LifeGuide Essentials is designed for individuals and families with investable assets of $450k or less.
Whether you’re just starting out or planning for retirement, LifeGuide Essentials provides a laser-focused, two-part approach to financial guidance—an initial plan to get you on track, followed by ongoing coaching, advice, and investment management to help you stay there.
Your LifeGuide Essentials journey starts with a personalized plan, where you’ll work closely with a CFP® professional to organize your finances, clarify your goals, and create a roadmap with practical next steps. From there, we design an investment strategy and portfolio that support your plan and align with your values and convictions.
Your plan will cover:
Includes everything in Essentials, plus:
In addition to your initial planning meetings, LifeGuide Essentials & Essentials+ also include a 6-month Check-In Meeting (usually 30 minutes) to review progress, provide support, and answer your questions.
A plan only works if it’s put into action—and that’s where our ongoing coaching, advice, and investment management come in! As life unfolds, we’ll walk alongside you, providing guidance through market changes, life transitions, and important financial decisions. With regular reviews and ongoing communication with your dedicated advisor, we’ll help you stay on track both financially and in life.
Additional time and advanced planning services are available for an additional fee. LifeGuide’s Survivor Assistance Program is included at no additional cost for clients actively enrolled in LifeGuide Essentials or Essentials+. For complete details, please refer to our latest filed Form ADV.
Welcome, Dave Ramsey Fans
Getting started on Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps takes discipline, but moving through them requires strategy, intentionality, and accountability. As one of Dave’s SmartVestor Pros, we’ve designed LifeGuide Essentials to help you continue your Financial Peace University journey. Picking up seamlessly after Baby Step 3, we’ll guide you through your next steps—investing for retirement, saving for your children’s college, paying off your home, and giving generously!
Get Started with Essentials ▸ LifeGuide & Dave Ramsey ▸We can not say enough about LifeGuide. They are a faith based financial advisor group that truly makes you feel like family. They truly appreciate their clients and set you at ease. They are endorsed by Dave Ramsey (Financial Peace University) and we recommend them to all age groups. They have helped guide us financially as our family has grown and our career paths have changed.As posted in Tara's Google Review
The presented testimonial is from a current LifeGuide Financial Advisors client and was obtained via a third-party website. LifeGuide Financial Advisors reached out to a random sample of clients requesting voluntary feedback. Clients were not provided any compensation with respect to said testimonials. The testimonial provided is for informational purposes only and is not representative of all client experiences, which may differ substantially. Click here to view all the testimonials received by LifeGuide Financial Advisors on Google My Business.
We’ve designed our LifeGuide Essentials pricing to be clear and accessible, meeting you wherever you are on your financial journey.
Includes your initial planning engagement, account transition, and setup.
Total Invested with LifeGuide | Essentials | Essentials+ |
---|---|---|
$350k–$449k | Included | Included |
$300k–$349k | Included | $2,500 |
$200k–$299k | $1,250 | $2,500 |
Less than $200k | $2,500 | $3,500 |
Includes coaching, annual review meetings, survivor assistance services, and in-house oversight and management of accounts invested with LifeGuide.
Total Invested with LifeGuide | Annual Fee* |
---|---|
$449,000 | 1.37% |
$400,000 | 1.38% |
$350,000 | 1.39% |
$300,000 | 1.40% |
$250,000 | 1.42% |
$200,000 | 1.45% |
$150,000 | 1.50% |
$125,000 | 1.54% |
Less than $115,000 | $150/month |
*LifeGuide’s Ongoing Coaching, Advice, & Investment Management Fee is subject to a $150/month minimum and is based on a decreasing blended schedule. Your Annual Fee will change as the amount of assets you have invested with us changes. Your overall average fee percentage will decrease as the value of your investments directly held with us increases. Conversely, your average fee percentage will increase as the value of your investments with us decreases. Learn more about our fee structure. See Form ADV for full fee details.
LifeGuide is an independent fee-only, fiduciary advisor. This means the fees our clients pay are our only source of income—we work for you and only you. Neither LifeGuide nor our advisors receive commissions, kickbacks, or incentives for selling any specific investment or insurance products.
We don’t have an investment minimum because we want to make our services accessible to anyone who desires to be wise and faithful with their finances, regardless of asset level.
Having created hundreds of plans for our clients over the years, we know what it takes to deliver personalized plans that provide real value. The initial planning fee allows our advisors to dedicate the time needed to develop and clearly explain your customized plan in a way that is objective, understandable, and actionable—not just a thick binder full of fine print that sits on a shelf collecting dust.
After working with hundreds of people over the years, we’ve seen how making the right decision—or avoiding a costly mistake—can change your financial trajectory and more than pay for the initial planning fee.
We’ve also found that getting on the same page with your spouse (if applicable) and your advisor is invaluable, providing a strong foundation for making wise financial decisions in the future.
Organizing, reviewing, and objectively assessing your entire financial picture is a critical first step in a successful financial journey. However, we understand that the tangible benefits may not be fully clear until you’ve experienced our process firsthand. That’s why we offer the following guarantee for our initial planning engagement and ongoing services:
Please note: Like any financial firm, we cannot guarantee investment results, and past performance is not a guarantee of future results.
No—and in fact, we strongly caution against investing with anyone willing to invest your money without first understanding your complete financial picture, plan, goals, and values.
Here’s why: Your lifestyle, goals, values, faith, financial situation, and investments are all interconnected. To provide you with wise, personalized advice, we first need to understand what you want your money to do for you.
Giving investment advice without a financial plan is like a doctor prescribing treatment without first performing a physical or reviewing your health history—it could do more harm than good.
No problem! You can get started with a one-time fee of $2,500 for Essentials or $3,500 for Essentials+, which includes retirement income planning. Ongoing coaching and advice are available for $150 per month.
Our Essentials plan is best for those earlier in their financial life and at least 15 years from retirement. It focuses on questions like:
Our Essentials+ plan includes everything above while also helping you make key decisions as you approach retirement. It answers questions like:
No worries if you’re unsure at the start—your advisor will help you decide which plan is best for you based on your financial picture, your questions, and what you hope to accomplish.
We have been big fans of Dave Ramsey’s financial principles and Financial Peace University for many years. Doug Denlinger, our Managing Partner, is a SmartVestor Pro. Our advisory team integrates Dave’s principles into our financial advice and embraces “the heart of a teacher” approach.
We’ve had the opportunity to meet and talk with Dave on multiple occasions. Doug, Zak, and Derek have facilitated Financial Peace University (FPU) in the past and enjoy helping churches and facilitators get the most out of their FPU events. Zak has also attended Dave Ramsey’s Momentum Conference and helped lead his entire church through Dave’s church-wide Momentum program.
In the past, LifeGuide has supported churches and individuals by offering an FPU scholarship program, facilitator training, and substitute FPU teaching.
Our advisors earn a salary and a bonus based on a combination of LifeGuide’s overall performance and their individual contributions. No one at LifeGuide has an individual sales quota or receives product commissions of any kind.
Our goal is to align our culture and compensation with delivering high value, excellent service, and heartfelt care for our clients.
No. LifeGuide is a local, independent Registered Investment Advisor (RIA). We intentionally chose this business model to ensure we have the freedom to recommend only the solutions that are in our clients’ best interests.
No one at LifeGuide is required or incentivized to recommend any specific investment or insurance products.
We strongly believe in the concept of meaningful diversification, especially when combined with our bucketing and dynamic rebalancing processes. We generally invest in the following asset classes:
We utilize investment bucketing, also known as “time-based segmentation”, to divide your money based on your spending needs:
We select a proper investment type for each bucket and then monitor and refill them periodically to maintain appropriate levels. Matching up investments with an appropriate time horizon reduces risk.
We’ve also found that it helps our clients stay invested through down markets. It is comforting to know you have several years worth of withdrawals that are not in the stock market.
Absolutely!
We employ a dynamic rebalancing process where we establish allocation targets and drift collars for each position in our portfolios, based on your specific investments and risk profile. We review accounts regularly for rebalancing opportunities and trade positions back to their targets when they surpass their drift collars.
Dynamic rebalancing helps us take advantage of short- and long-term market trends by systematically selling high and buying low.
Yes. Our investment team, led by Zak Lutz CFP®, RLP®, CKA®, Chief Investment Officer, has developed our values-based investing approach and portfolio options. We believe it is our job to help you build your personal investing convictions and provide you with quality options that match your values. We provide portfolio options across the values-based spectrum below.
It’s not about our convictions, it’s about yours. We will help you choose the portfolio that is right for you.
We believe personalized, high-quality financial advice should be accessible to everyone. By taking a laser-focused, results-driven approach, LifeGuide Essentials offers a fresh and accessible financial advising experience—regardless of age, income, or net worth.
If you have less than $450k in investable assets and are looking for action-oriented financial planning to help you take the next steps on your financial journey, LifeGuide Essentials is for you!
More than $450k in investable assets? Learn more about our comprehensive service offerings designed for you.
Yes! At LifeGuide, we treat your family like our own. Our Survivor Assistance Program is included for all clients actively enrolled in Ongoing, Coaching, Advice, and Investment Management.
Investable Assets | First Year Planning & Coaching |
Monthly Investment Management |
---|---|---|
With $200,000 Invested with LifeGuide |
Included | $125 min |
With $100,000 Invested with LifeGuide |
$1,500 | $125 min |
Planning Only (No Investment Management) |
$2,000 | — |
We’ve designed our Essentials Planning, Coaching, & Investment Management pricing to be clear and accessible, meeting you wherever you are on your financial journey.
Total Invested Directly with LifeGuide | Initial Planning & Setup Fee (Essentials+) | Initial Planning & Setup Fee (Essentials+) | Annual Total Relationship Fee* |
---|---|---|---|
$400,000 | Included | Included | 1.38% |
$350,000 | Included | Included | 1.39% |
$300,000 | $1,250 | $2,500 | 1.40% |
$250,000 | $1,250 | $2,500 | 1.42% |
$200,000 | $1,250 | $2,500 | 1.45% |
$150,000 | $2,500 | $3,500 | 1.50% |
$100,000 | $2,500 | $3,500 | 1.60% |
Less than $100,000 | $2,500 | $3,500 | $125/mo. |
*Total Relationship Fee subject to a $125/month minimum. Learn more about our fee structure. See ADV for full fee details.
*Total Relationship Fee subject to a $125/month minimum. Initial Planning & Setup Fee is based on scope of planning and is waived for clients who invest $350,000 or more directly with LifeGuide. See our ADV for full fee details.
**Subject to account minimums.
View Essentials Pricing ▸
*Total Relationship Fee subject to a $125/month minimum. Initial Planning & Setup Fee is based on scope of planning and is waived for clients who invest $350,000 or more directly with LifeGuide. See our ADV for full fee details.
**Subject to account minimums.
View Essentials Pricing ▸
For those who don’t need or aren’t quite ready for ongoing asset management, we offer two flexible ways to engage with our Essentials program: Ongoing Support or A La Carte. Both options begin with a one-time Initial Planning Fee (outlined above), which includes a full year of service benefits. After the first year, you can continue with an ongoing support (monthly retainer) or switch to an hourly, “as-needed” A La Carte model.
Includes a one-time Initial Planning Fee plus an ongoing monthly subscription for continued support.
Ongoing Subscription Benefits:
Additional Support: If you need extra meetings, plan refreshes, or additional analysis beyond your subscription, they are available at a discounted rate of $315/hour.
Includes a one-time Initial Planning Fee plus an ongoing monthly subscription for continued support.
Ongoing Subscription Benefits:
Additional Support: If you need extra meetings, plan refreshes, or additional analysis beyond your subscription, they are available at a discounted rate of $315/hour.
After the first year, you can choose to receive support only when you need it, billed at a standard hourly rate. Meetings, advice, analysis, and phone/email support available at $345/hour.
After the first year, you can choose to receive support only when you need it, billed at a standard hourly rate. Meetings, advice, analysis, and phone/email support available at $345/hour.
As followers of Jesus, we’ll help you maintain a biblical perspective around money, make wise decisions, and maximize your eternal impact—not just your worldly wealth!
Go well beyond simple “rules of thumb” or isolated isolated investing and tax advice, and get a personalized plan designed to help bring clarity and alignment to all areas of your life!
Working alongside a salaried, fee-only CFP® professional, you’ll receive a level of heartfelt care, wisdom, and attention to detail that goes far beyond the typical fiduciary advisor.
Live with peace
You and your family will always have someone by your side when you need it most. In the unfortunate event of a death, LifeGuide Essentials clients have access to our full Survivor Assistance service offering, including:
Live with peace
You and your family will always have someone by your side when you need it most. In the unfortunate event of a death, LifeGuide Essentials clients have access to our full Survivor Assistance service offering, including:
Invest with intention
As a LifeGuide Essentials clients, we’ll develop and manage your portfolio in support your faith, values, and long-term piece of mind! With Essentials Investment Management, you’ll receive:
LifeGuide Essentials is built to provide the personalized guidance you need, whether you’re looking for a solid financial foundation or a deeper level of analysis and planning as you look ahead to retirement. We offer two options so you can choose the right fit for your stage of life and financial goals.
Personalized, results-focused, biblically rooted guidance and advice where we organize your current financial picture, identify goals and priorities, develop your roadmap to financial peace, freedom, and impact, and define your actionable FirstSteps.
Personalized, results-focused, biblically rooted guidance and advice where we organize your current financial picture, identify goals and priorities, develop your roadmap to financial peace, freedom, and impact, and define your actionable FirstSteps.
Everything in LifeGuide Essentials Planning, Coaching, & Investment Management, plus:
Looking for dedicated retirement planning? Our optional Essentials+ service includes all of the financial planning outlined above in Essentials, as well as:
Looking for dedicated retirement planning? Our optional Essentials+ service includes all of the financial planning outlined above in Essentials, as well as:
Your LifeGuide Essentials journey starts with a personalized plan where you’ll work closely with a CFP® professional to organize your finances, clarify your goals, and create a roadmap with practical next steps. From there, we design an investment strategy and portfolio that supports your plan and aligns with your values and convictions.
Your financial plan will cover:
In addition to your initial planning meetings, LifeGuide Essentials also includes a 6-month Check-In Meeting (usually 30 minutes) to review progress and answer your questions.
Looking for dedicated retirement planning?
Our optional Essentials+ service includes all of the financial planning outlined above in Essentials, as well as:
Your LifeGuide Essentials journey starts with a personalized plan where you’ll work closely with a CFP® professional to organize your finances, clarify your goals, and create a roadmap with practical next steps. From there, we design an investment strategy and portfolio that supports your plan and aligns with your values and convictions.
Your financial plan will cover:
In addition to your initial planning meetings, LifeGuide Essentials also includes a 6-month Check-In Meeting (usually 30 minutes) to review progress and answer your questions.
Looking for dedicated retirement planning?
Our optional Essentials+ service includes all of the financial planning outlined above in Essentials, as well as: