But when your advisor is getting paid by someone else to give you financial planning advice, they’re not really beholden to you—they’re beholden to the company paying them.

And it can be awfully hard to tell if the product they’re selling you is really right for your situation, or if it’s simply good for the company’s bottom line.

When it comes down to it, a fee-only financial advisor may be the best way to access financial advice that’s tailored to your goals—not a company’s sales quota.

Fee-Only Financial Planning In Action

As fee-only fiduciary financial advisors, we get paid by charging a flat asset management fee. This is an annual fee based on the value of the account and is billed to the client’s account monthly. 

At Five Pine Wealth Management, our standard management fee starts at 1.10% and decreases as the size of the account increases (see our complete fee schedule here).

To understand how fee-only financial planning works in your best interest, consider the hypothetical example below:

Mr. and Mrs. Jones bring Five Pine Wealth Management $100,000 to invest.

On $100,000, the 1.10% annual fee would be $1,100 for the year. 

Since the fee comes out of the account monthly, $1,100 paid over 12 months would equal roughly $92 per month. 

The $92 fee comes directly out of the investments—the Joneses never have to write a check or actively make a payment.

If we can grow Mr. and Mrs. Jones’ account from $100,000 to $150,000, they’re happy because their account has grown by $50,000!

We as the advisors are also happy because 1.10% of $150,000 is more than 1.10% of $100,000. At $150,000, our compensation is $1,650 per year (or $138 per month). 

Because we do better as our client’s account does better, we have incentive to choose the best-performing funds while keeping investment costs as low as possible.