Software for fee-only financial planners

A planner who charges a flat or subscription fee sells more like a consultant than a broker: an intro call, a discovery meeting, a proposal with a price, a signed agreement, then a plan delivered over a few meetings. Your planning software, the custodian and your compliance archive handle the regulated parts. SoloWOS handles the meetings, the agreement and the fee.

From an intro call to a delivered plan

1. A prospect books a free 20-minute intro call from your website or a podcast's show notes. The booking form asks their household situation and what prompted the call (a job change, an inheritance, retirement in five years). Keep it general; balances and account numbers come later, in your planning software.
2. After the call, send a proposal: for example, a comprehensive plan for a $3,000 one-time fee with 50% up front, or ongoing planning at $250 a month. Spell out what's included (meetings a year, response times) and what isn't (asset management, tax preparation).
3. Share your Form ADV Part 2A brochure as a tracked PDF with Document Tracking before the agreement, so you can see when it was opened, then send the advisory agreement through E-Signatures with both spouses as signers.
4. Create the deposit invoice from the accepted proposal. For subscription clients, set an invoice to repeat monthly or quarterly with the card pay link and your ACH details as text.
5. After the data-gathering meeting and the plan presentation, share the finished plan as a PDF behind a passcode and record a short walkthrough of the cash-flow pages for the spouse who couldn't make it.
6. Put the annual review on your board as a task due 11 months out, and send a single-use booking link when it comes up.

A typical week

• Monday: two intro calls booked themselves from Sunday's newsletter link. One fits; the other wants someone to pick stocks, so you refer them out.
• Tuesday: a couple accepts a $3,000 plan proposal. The brochure was opened Monday night; the agreement goes out for both signatures and the deposit invoice follows.
• Wednesday: a data-gathering meeting, then a 5-minute video explaining the Roth conversion scenario you modeled.
• Thursday: you see that the plan PDF you shared last week was opened three times, mostly on the insurance page. You add life insurance to the follow-up agenda.
• Friday: the subscription invoices for the quarter went out on the 1st; two are still open and their reminders went out this morning.

All 13 tools, one by one

A planning practice uses a handful of these all the time and the rest rarely. Here's each one, honestly:

• Link in Bio: one page with your intro call booking, your fee schedule summary and your newsletter signup, for the bio on LinkedIn or a podcast you guest on. Have compliance review it like any other page.
• Short Links: a short link for the slide at a workplace financial wellness talk or a community college class, with clicks counted, so you know which talk brought in calls.
• Forms: a pre-meeting questionnaire about goals, household and timeline. Leave account numbers, statements and Social Security numbers for your planning software or custodian's portal.
• Scheduling: free intro calls, paid one-off sessions (for example, a 90-minute retirement check-in charged at booking) and review meetings, with your Google or Outlook calendar connected so nothing double-books.
• Proposals: the planning engagement: a one-time plan fee with a percentage deposit, or a monthly subscription line, with what's included and excluded in the terms.
• E-Signatures: the advisory agreement with both spouses signing in order, plus amendments when the fee or scope changes, each with an audit trail certificate.
• Document Tracking: your brochure, the finished plan and meeting summaries as PDFs with a passcode and an expiration date; you see when each one was opened and which pages got the attention.
• Screen Recording: walkthroughs up to 5 minutes on Solo of a scenario you modeled, so clients can rewatch the reasoning; they comment at the second a question comes up.
• Notes & Boards: a board of clients by stage (onboarding, plan in progress, delivered, annual review due) and a page per household with notes on goals. Keep anything your books and records must hold in your archive too.
• Time Tracking: worth it while you figure out pricing: time each plan from data gathering to delivery, so you know whether $3,000 covers the 20 hours it really takes.
• Invoicing: plan fees and monthly or quarterly subscription invoices that repeat, sent with a card pay link and reminders. It doesn't debit fees from client accounts at the custodian.
• Expenses: your own costs: planning software, CE, E&O coverage and conference travel, with receipts, as CSV for your tax preparer.
• Automations: when an intro call is booked, email a link to your brochure and what to bring; when a proposal sits unaccepted for a week, send one follow-up. Avoid automated review requests until compliance signs off.

SEC and state rules to keep in mind

Whether you register with the SEC or your state depends mostly on assets under management: NASAA says advisers with less than $100 million in regulatory assets under management generally register with the states where they have a place of business and clients. State rules differ, so treat these points as general.

• Brochure delivery: SEC-registered advisers must give each client the Form ADV Part 2A brochure before or at the time they enter into an advisory agreement. State-registered advisers should check their state's rule.
• Testimonials and reviews: the SEC Marketing Rule lets SEC-registered advisers use testimonials and endorsements in advertisements only with conditions, including clear and prominent disclosure of whether the person is a client and whether they're paid. An automation that asks clients for a review can produce a testimonial, so check with your compliance consultant first.
• Records: SEC rules require advisers to keep copies of their advertisements, among other books and records. SoloWOS isn't an email or communications archive; keep using your archiving service.
• Client financial data: keep account numbers, statements and Social Security numbers in your planning software or custodian portal, not in SoloWOS forms or notes.

This is general information, not legal advice. Rules vary by state; check yours with a lawyer or your licensing board.

SoloWOS, Wealthbox or Redtail: which fits

Wealthbox and Redtail are CRMs built for financial advisors. They hold client and household data and connect to the advisor tech stack; SoloWOS covers selling, signing and billing a planning engagement. Some planners use one of each.

Choose Wealthbox or Redtail if:

• You need client and household data connected to your custodian and planning software.
• You need email archiving for your books and records alongside the CRM.
• You have staff who run onboarding and reviews from shared workflows.

Choose SoloWOS if:

• You bill flat or subscription fees directly and need the proposal, the agreement and the invoices more than a custodial integration.
• You want booking pages, tracked PDFs and walkthrough videos in the same account.
• You're starting out and your planning software already holds the household data.

Prices and features checked on October 23, 2026 on each company's site.

Start with these three

Scheduling with a free intro call and a review meeting type, Proposals with your plan and subscription saved as templates, and E-Signatures for the advisory agreement. Document Tracking comes next, for the brochure and the plan.

Free tools that help

• Time zone meeting planner for virtual clients across the country.
• Customer lifetime value calculator to compare a one-time plan fee with a subscription client who stays five years.
• Freelance rate calculator to set a plan fee from the income you need and the hours a plan takes.
• Break-even calculator for how many subscription clients cover your software, insurance and compliance costs.

What SoloWOS won't do for a financial advisor

• No account aggregation, planning software, custodian integration or fee debiting from client accounts.
• No email archiving or books-and-records retention.
• No compliance review of your pages, forms or emails; that's still your CCO or consultant's job.
• Clients can't upload statements through a form or the portal.
• SoloWOS doesn't file taxes, issue 1099s or collect sales tax for you. Invoicing sends the invoice with a pay link (card through your Stripe account) and your other payment details; your accountant or tax software handles the rest.