Minnesota
A high-rate state that taxes retirement income and estates from $3 million.
Flat-fee financial planning, wherever you are
A flat-fee financial advisor serving your city.
Flames Financial Planning is based in Minnetonka, Minnesota and works virtually with households nationwide, where permitted. Same advisor, same published pricing, no percentage-of-assets fee, wherever you happen to live.
Direct answer
Do You Need a Flat-Fee Financial Advisor Near You?
Proximity matters less than it used to. Planning work happens over video, shared documents, and a dashboard, so the questions worth asking are whether the advisor is a fee-only fiduciary, what the total annual cost is in dollars, and what is included. Flames FP is based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, charges $900–$1,650 per quarter for comprehensive planning, and serves clients nationwide where permitted.
Start with your state
Tax rules are set by the state, not the city
Each state page sets out, with sources, how that state taxes income, retirement income and estates, the planning opportunities specific to it, and how it interacts with your federal return. The city pages beneath cover what is local.
Minnesota planning
Washington
No income tax — but a capital gains excise and the steepest estate tax in the country.
Texas
No income tax, no estate tax, both written into the constitution.
Arizona
A flat 2.5% — one of the lowest income tax rates of any state that has one.
Florida
No income tax and no estate tax — so the planning is about the state you left.
Colorado
A flat rate that moves with the state's surplus, and generous retirement subtractions.
California
The highest state income tax in the country, and it treats capital gains as ordinary income.
New York
Two income taxes in the city, and an estate tax with a cliff.
Illinois
A flat 4.95% that does not touch retirement income at all — and a $4 million estate threshold.
Massachusetts
A flat 5% with a 4% surtax above $1.1 million, and an estate tax from $2 million.
Georgia
A falling flat rate and a retirement income exclusion of up to $65,000 per person.
North Carolina
A flat rate falling to 3.99%, no estate tax, and Social Security untaxed.
Wisconsin
Four brackets to 7.65%, Social Security untaxed, and from 2025 a $24,000-per-person retirement income subtraction at 67.
Iowa
A flat 3.8% that retirement income never reaches: pensions, IRAs and Roth conversions are exempt from 55.
Pennsylvania
A flat 3.07% that never touches retirement income, and an inheritance tax of 4.5% to 15% that does.
Ohio
A single 2.75% rate from 2026 with the first $26,050 untaxed, and Social Security never taxed.
Michigan
A flat 4.25%, Social Security exempt, and 2026 completes the return of the retirement and pension deduction.
Virginia
A 5.75% top rate that begins at $17,000, Social Security exempt, and a $12,000 age deduction that income can erase.
Oregon
Rates to 9.9%, no sales tax, an estate tax from $1 million, and up to 4% more in Portland.
Tennessee
No income tax and no estate or inheritance tax; the state collects through sales tax instead.
Nevada
No income tax, written into the constitution, and no estate tax filing since 2005.
Utah
A flat 4.45% for 2026 that taxes Social Security, offset by credits that income can phase out.
New Jersey
Rates to 10.75%, a retirement income exclusion with a $150,000 cliff, and an inheritance tax on everyone but close family.
Minnesota
Where the firm is actually based
Flames FP is a Minnesota firm that works fully virtually and keeps no office. These are the Twin Cities communities it knows first-hand, but a household here meets by video exactly as one in Denver or Dallas does.
Minneapolis, MN
The core of the metro Flames FP calls home. Minneapolis households meet by video like every other client; there is no office to stop by.
St. Paul, MN
Flames FP is based in Minnetonka, across the metro from St. Paul, and works fully virtually. St. Paul households meet by video like every other client; there is no office to stop by.
Minnetonka, MN
This is where Flames FP is based. The firm works fully virtually and keeps no office, so Minnetonka households meet by video like every other client.
Edina, MN
Flames FP is based in Minnetonka, a west-metro neighbor of Edina, and works fully virtually. Edina households meet by video like every other client; there is no office to stop by.
Eden Prairie, MN
Flames FP is based in Minnetonka, next door to Eden Prairie, and works fully virtually. Eden Prairie households meet by video like every other client; there is no office to stop by.
Maple Grove, MN
Flames FP is based in Minnetonka, in the same west-metro corridor as Maple Grove, and works fully virtually. Maple Grove households meet by video like every other client; there is no office to stop by.
Wayzata, MN
Flames FP is based in Minnetonka, sharing Lake Minnetonka with Wayzata, and works fully virtually. Wayzata households meet by video like every other client; there is no office to stop by.
Rochester, MN
Flames FP is based in Minnetonka, in the Twin Cities, and works fully virtually. Rochester households meet by video like every other client; there is no office to drive to.
Plymouth, MN
Flames FP is based in Minnetonka, just south of Plymouth, and works fully virtually. Plymouth households meet by video like every other client; there is no office to stop by.
Woodbury, MN
Flames FP is based in Minnetonka, on the opposite side of the metro from Woodbury, and works fully virtually. Woodbury households meet by video like every other client; there is no office to drive to.
Bloomington, MN
Flames FP is based in Minnetonka, a short hop up the metro from Bloomington, and works fully virtually. Bloomington households meet by video like every other client; there is no office to stop by.
Lakeville, MN
Flames FP is based in Minnetonka, in the west metro, and works fully virtually. Lakeville households meet by video like every other client; there is no office to drive to.
Eagan, MN
Flames FP is based in Minnetonka, in the west metro, and works fully virtually. Eagan households meet by video like every other client; there is no office to drive to.
Chanhassen, MN
Flames FP is based in Minnetonka, a neighbor of Chanhassen along the southwest metro, and works fully virtually. Chanhassen households meet by video like every other client; there is no office to stop by.
Duluth, MN
Flames FP is based in Minnetonka, in the Twin Cities, and works fully virtually. Duluth households meet by video like every other client; there is no office to drive to.
St. Cloud, MN
Flames FP is based in Minnetonka, in the Twin Cities, and works fully virtually. St. Cloud households meet by video like every other client; there is no office to drive to.
Across the country
Metros served virtually
Each page covers what is genuinely local — how households there tend to be paid, what the first meeting usually covers — and inherits its state’s tax layer from the state page above.
Seattle, WA
Amazon, Microsoft, Starbucks and Boeing all employ heavily here and are all publicly traded, so a large share of local households hold employer stock of some kind.
Austin, TX
Tesla's Gigafactory Texas reported roughly 16,500 Austin-area employees at the end of 2025, Dell employs about 7,400 at its Round Rock headquarters, and Apple's Austin site is its largest in the country outside California.
Dallas, TX
The metroplex has drawn a steady stream of corporate relocations, including Charles Schwab, which moved its headquarters to Westlake in 2021.
Fort Worth, TX
Fort Worth is headquarters to American Airlines and BNSF Railway and home to Lockheed Martin's aeronautics plant, Alcon's U.S.
Houston, TX
Houston is the headquarters city of much of the American energy industry, with ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 among the public companies whose employees hold restricted stock and options, and home to the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical complex in the world, whose physicians and administrators hold 403(b) and 457 plans instead.
San Antonio, TX
San Antonio's households are paid by USAA and the financial-services and insurance sector around it, by the H-E-B grocery headquarters and Valero, by a large health-care and biomedical sector, and above all by Joint Base San Antonio and the military and civilian retirees who stay in the city after service.
Phoenix, AZ
A large retiree population alongside semiconductor, aerospace, and healthcare employers.
Scottsdale, AZ
Scottsdale is a destination for retired executives and business owners from higher-tax states, with a professional population employed by the Mayo Clinic's Arizona campus, HonorHealth, Vanguard's large Scottsdale operation and the corporate offices along the Loop 101.
Tucson, AZ
Tucson is paid by the University of Arizona and its health system, by Raytheon's missile business and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and the contractors around them, and by a large retiree population in the foothills and in Green Valley and Oro Valley.
Miami, FL
South Florida has attracted a run of finance and technology relocations, including Citadel in 2022 and Palantir, which moved its headquarters here in February 2026.
Naples, FL
Naples is a retirement and second-home market first: a large population of retired executives, business owners and professionals, many of them from Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan, alongside the NCH Healthcare System, Arthrex's medical-device headquarters and the professional firms that serve wealthy households.
Orlando, FL
Orlando is paid by the theme-park and hospitality industry, whose parents are large public companies, by Lockheed Martin's missiles and training businesses and the simulation cluster around them, by AdventHealth and Orlando Health, by the University of Central Florida, and by the Darden Restaurants headquarters.
Tampa, FL
Tampa Bay combines a large financial-services sector, with Raymond James and Jabil headquartered across the bay in St.
Boulder, CO
Boulder is paid by the University of Colorado, by the federal laboratories (NIST, NOAA and NCAR among them), by a dense technology and aerospace start-up scene and the public companies that acquire from it, and by the natural-products and outdoor industries.
Colorado Springs, CO
Colorado Springs is one of the most military cities in the country, home to Fort Carson, Peterson and Schriever Space Force Bases and the Air Force Academy, with the defense contractors and the Space Force headquarters functions that follow them, alongside a growing healthcare and technology sector.
Denver, CO
Denver's employment base runs through aerospace and defence, energy, healthcare and a growing technology sector, with a large federal workforce at the Denver Federal Center and a concentration of publicly traded headquarters along the Front Range.
Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles pays its households through entertainment and media, aerospace and defense along the South Bay, large health systems and universities, the ports and the professional firms that serve all of them.
San Diego, CA
San Diego's economy runs on Qualcomm and the wireless and semiconductor firms around it, a dense biotechnology and life-sciences cluster in La Jolla and Torrey Pines, the University of California San Diego and its health system, and one of the largest military presences in the country, with the defense contractors that follow it.
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco's households are paid in equity to a degree found almost nowhere else: restricted stock at the large public technology and financial companies headquartered here, and options, restricted units and tender-offer liquidity at the private ones.
San Jose, CA
The South Bay is home to many of the largest publicly traded semiconductor, networking and software companies in the world, headquartered in San Jose and the surrounding cities of Santa Clara County.
New York City, NY
New York's high earners are paid in ways that tax differently from a salary: deferred compensation and restricted stock at the banks and asset managers, partnership income at law and medical practices, and equity at the technology companies that have expanded here.
Chicago, IL
Chicago's professional households are paid through a wide mix: restricted stock and deferred compensation at the publicly traded companies headquartered in the city and its northern suburbs, partnership income at the trading firms, law practices and consultancies downtown, and hospital-system pensions and 403(b)s across the medical centres.
Boston, MA
Greater Boston's households are concentrated in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, the academic medical centres and universities, and asset management — three sectors that pay very differently.
Atlanta, GA
Metro Atlanta is home to a dense group of publicly traded headquarters across consumer goods, logistics, airlines and home improvement, a large hospital and university sector, and one of the busiest corporate-relocation markets in the country.
Charlotte, NC
Charlotte is the second-largest banking centre in the country, and its households are paid accordingly: deferred compensation and restricted stock at the banks and their vendors, with a large energy and manufacturing headquarters presence alongside.
Raleigh, NC
Raleigh and the Research Triangle are paid by technology and life-sciences employers in Research Triangle Park, by three research universities and their health systems, by state government, and by the privately held software company SAS in Cary.
Madison, WI
Madison is paid by the University of Wisconsin and UW Health, by state government, by American Family Insurance's headquarters, by the privately held Epic Systems in nearby Verona, and by a life-sciences sector that includes Exact Sciences.
Milwaukee, WI
Milwaukee's households are paid by manufacturing and industrial headquarters (Rockwell Automation and Harley-Davidson among them), by Northwestern Mutual and Fiserv, by ManpowerGroup, and by two large health systems and the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Des Moines, IA
Des Moines is an insurance and financial-services capital, home to Principal Financial Group's headquarters and large operations of Wells Fargo and Nationwide, alongside the Hy-Vee and Casey's headquarters, John Deere's Ankeny works and state government.
Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia is paid by Comcast's headquarters, by the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Medicine, Jefferson and the region's other health systems, by the pharmaceutical corridor that runs from the city into the suburbs, by financial services including the privately held Vanguard in Malvern, and by the law and professional firms of a large legal market.
Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh's largest employers are UPMC and Highmark, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon, and a group of public headquarters that includes PNC, PPG and Wabtec, with a robotics and technology sector grown out of the universities.
Cincinnati, OH
Cincinnati is headquarters to Procter & Gamble, Kroger, Fifth Third and GE Aerospace, and home to Cincinnati Children's and UC Health, so its households are unusually likely to hold restricted stock and a pension at one large public employer after a long career.
Cleveland, OH
Cleveland is paid by the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals, two of the largest health systems in the country, and by a set of public headquarters that includes Sherwin-Williams, Progressive, KeyCorp, Eaton and Parker Hannifin.
Columbus, OH
Columbus is paid by Nationwide's headquarters, by Cardinal Health, Huntington and Bath & Body Works, by JPMorgan's very large Columbus workforce, by The Ohio State University and its medical center, and by state government.
Ann Arbor, MI
Ann Arbor is paid above all by the University of Michigan and Michigan Medicine, the region's largest employer by far, alongside Toyota's North American research center, Domino's headquarters and a technology and life-sciences sector grown out of the university.
Detroit, MI
Metro Detroit is paid by General Motors, Ford and Stellantis and the suppliers around them, by Rocket Companies and the financial firms downtown, by DTE Energy, and by Henry Ford Health and Corewell Health.
Grand Rapids, MI
Grand Rapids is paid by large privately held companies, Meijer and Amway among them, by Steelcase and the office-furniture industry, by Corewell Health's West Michigan hospitals, and by a broad base of family-owned manufacturers.
Arlington, VA
Arlington and Northern Virginia are paid by the federal government and the military (the Pentagon sits in the county), by Amazon's second headquarters, by Boeing's and RTX's headquarters and the defense and government contractors around them, and by the professional firms that serve all of it.
Richmond, VA
Richmond is paid by state government, by a group of public headquarters that includes Dominion Energy, Altria, CarMax and Markel, by Capital One's very large West Creek campus, and by VCU Health and the region's hospitals.
Portland, OR
Portland is paid by Nike in Beaverton and Columbia Sportswear, by Intel's Oregon campuses in Hillsboro (the company's largest site), by Oregon Health & Science University and Providence, by Daimler Truck North America's headquarters, and by a large professional and creative sector.
Nashville, TN
Nashville is paid by HCA Healthcare's headquarters and the healthcare-services industry that has grown around it, by Vanderbilt University Medical Center, by Nissan North America's headquarters in Franklin and Asurion's downtown, by Amazon's operations center, and by the music and entertainment business.
Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas is paid by the gaming and hospitality companies headquartered on and around the Strip (MGM Resorts, Caesars, Wynn and Las Vegas Sands are all public), by Allegiant Air, by a growing healthcare and logistics sector, and by a large population of retirees and relocated Californians.
Salt Lake City, UT
Salt Lake City is paid by Intermountain Health and the University of Utah and its health system, by Zions Bancorporation, by Goldman Sachs' large Salt Lake office, by Delta's hub and by the technology companies of the Wasatch Front's Silicon Slopes to the south.
Princeton, NJ
Princeton is paid by Princeton University, by the pharmaceutical corridor along Route 1 (Bristol Myers Squibb's Lawrenceville and Princeton campuses and Novo Nordisk's U.S.
What to compare
Three questions that matter more than location
Ask these of every advisor you talk to, including this one.
What does it cost in dollars?
Percentages hide the number. One percent of $2 million is $20,000 a year. Ask for the annual dollar cost, this year and in ten years.
What is actually included?
Investment management alone is a different product from planning that also covers taxes, retirement income, insurance, and estate coordination. Compare scope before comparing price.
Who do you actually meet with?
Some firms rotate you through a service team. Ask whether you get a named advisor, and whether that person is the one doing the planning work.
Watch and learn
Financial Planning, Explained Clearly
Start with three videos selected for this page, then use the controls to explore every published Flames FP video guide.
Videos 1–3 of 14
What Nobody Tells You About Earning $400K a Year
See why a $400K income can still leave too little investable margin and how taxes, lifestyle growth, and deliberate investing change the result.
The RSU Strategy Most $300K Tech Earners Miss
Understand taxation at vesting, check the withholding gap, and turn each RSU vest into a deliberate diversification and household-planning decision.
The 3-Account System for a $250K Income
Use cash reserves, tax-advantaged accounts, and a taxable brokerage account to turn a strong income into a repeatable wealth-building system.
The 6 Levels of Wealth for $200K+ Households
Use six stages to separate a high income from the wealth it actually creates.
The Most Underrated Retirement Account
How a taxable brokerage account can support retirement flexibility alongside tax-advantaged accounts.
How to Decrease Your Tax Bill
Review practical tax-planning decisions that can connect income, investments, retirement, and withholding.
Should You Invest or Spend Your HSA?
A practical framework for deciding how an HSA fits healthcare costs, taxes, and retirement planning.
Four Common Backdoor Roth IRA Mistakes
Understand contribution, conversion, pro-rata, and reporting mistakes before they create tax problems.
Direct Indexing vs ETFs in a Taxable Account
Compare diversification, tax management, cost, and complexity before changing an investment strategy.
My New Favorite Account to Gift Money to Kids and Grandkids
Compare the new child investment account with 529 plans, custodial accounts, Roth IRAs for earned income, and the family's actual goals.
Estate Planning Documents You May Need
A plain-English review of wills, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, beneficiaries, and trusts.
Flat Fee vs 1% Financial Advisor
See how a percentage fee changes in dollars as a portfolio grows and what to compare beyond the headline rate.
How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?
Think through income replacement, debt, children, childcare, education, and family risk.
Five Money Mistakes High Earners Make
Common coordination gaps involving taxes, cash flow, investments, insurance, and estate planning.
Common questions
Finding a Financial Advisor Near You
Do I need a financial advisor in my city?
Not usually. Planning work is documents, analysis, and conversation, all of which happen well over video. What matters more than proximity is whether the advisor is a fiduciary, how they are paid, and what is included at that price.
Where is Flames Financial Planning actually located?
Flames FP is based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. City pages on this site describe service areas, not branch offices. Clients work with the firm virtually, nationwide where permitted.
What does a flat-fee financial advisor cost?
At Flames FP, Flames Access is $150 per quarter, Flames Planning is $900 per quarter, and Flames Premier is $1,650 per quarter. There is no AUM fee, no setup fee, and no portfolio minimum.
How is that different from a 1% advisor?
A 1% fee is charged on assets, so it rises as the portfolio grows: roughly $10,000 a year at $1 million and $20,000 at $2 million, for work that has not necessarily doubled. A flat fee is tied to the planning instead, so it stays put.
How do I check an advisor before hiring them?
Look the firm and the individual up on the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site. It shows registration, services, fee disclosures, and any disciplinary history. Do this for every advisor you consider.
Next step
Find out what a flat-fee relationship would cost you.
A discovery meeting covers your situation, what you pay now, and whether a fixed quarterly membership is a better fit.