, and LUTCF. Held rather than ranked for three reasons a reader can check: its own about page leads with Million Dollar Round Table, Court of the Table, and Top of the Table counts, which are insurance production honors rather than planning credentials and are barred from this page, its published compensation word is fee-based rather than fee-only, and one of the three named advisors works from an address in Somerville, New Jersey.
GoalFusion Wealth ManagementA technology-forward Austin practice whose disclosure states that GoalFusion Wealth Management, LLC is a registered investment adviser and that its tax consulting entity is legally separate. Held because no named advisor credential appears on the readable pages, so it clears half of the second standard and not the other half.
AtlasMark FinancialAn Austin firm that describes itself as a boutique wealth management practice serving private, high net worth families across Texas and the United States, with a published intake whose lowest household net worth band starts at $500,000. Held because the readable pages carry no fee-only, fiduciary, or registered investment adviser statement and name no credentialed advisor, though the footer does link out to FINRA BrokerCheck.
Fort Wealth ManagementA practice with a San Felipe Boulevard office in Austin that runs event pages for four Texas cities, Austin, Houston, Waco, and Fort Worth, and publishes a free retirement income planning checklist. Its footer states that advisory services are offered through Fort Advisors, a registered investment advisory. Held because no fee-only or fiduciary statement appears on the readable pages, the designation it prints is the RICP, the service list mixes planning with life, health, and long-term care insurance, and with four Texas offices it publishes nothing establishing Austin as the firm’s home.

Questions

What does a financial planner in Austin cost?: Most Austin firms do not publish a price, and of the 10 ranked on this page only two do. Archer Investment Management publishes a standard schedule of 1.00 percent on the first $2,500,000 in asset value, 0.50 percent on the next $7,500,000, and 0.15 percent above $10 million. Oakwell Private Wealth Management publishes 1.00 percent to $2,000,000, 0.80 percent to $5,000,000, and 0.55 percent above that, applied progressively so each dollar is charged in its own bracket, and states that fees are negotiable. Everyone else quotes after a conversation. Ask for the number in writing on the first call, and ask whether planning is billed separately from asset management.
What is the difference between fee-only and fee-based?: Fee-only means the firm is paid by its clients and nobody else, so it earns nothing from selling you a product. FMP Wealth Advisers states it plainly on its own site: as a fee-only firm it receives no commissions for trading securities or selling products. Fee-based means client fees plus commissions from products such as insurance and annuities, which is legal, common, and disclosed, and which introduces an interest the fee-only model does not have. On this page Austin Asset, Century Management, FMP Wealth Advisers, Archer, Pioneer Wealth Management Group, Lucien, Stirling and Gray, and Black Barn Financial describe themselves as fee-only. Ask any firm to say which it is out loud, because the words look nearly identical in print.
Do I need a minimum amount of money to hire a financial planner in Austin?: Often yes, and it is rarely published. Lucien, Stirling and Gray states a minimum of $500,000 in investable assets and says it deliberately limits its client count to stay high-touch. Archer Investment Management says it does its best work with people who have accumulated $1,000,000 or more across brokerage, IRA, 401(k), 403(b), and options accounts. AtlasMark Financial, held on the bench here, asks new inquiries to select a household net worth band starting between $500,000 and $2 million. Firms that publish no minimum may still have one, so ask before you invest an hour in an introductory meeting.
Is an Edward Jones or Ameriprise advisor in Austin a financial planner?: They do financial planning, and many hold the CFP mark, but they are not independent Austin firms, which is the standard this page applies. Of the 112 Austin planning listings in our census, 48 are branch or franchise pages belonging to nine national brands, and Ameriprise alone accounts for 23 of them while Edward Jones accounts for 13. If you want an adviser whose firm is owned and run in Austin, those listings are noise in your search results, which is most of why this page exists.
How do I check an Austin financial advisor’s background before hiring them?: Read the two disclosure documents every registered adviser has to give you, and the firms on this page link them from their own footers. Austin Asset posts Form ADV parts 2A, 2B, and part 3, which is the Form CRS client relationship summary. Watercolor Financial posts its Form CRS and ADV Part 2A. Oakwell Private Wealth Management posts its Form CRS and points readers at FINRA’s BrokerCheck from its own site. Form CRS is the short one and states in plain language how the firm is paid and what conflicts it carries, which is the fastest read available.
Which Austin financial planning firms are employee-owned?: Two on this page say so in their own words. Austin Asset states it remains 100 percent employee-owned and its history page tracks ownership passing from founder John Henry McDonald to a widening group of advisers through 2024. FMP Wealth Advisers states that it is owned, managed, and controlled by its employees, and says that structure is what lets it keep a close-knit team. Century Management is family-led rather than employee-owned, run by the second and third generations of the family that founded it in 1974.
Which Austin financial planners work with startup founders and equity compensation?: NEST Financial in East Austin is built around it, stating that its purpose is to serve innovators, with a CFP professional as managing partner and a second CFP professional as chief investment officer. Black Barn Financial’s Kacie Swartz works specifically in equity compensation and tax-advantaged accounts. Century Management publishes a named stock option planning service and a separate windfalls and liquidity events service, and Oakwell Private Wealth Management publishes an equity compensation planning line for corporate executives. Archer names tech professionals as one of its two client focuses.

How this list was made

This list started from our census of Austin businesses, which holds 112 open listings with an Austin-proper address under the financial planning and advisory categories. That number is misleading on its own, and correcting it is most of the work this page did. Following each listing’s own website showed that 48 of the 112 are branch, franchise, or platform pages belonging to nine national brands, with Ameriprise carrying 23 and Edward Jones 13, and that two more of the apparent independents have been acquired: Republic Wealth Advisors’ own domain now resolves to Mercer Advisors and Capital Advisors’ domain now resolves to Corient. The census also carries category artifacts that are not consumer planning firms at all, including an investment bank, a municipal advisory firm, a self-directed IRA administrator, and a bookkeeping service. Every firm that survived the independence filter was then read on its own website on 2026-09-09, and two things had to appear there for a firm to be ranked: a fee-only, fiduciary, or registered investment adviser statement in the firm’s own words, and a CFP, CFA, or CPA mark attached to a named person on the firm’s own team page. Firms whose sites blocked our fetches or rendered nothing are on the bench with the reason stated, not in the cut list, because an unreadable page is our failure and not theirs. No ratings, review counts, testimonials, third-party awards, or assets under management figures appear anywhere on this page, and no performance claim of any kind is printed. Nobody paid to be here, no firm saw the list before publication, and the cut list explains the closest calls.

The number that reframes this whole search: of the 112 Austin-proper financial planning listings in our census, 48 are branch, franchise, or platform pages belonging to just nine national brands, and two of those brands account for 36 of them, with Ameriprise at 23 Austin listings and Edward Jones at 13. Put another way, roughly two in five results a reader sees when searching for an Austin financial planner are a single advisor working out of a shared suite under a national banner, and dozens of them share a handful of office addresses on Jollyville Road and North Capital of Texas Highway. The independent firms run from Austin that clear both of this page’s standards number 10, and two more that looked independent from the listing turned out to have been acquired: Republic Wealth Advisors’ own domain now redirects to Mercer Advisors and Capital Advisors’ own domain now redirects to Corient. Only two of the 10 publish what they charge.

The best financial planners in Austin.

Austin Asset

Century Management Financial Advisors

FMP Wealth Advisers

Archer Investment Management

Pioneer Wealth Management Group

Lucien, Stirling & Gray Advisory Group

Oakwell Private Wealth Management

Black Barn Financial

NEST Financial

Austin Wealth Management

Considered and cut

On the bench

Questions

How this list was made

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