For more than 20-years in financial advisory services, I’ve learned that one topic shows up in nearly every client conversation: advisory fees. Unlike commissions, fees are fully transparent—you always know what you’re paying, and they generally reflect both the size of your portfolio and the complexity of your financial plan.
Early in my career, I struggled with “the fee talk” until I recognized just how many services I was delivering far beyond investment management—which has become increasingly commoditized. So, I built a clear client service model outlining exactly what clients should expect from me and what I must be accountable for. This shifted the conversation entirely and distinguished my practice from advisors who focus solely on investments.
The harder part was quantifying the value of these services. Yet major firms—including Cerulli, Morningstar, and Russell Investments—have conducted extensive research comparing advised and unadvised investors. Consistently, advised investors earn higher long-term returns not due to stock-picking, but because advisors help clients:
- Avoid market-timing
- Manage emotions and behavior
- Reduce taxes through strategies like tax-loss harvesting
- Use dollar-cost averaging
- Coordinate tax-efficient withdrawals in retirement
- Optimize insurance and risk transfer
- Leverage debt strategically
- Conduct thoughtful Roth conversion analysis
- And many other forms of ongoing financial guidance
As Cerulli notes, advisors often provide far more value than clients realize—especially when communication about that value is clear and transparent. And transparency, according to their research, is the single most important factor affluent investors look for when choosing an advisor.
So let’s have the conversation. My goal is to ensure you’re receiving every service you’re entitled to—and to show how the fee you pay can deliver significantly more in long-term value. You don’t hear many advisors invite that discussion… but you should.
Source: Morningstar report
Source: Kinniry, Francis M., et al. Putting a Value on Your Value: Quantifying Vanguard Advisor’s Alpha. Vanguard Research.