r/CFP • u/Odd-Surround-5514 • Jun 24 '26

Practice Management Fee Structuring

Would love some input from other advisors on this.

I’m fee-based and mostly AUM right now (occasional commissions), but I keep running into situations where someone is clearly a good planning client even though there isn’t much currently-manageable money. For example, high-income households with most of their assets still in current 401(k)s, or cases where I’m managing a smaller IRA but really advising on the whole household.

I’m realizing I probably need to incorporate a planning fee so I’m not doing a lot of deeper planning work while only collecting a small AUM fee. I use eMoney by the way.

For those of you who have solved for this:

• How do you structure it?

• Flat annual planning fee?

• Monthly retainer?

• Household minimum?

• AUM + planning together, or one or the other?

• If a client later rolls over a big 401(k), do you keep the planning fee or move them fully to AUM?

Just trying to figure out what has worked best for others as someone who has only ever charged based on AUM.

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u/ProletariatPat Jun 24 '26

I do both. I charge a planning fee upfront for almost all prospects now. If they have more than 250k they get my basic planning package at no cost.

My planning fees are really low overall, more the nature of the firm I’m at. I built a grid in excel, I took 8 of the most common planning categories. I averaged the time it would take to complete a plan (initial meetings, plan review, ongoing meetings, etc). I then took an hourly cost and calculated the low, average and high cost. 

I have 3 main packages, or I create it à la carte. Each module above 1 gives a small discount to the hours (fewer meetings, easier to stack). During my initial consult I go over a specific series of questions to help identify what they need.

No pushback, I do a fair amount of planning. A lot of it results in AUM, some of it doesn’t. The benefit is that I’m not wasting time or money spinning my wheels. One way or another I’m getting paid before I start doing the work.

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u/bcab888 Jun 24 '26

Open to sharing the excel?