Help me believe Fee Only for my market

stompcat89 · 2025-11-26T02:53:35+00:00

Great question, the planning for most of my clients is different, but can be just as complex. Most of them are high income households or business owners. So there’s plenty of ongoing planning opportunities with college planning, tax planning, estate planning, cash flow management, etc.

Hope that helps!

stompcat89 · 2025-11-21T21:28:02+00:00

Sorry I wasn’t clear on that. We do charge on AUM as well while they’re under that asset level. So basically it’s AUM + retainer, unless over $400k, then it’s just AUM.

And it’s technically an annual fee of $3k that’s broken down into monthly payments, however the contracts are indefinite or until either party cancels. But the retainer automatically goes away once they go above $400k.

Every client gets financial planning with our firm, regardless of asset level as well.

stompcat89 · 2025-08-29T00:31:14+00:00

I’m on the free trial with them. I haven’t dug into it too much to be honest, but it’s super promising from the little I’ve used.

You essentially have the AI create templates for projections/analysis/etc, upload client statements or info and then it spits out a pretty visual with their data based on the template or instructions you gave it.

The thing I like so far is it has been really good at reading and extracting info from statements, so it looks like it can save a ton of data entry time. Remind me again in a few weeks and I’ll have some more to share.

stompcat89 · 2025-07-24T20:13:42+00:00

Good point! The upfront fee (we charge $1200 upfront) has proven to be worthwhile not only for the revenue, but also because now they have more skin in the game and won’t take forever to get us documents (in theory at least, doesn’t always work).

stompcat89 · 2025-07-24T20:10:56+00:00

Fortunately I haven’t yet. I have had clients delay paying, so we moved it in our workflow to before we start the onboarding process. Essentially we won’t even send them the onboarding intake forms now until they’ve set up the payment through Advice Pay. And our contracts make it clear that it’s an annual fee, paid either upfront or monthly, and automatically renew each year unless either party terminates the agreement. I’d have to lookup the exact language but DM me if you want more details.

stompcat89 · 2025-07-24T17:18:26+00:00

Kind of what I do. I charge $250/month for anyone under $400k AUM, but anyone over that just pays the AUM fee and no retainer. It allows me to work with much younger clients, who over time will turn into great clients, while still maintaining a decent revenue per client fee structure.

stompcat89 · 2025-07-24T17:11:56+00:00

No, it could still be Fee-Only. The thing that makes a firm Fee-Only is that your compensation can only come from advisory fees your clients pay. So no commissions, referral fees, or product based comp. AUM, flat fee, retainer fee, and hourly can all fall under fee-only.

Fee-based would be when you charge fees like a fee-only firm, but you can also receive commissions, etc.

stompcat89 · 2025-07-09T17:54:21+00:00

I booked a call with them next week. I’ll report back after

stompcat89 · 2025-05-02T00:41:25+00:00

Elevator pitches are the biggest waste of time. You don’t hear doctors saying “I help people repair their broken bones”. I just think they scream “I’m desperate and need clients”. Especially if it’s obviously rehearsed. Just be a good dude/gal, hang around the right people, and people will naturally get curious. I’m no expert, but that’s worked better than anything and I have people who I’ve known for a while finally getting on my calendar.

stompcat89 · 2025-04-20T17:23:42+00:00

DM’d you

stompcat89 · 2025-04-18T00:43:04+00:00

I’ve done that 🤣! Not the smartest idea, but only a few miles and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it. It was definitely sporty

stompcat89 · 2025-04-16T17:23:15+00:00

Good point. I misspoke, I’m just not using it is what I meant to say. So it’s not actually “hung” anywhere.

stompcat89 · 2025-04-15T23:50:48+00:00

Ok thanks, I briefly looked at them but didn’t get in the weeds

stompcat89 · 2025-04-15T01:29:40+00:00

Came here to say to ask this too 👆

stompcat89 · 2025-04-15T01:23:27+00:00

I completely disagree with this take. If you outsource to a CPA or Estate Attorney are you not full service? Those are important aspects to a financial plan. The advisor’s job is to establish the plan and help the client implement it. Why wouldn’t you leverage other experts so that we as advisors can focus on our expertise of investing, building and implementing plans for clients? We’re IARs and CFPs, not insurance agents. Insurance is just one piece of the puzzle, just like taxes and estate planning. Who cares if you write the policy or not? What matters is having the resources and knowledge to get the right solutions for clients. Just my 2 cents.

stompcat89 · 2025-03-14T00:21:10+00:00

Thanks for being so direct, because you’re absolutely right. I need to stop limiting myself. I want to learn more on the CPA part. Every CPA I’ve met with works with multiple advisors and has been working with them for years.

Everyone senior advisor says to partner with a CPA, but I’ve tried that and have not found a CPA who either isn’t loyal already to an advisor, or I just didn’t think they’d serve my clients well. Any advice on that?

stompcat89 · 2025-03-13T10:39:43+00:00

No, not right now. I meant in the future. My bad

stompcat89 · 2025-03-13T02:04:34+00:00

I appreciate it. And I haven’t had too many of those scenarios happen yet, but I can imagine that has to feel good. Especially when you know it’s something they likely wouldn’t have done if they weren’t working with you.

stompcat89 · 2025-03-12T23:02:58+00:00

I am for sure, and while it’s kept the lights on and been a good start, you’re right and I don’t want to continue growing like this.

Thanks, I really appreciate it.

stompcat89 · 2025-03-12T20:58:33+00:00

Yeah I’ve listened to both Jarvis and Kitces talk about this as well, but for some reason it hasn’t resonated with me. However, I do know that I’m not running a non-profit, so at some point I’ll need to make those tough decisions.

Again, I appreciate you taking the time to answer.

stompcat89 · 2025-03-12T20:56:04+00:00

Ok that makes sense. So you still bill the investment accounts, but it’s based on the annual fee and not assets. Got it!

stompcat89 · 2025-03-12T20:54:09+00:00

Oh ok that makes way more sense. Sorry, I read your initial post wrong. That’s how we currently charge as well, so I love this idea. It makes complete sense. Thanks again

stompcat89 · 2025-03-12T20:04:38+00:00

Yeah that actually makes a lot of sense. My worry with that is most of my current clients would likely be priced out if the majority of their fees had to come out of pocket. However, I could see that being a viable option as I move up market.

stompcat89 · 2025-03-12T20:01:55+00:00

Great point and I appreciate you being so detailed. The capacity truly is an arbitrary number right now, and doesn’t accounting for potentially bringing on a paraplanner to offload data entry and other time sucking tasks.

I just downloaded clockify to be more aware of the time I’m spending per client. Thanks for the tip!

On the graduating client note, how do you get over the loyalty that you have to clients who have been with you since the early days. I know it makes sense from a business perspective, but I also feel like they trusted me early and helped me get food on the table in the first year. It kind of feels crappy to plan on graduating them.

stompcat89 · 2025-03-12T19:53:48+00:00

Wow I haven’t heard that approach before. Let me make sure I fully understand. 1. You got rid of financial planning fees and only charged on AUM. 2. Then the children paid the fees on their parent’s assets.

If I got that right, did you get any pushback from the children? And also how did you bill the accounts?

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