American Retirement Advisors vs. Bayntree Wealth Advisors

How does American Retirement Advisors compare to Bayntree Wealth Advisors in 2026?

Drive ten minutes up Scottsdale Road from our office and you will pass theirs. Bayntree Wealth Advisors is a Scottsdale firm founded in 2015 by Andrew Rafal, managing about $241 million for roughly 510 clients, with a well-produced podcast and a strong media presence. American Retirement Advisors has been in the same community since 2001, serving about 10,000 households with a model built specifically around retirement income, Medicare, and inheritance.

Here is what makes this comparison genuinely interesting: the two firms are structurally more alike than either would guess. Both are independent boutiques. Both are insurance-licensed. Both use commission-paid insurance work alongside advisory services and disclose it. The differences are in scale, tenure, minimums, and how deep each firm goes on the three problems that define retirement: income, healthcare, and what happens to everything you built.

At a Glance: American Retirement Advisors vs. Bayntree Wealth Advisors

Who is each firm best for? The honest breakdown

Not every firm is right for every person. Here is our honest read, tier by tier.

If you have less than $500,000 saved

Bayntree’s brochure says the firm generally requires $500,000 in assets under management for an individual account, waivable at their discretion. American Retirement Advisors has no minimum at all, and the Medicare and income-planning work is at no cost to you regardless of account size. At this level, we would simply take your call and they might, and that difference matters when you need answers this year, not when your portfolio qualifies.

$500,000 to $2 million

Both firms will serve you well here, and both will be candid that insurance products may be part of the plan. The question to ask each firm is the same: show me exactly how the income floor gets built, what it costs, and who watches my Medicare premiums when we take income from the IRA. We publish our answer in plain English, and any firm worth hiring will do the same across the table.

$2 million and above

At this level you are buying coordination, not products. Bayntree offers legacy planning and tax strategies as part of its menu. American Retirement Advisors runs inheritance as a named discipline, with beneficiary audits across every account, family meetings, and independent estate attorneys in Arizona and Nevada who do not answer to us. Ask both firms who actually drafts the documents and who coordinates the CPA. The specifics will tell you everything.

Head to head: Medicare and healthcare planning

Both firms are licensed to help with Medicare-adjacent insurance, and this is where the depth difference shows. Bayntree’s affiliated agency, Bayntree Planning Group, is licensed in Arizona to sell Medicare Supplemental insurance along with life, disability, and long-term care coverage, earning customary commissions, which their brochure discloses plainly.

American Retirement Advisors treats Medicare as a core discipline rather than a product line. Licensed in-house specialists compare every plan option available in your zip code every single year, watch the IRMAA income thresholds that quietly raise premiums for higher-income retirees, coordinate enrollment windows with your income plan, and handle the paperwork, at no cost to you. If Medicare is a checkbox in your retirement plan, either firm can check it. If Medicare is a moving part of your income strategy, that is the job we built the firm around.

Head to head: Estate and inheritance planning

Bayntree markets legacy planning on its website, and we take them at their word that they engage the topic with clients. It is worth noting that their March 2026 ADV brochure, the regulatory document describing their services, does not describe estate planning as a service offering. That does not mean they ignore it. It means you should ask them exactly what legacy planning includes and who does the legal work.

American Retirement Advisors builds the inheritance side as a first-class process: beneficiary audits across every account and policy, family conversations before the estate becomes the family’s problem, and coordination with independent estate attorneys, Sean Greengard in Arizona and Jason Sadow in Nevada, so the legal advice never answers to the firm handling your money. We wrote the playbook we use, and we will show it to you before you commit to anything.

Head to head: Investment management and fees

Bayntree’s March 2026 brochure caps its advisory fee at a 1.50% annual maximum, billed monthly in arrears, with fees negotiable at the firm’s discretion and no published tier schedule. Financial planning runs up to $500 per hour, up to $15,000 per consultation, or up to $500 per month by subscription. Their representatives also earn customary insurance commissions through the affiliated agency, and the firm discloses a marketing relationship with Advisors Excel, an insurance marketing organization. None of this is unusual for a hybrid firm; it is all in their brochure, and we respect the disclosure.

American Retirement Advisors runs the same hybrid structure with a different emphasis and a different price tag on the planning itself. The income plan, the Medicare work, and the inheritance organization cost you nothing out of pocket: insurance and annuity work is paid by the carrier. Investment management is fee-based only on the assets you choose to place under management. Ask both firms for the all-in number on your actual situation. We will put ours in writing.

Head to head: Client experience and advisor access

Bayntree is a small, close-knit team: 13 people, 6 of them advisors, serving 510 clients from their Scottsdale headquarters. That math supports a genuinely personal practice, and their podcast, Your Wealth and Beyond, shows a firm that communicates well.

American Retirement Advisors serves about 10,000 households with 5 advisors and a 6-person planning team, and the reason that works is systems: every client meeting starts with a pre-meeting intelligence brief covering your recent conversations, policy details, and life changes. When you call, your advisor knows who you are, not because the firm is tiny but because the preparation is institutional. Eleven years from now, both firms will have aged. Ask which one has already proven it can keep its promises for 25.

Where Bayntree might be a better fit

Credit where it is due.

• You want a smaller client roster. Five hundred clients across six advisors is a boutique ratio, and some people simply prefer the smallest room.
• You like their media voice. The Your Wealth and Beyond podcast and their published commentary give you a real feel for the firm before you ever call. That transparency deserves praise.
• You want investment management with a negotiable fee. Their 1.50% maximum with negotiation room can land at a fair number for larger accounts.

Where American Retirement Advisors shines

• No minimum. Their brochure generally requires $500,000. We require a phone call.
• Medicare as a discipline, not a product. Every plan in your zip code compared annually, IRMAA watched, enrollment handled, at no cost to you.
• Inheritance as a named process. Beneficiary audits, family meetings, independent attorneys in two states.
• 25 years of receipts. Same community, same leadership, through four bear markets and two decades of Medicare rule changes.
• Nevada too. Offices in Scottsdale, Mesa, and Las Vegas.

What is Bayntree’s minimum investment?

Bayntree’s March 2026 Form ADV Part 2A states the firm generally requires a minimum of $500,000 of assets under management for an individual account, waivable at the firm’s sole discretion, and separately lists a $100,000 account minimum in its fee section. If you are below those numbers, ask them directly how the waiver works. American Retirement Advisors has no account minimum.

What are Bayntree’s fees?

Per their March 2026 brochure: a maximum annual advisory fee of 1.50%, billed monthly in arrears and negotiable at the firm’s discretion, with no published tier schedule. Financial planning is offered at up to $500 per hour, up to $15,000 per fixed consultation, or up to $500 per month on subscription. Their advisors also earn customary commissions on insurance products sold through the affiliated Bayntree Planning Group agency. American Retirement Advisors charges nothing for income, Medicare, and inheritance planning; insurance work is carrier-paid and investment management is fee-based only when you use it. See how we build lifetime income plans.

How much money does Bayntree manage?

Bayntree reported $241,077,085 in regulatory assets under management across 1,208 accounts, plus approximately $79 million in advised assets, in its Form ADV filed April 20, 2026. The firm reported 13 employees, 6 performing advisory functions and 6 licensed as insurance agents, serving 510 clients.

Where does Bayntree have offices?

Bayntree is headquartered at 7001 North Scottsdale Road in Scottsdale, with additional Phoenix-metro and Tucson locations listed across their website and regulatory filings. American Retirement Advisors serves clients from offices in Scottsdale, Mesa, and Las Vegas, and meets virtually with clients nationwide. Find the office nearest you.

Bayntree reviews: how to read them (and ours)

Read any firm’s current Google reviews yourself before choosing, including ours. Ratings move and sample sizes matter, so we will not quote a number for them here. Look for three things: reviewers who mention the same advisor across years, problems that got solved after the paperwork was signed, and a firm that responds to criticism like a human being. American Retirement Advisors holds a 4.9-star Google rating across our offices. Meet one of our advisors or hear real client conversations on our podcast.

Keep exploring before you decide

The best way to judge any firm is to sample its actual work. Listen to Bayntree’s podcast, genuinely. Then sample ours: start with the Roth Conversion Playbook, read our series on widowed retirement, or learn what to do when you inherit a retirement account. No forms, no calls, just the work.

The bottom line

Bayntree is a legitimate Scottsdale boutique with a clean regulatory record, a good media voice, and a hybrid model not far from our own. If you clear their minimum and want a smaller roster, they deserve a look.

If you want the firm that has done this in the same community since 2001, treats Medicare and inheritance as disciplines instead of menu items, and never asks how big your account is before taking the meeting, that is what American Retirement Advisors was built to be.