Fee-only vs. commission advisors: what the difference actually costs you

Fee-only means the client is the only source of revenue. The advisor charges a percentage of assets under management, a flat fee, or an hourly rate, and accepts nothing from anyone else. No commissions, no revenue sharing, no referral payments.

Commission-based means the advisor is paid by whoever issues the product — an annuity carrier, a mutual fund company, an insurer. The advice is free at the point of delivery because the cost is embedded in the product.

Fee-based is the confusing one. It sounds like fee-only but means the advisor charges a fee and can also collect commissions. If you take one thing from this page: fee-based and fee-only are not the same word.

Nobody is arguing that commission-based advisors are dishonest. The point is structural. If one recommendation pays you and an equally good one does not, that is a conflict, and it exists whether or not any individual acts on it.

Fee-only removes the question. There is no product that pays us more, because no product pays us at all. That does not make our advice automatically right — but it does mean that when we are wrong, we are wrong for ordinary reasons rather than financial ones.

Ask directly: do you receive any compensation from any source other than me? Then verify it. Form ADV Part 2, which every registered advisor must provide, discloses compensation arrangements. FINRA BrokerCheck shows registrations and any disclosure events.

You can also just ask for the fee schedule in writing. An advisor who cannot produce one is telling you something.

We are fee-only. Advisory fees start at 0.95% annually and tier down to 0.40% above $10 million, billed quarterly in arrears — after the work has been done. Flat-fee planning runs $500 to $3,000. There are no setup fees, no exit fees, and no account minimum.

The full schedule is published on our fees page rather than quoted case by case.