American Retirement Advisors vs. Farnam Financial

How does American Retirement Advisors compare to Farnam Financial in 2026?

Farnam Financial is the newest firm on our comparison shelf and, in fee terms, one of the sharpest. Founded in Phoenix in October 2019 by Jonathan Bird, a CFP who runs a weekly YouTube channel and wrote the book Income on Demand, Farnam is a three-person, fee-only RIA managing about $161 million for 81 households, most of them high-net-worth. Their headline rate, 1.00% on the first $2 million and 0.60% beyond, undercuts most of the Valley, and their wrap structure covers trading costs with planning included.

American Retirement Advisors is a different animal: 11 people, about 10,000 households, 25 years in the same community, with Medicare, income guarantees, and inheritance handled under one roof and no minimum at the door. Small-and-cheap versus established-and-deep is a real tradeoff, and this page will walk it honestly, because Farnam earns the serious look.

At a Glance: American Retirement Advisors vs. Farnam Financial

Who is each firm best for? The honest breakdown

If you have less than $1 million saved

Farnam’s brochure sets a $1,000,000 minimum for investment management, and their website goes further, saying they serve clients with over $2 million of investable assets. Below those lines you are outside their design, though standalone planning carries no minimum. American Retirement Advisors has no minimum on anything. This tier decides itself.

$1 million to $3 million

Here the Farnam pitch is strongest: 1.00% on the first $2 million with planning included and trading costs covered is genuinely competitive fee-only pricing, and Jonathan Bird’s public work shows real thinking about retirement withdrawals. The tradeoff is structural, not personal: three people, no insurance licenses, which means no guaranteed income instruments when the income floor calls for one, and Medicare entirely outside the offer. Our model puts guarantees on the menu, staffs Medicare in-house at no cost to you, and runs inheritance as a process. Interview both; you are choosing between a sharp portfolio price and a complete retirement architecture.

$3 million and above

Farnam’s blended fee keeps dropping, their own example shows a $7 million account at an effective 0.71%, and at that level a lean fee-only manager is a credible growth engine. It is also exactly where the hybrid answer shines: growth capital wherever it is managed best, and the income floor, Medicare, IRMAA planning, and inheritance architecture with the firm built for it. Retirement is allowed to have a team.

Head to head: Medicare and healthcare planning

Farnam is fee-only with zero commissions of any kind, which their site states plainly and their filings confirm, and their service list includes risk management and insurance review. Review is the operative word: they can look at what you have, and they cannot sell or enroll you in anything, including Medicare plans.

American Retirement Advisors staffs Medicare as a discipline: licensed in-house specialists compare every plan option in your zip code annually, monitor IRMAA thresholds two years ahead against your withdrawal plan, and handle enrollment paperwork, at no cost to you. For households drawing serious income from a $2 million-plus portfolio, IRMAA is not a footnote; a single mistimed distribution can raise two years of premiums for both spouses. Somebody has to own that math. Ask each firm who does.

Head to head: Estate and inheritance planning

Farnam includes estate plan review in its planning scope and refers drafting out, which is standard and fair for a fee-only shop. American Retirement Advisors runs inheritance as a named process: beneficiary audits across every account and policy, family meetings before the documents matter, and coordination with independent estate attorneys, Sean Greengard in Arizona and Jason Sadow in Nevada, whose advice does not answer to us. With 81 clients, Farnam can give personal attention to this; with 25 years of estates actually settling, we can give it experience. Ask both firms how many family transitions they have sat through, because that number is the service.

Head to head: Fees, with the trade named honestly

Farnam’s published schedule: 1.00% on the first $2 million, 0.60% from $2 million to $10 million, 0.30% above, billed quarterly in arrears on average daily balance, wrap structure so trading commissions are covered, ongoing planning included, zero commissions anywhere, and their website adds that they cover 100% of custodian trading costs at Schwab. That is clean, aggressive pricing, and we will not pretend otherwise.

What the fee does not buy: guaranteed income instruments, Medicare execution, or a bench. Three people hold the whole practice, and their own regulatory minimum is $1 million while their marketing targets $2 million. American Retirement Advisors’ planning costs you nothing out of pocket, insurance work is carrier-paid and disclosed, and fee-based management applies only to what you choose to place under it. On pure portfolio price above $2 million, Farnam wins the spreadsheet. On everything the spreadsheet leaves out, income floors, healthcare, succession of the advisor himself, ask harder questions.

Head to head: Continuity and key-person risk

This one matters more with Farnam than any firm on our shelf, so we will say it carefully. Farnam is seven years old and three people, with one founder at the center of the brand, the videos, the book, and the client relationships. Jonathan Bird is, by every public signal, good at this. He is also one person, and their filings list no related parties and no succession structure we could verify. If your retirement plan will outlive your advisor’s firm, that is a risk to price, and it is fair to ask them directly: what happens to my account if something happens to you?

American Retirement Advisors is 11 people under ownership that has not changed since 2001, with systems, pre-meeting intelligence briefs, a planning team behind every advisor, built so that no single person is the firm. Longevity is not glamorous. It is just the thing you are actually buying when the plan is supposed to last thirty years.

Where Farnam Financial might be a better fit

• You have $2 million+ and want the lowest credible fee-only rate in town. 1.00%/0.60%/0.30% with trading covered and planning included is genuinely sharp pricing.
• You want the founder himself. With 81 clients, you will get Jonathan Bird or his two colleagues, period.
• You like his public work. The weekly YouTube channel and Income on Demand book let you audit his thinking for free before you ever call.
• Zero commissions is your hard rule. Their model has none, anywhere, by design.

Where American Retirement Advisors shines

• No minimum. Their brochure requires $1 million and their marketing targets $2 million. We require a phone call.
• Medicare staffed in-house at no cost to you. Not reviewable-only: compared, enrolled, and monitored annually.
• Guaranteed income on the menu. A fee-only firm cannot sell the one instrument that guarantees lifetime income. We can, with the engineering shown.
• Eleven people, zero key-person risk. The firm outlives any one of us, by design, since 2001.
• Inheritance as a process with 25 years of settled estates behind it.

What is Farnam Financial’s minimum investment?

Farnam’s February 2026 wrap fee brochure states a minimum account size of $1,000,000 for investment management, while their website says they serve clients with over $2 million of investable assets, especially those nearing or in retirement. Financial planning as a standalone service has no minimum, billed at $250 to $25,000 per quarter by complexity. American Retirement Advisors has no account minimum on anything.

What are Farnam Financial’s fees?

Per their February 2026 brochures: 1.00% annually on the first $2 million, 0.60% from $2 million to $10 million, and 0.30% above $10 million, billed quarterly in arrears on average daily balance, in a wrap structure where Farnam covers trading commissions, with ongoing financial planning included at no additional charge. Their own example: a $7 million account pays an effective 0.71%, about $50,000 a year. There are no commissions of any kind. American Retirement Advisors charges nothing for income, Medicare, and inheritance planning; insurance work is carrier-paid and disclosed, and investment management is fee-based only on assets you place under management. See how we build lifetime income plans.

How much money does Farnam Financial manage?

Farnam reported $161,447,231 in regulatory assets under management, all discretionary within its own wrap program, across 240 accounts in its Form ADV filed April 16, 2026, with 3 employees. About 94% of assets belong to high-net-worth households, and the average relationship is roughly $2 million across 81 individual clients. Their website cites $200 million for 90 households, a firm marketing figure that runs ahead of the filed number.

Where does Farnam Financial have offices?

Farnam operates from 2415 E. Camelback Road in Phoenix and serves clients across more than a dozen states remotely. American Retirement Advisors serves clients from offices in Scottsdale, Mesa, and Las Vegas, and meets virtually with clients nationwide. Find the office nearest you.

Farnam Financial reviews: how to read them (and ours)

With a firm this young and this small, reviews will be few and glowing, because 81 hand-picked clients with a founder who answers his own phone is a recipe for five stars. That is real signal, and so is sample size. Watch his videos, read the book, and ask the succession question in the first meeting. American Retirement Advisors holds a 4.9-star Google rating across our offices, earned over 25 years and thousands of families. Meet one of our advisors or hear real client conversations on our podcast.

Keep exploring before you decide

Sample both firms’ public work; Farnam makes that easy and so do we. Start with our 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

Farnam Financial is a sharp, honest, young firm with the most competitive fee-only pricing on our comparison shelf and a founder who shows his work in public. If you have $2 million-plus, want a lean portfolio manager, and are comfortable with three-person key-person risk, they earn the interview.

If you want the complete retirement architecture, income floors with guarantees available, Medicare staffed in-house at no cost, inheritance run as a process, and a firm built to outlast any single advisor, with no minimum at the door, that is American Retirement Advisors, since 2001.