What comes on top of our time
- Expenses such as postage and courier costs
- Government and filing fees
- The fees of the independent US attorneys and accountants on your matter, which are their own and shown separately
How we charge
Like most firms in our line of work, we charge by the hour. What an hour costs depends on who does the work: their qualifications and their experience. Senior time goes where judgement is needed, and routine work is done by the people for whom it is routine, at their rate.
Every workstation records time electronically, and we bill to the quarter hour. If you would like to see where the time went, we attach the timesheets from our time-recording software to every invoice.
Our hourly rates
In US dollars per hour. We use the usual English job titles.
| Role | Hourly rate (USD) |
|---|---|
| Senior Partner (Sebastian Sauerborn) | $850 |
| Partner / Attorney | $550 |
| Senior Tax Advisor / Associate | $395 |
| Paralegal / Compliance | $225 |
| Bookkeeping / Administration | $125 |
Mount Bonnell Advisors hourly rates, as of August 2026.
From your first message to a signed engagement
You always know what the next step costs before you take it.
- 01
Free potential analysis
You tell us about your plan in writing. Sebastian tells you whether, in his experience, it has potential and whether we are the right firm for it. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Request it.
- 02
First consultation, billed
One hour with Sebastian, in Austin, in London or on Zoom, billed as senior partner time at the rate above. This is where your plan gets its real answers.
- 03
Approach paper with estimate
If you want us to carry the plan out, we write up the approach with a cost and budget plan, agreed where necessary with the independent US attorneys and accountants involved. Writing it is billed by the hour and usually takes between one and four hours.
- 04
Letter of engagement
You sign the approach paper and a letter of engagement. Only then do we start on the work itself.
Why the first consultation is not free
You may be used to something else at home. Many advisers will happily sit down with you for an hour at no charge. We decided against it, and we would like to tell you why.
A good first consultation takes real time. To give you an answer that holds, we have to understand your circumstances properly: your business, your family, your tax position at home, what you have already committed to. No two cases start from the same place. A half-hour call followed by a standard offer by email would not do your plan justice.
It also changes the conversation. When an hour has a price, both sides prepare. You come with your documents and your questions, and you get far more out of it.
And in the end, time is what we sell. You can test-drive a car for free because the dealer sells cars, not time. We cannot give away a piece of ours. What we can share freely is information: this website is full of it, and the potential analysis costs you nothing.
An hour with all the facts on the table
The consultation is not a sales pitch in disguise. We take an hour and put all the facts on the table. It is open-ended: we do not hold back the solution so that we can sell you more work later.
Often the most useful thing an outside view can do is to define the problem differently. Once that happens, the solution frequently turns out to be obvious, sometimes even simple.
Afterwards, many clients take a few days or weeks to let it settle. Then you decide what happens next, and whether you want us to write the approach paper.
Our satisfaction guarantee
Booking the consultation carries no risk.
If you are not completely happy, you can end the consultation at any time within the first 15 minutes, and we refund anything you have already paid, in full. After 15 minutes the full fee is due as agreed.
Talk to Sebastian →What goes into the bill
The time a matter takes depends first on its size and complexity, but not only on that.
What drives the time
- The size and complexity of the work: a one-person business is not a mid-sized retailer
- Getting information from you or your adviser at home, and sorting and checking it
- Answering your emails and questions, which we are glad to do and which is recorded time
- Chasing documents that are missing, wrong or incomplete
How you are invoiced
You receive our invoices regularly by email. For the ongoing work on your US company, the invoice is made out to the company itself, and you pay it from its US business account.
We do not sell packages or bundles. Everything we do is billed by time at the rates above, so what you pay follows what your plan actually needs. Read how a mandate runs and who does what.
Questions about fees
Is the potential analysis really free?
Yes. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing. It tells you whether your plan has potential and whether we are the right firm for it. It is not advice on your case: that starts with the first consultation.
Can you tell me in advance what my plan will cost?
Yes, once we know the plan. After the first consultation, the approach paper sets out the steps with a cost and budget plan. Before that, any figure would be a guess.
Do you have fixed prices or packages?
No. You pay for the time your plan takes, at the rate of whoever does the work.
How are the independent attorneys and accountants paid?
They work on their own terms of engagement, and their fees are shown separately from ours, so you always see who is charging for what. Who does what.
Can I see what the time was spent on?
Yes. On request, we attach the timesheets from our time-recording software to every invoice.
Tell us about your plan.
Start with the free potential analysis, or book an hour with Sebastian.