Good Better Best Financial Planning

Yes. As a fee-only registered investment advisor, the firm is legally bound by the fiduciary standard under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, meaning it must fully disclose conflicts of interest and put client interests above its own. Its Form ADV filing documents this obligation, and the firm's compensation model — client-paid fees rather than commissions — removes a structural source of sales-driven bias.

Good Better Best Financial Planning describes a dual fee model typical of solo RIAs: comprehensive financial plans are delivered on a flat-fee or hourly project basis, while clients who want ongoing investment management pay an annual fee calculated as a percentage of assets under management. The firm does not sell commissioned insurance or investment products.

Michele R. Dunning holds the Retirement Income Certified Professional designation, which shapes the practice toward pre-retirees and retired households in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. Her public listings indicate an emphasis on sustainable retirement withdrawal strategies, Social Security claiming optimization, and income planning for individual investors rather than institutional accounts or ultra-high-net-worth families.

No. Good Better Best Financial Planning is a solo-practitioner RIA serving retail clients. It does not operate trust companies, family-office service divisions, pooled investment vehicles, or multi-advisor platforms. Its structure is deliberately small-scale, focused on direct personal planning relationships for a limited number of local households.

The firm reports in its regulatory filings that it is an independent registered investment advisor with no broker-dealer relationship. This independence allows it to select investments and insurance products for clients without the product-line restrictions or sales quotas that can arise from broker-dealer or insurance-company affiliations. No outside entity owns a stake in the advisory practice.

Good Better Best Financial Planning invests client portfolios in low-cost mutual funds and ETFs, consistent with the passive-to-factor-tilted approach common among solo fiduciary advisors. The practice does not market concentrated stock-picking, private fund access, or alternative investments. Instead, it builds globally diversified, risk-appropriate asset allocations and manages them in-house, adjusting for client-specific tax positions and withdrawal needs.

The firm's Form ADV Part 1 and Part 2 disclosures are publicly available via the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website or through the North Carolina Securities Division. These filings contain the firm's fee schedule, disciplinary history, types of clients served, and descriptions of its business practices — the same documents an institutional due-diligence analyst would request as a first step.