Price financial planning by deciding what the client is buying, working out what it costs you to deliver, and then checking the number against what other firms charge. Among US fee-only firms that publish prices on their own websites, the median is $4,500 a year for ongoing planning, $2,000 for a one-time plan, $300 an hour, and 1% of assets for investment management. Most firms offer more than one of these, and the spread around each median is wide enough that “what’s normal” leaves you plenty of room.
The figures come from the Wellspent fee report, built from the prices 2,144 fee-only firms publish, each one checked word for word against the firm’s page.
The four models and what they cost
Medians of the prices firms publish on their own websites
Source: Wellspent fee report
These are published starting prices. A firm that lists “from $4,500” will charge some households more, so the typical fee a firm actually collects sits above these medians.
Each model sells something different:
- Ongoing planning fee (subscription or retainer). A set yearly price, usually billed monthly or quarterly, for a continuing relationship. Revenue is predictable and doesn’t fall when markets do.
- One-time plan. A fixed price for a defined project. Good for clients who want direction and will carry it out themselves, and a common first step before an ongoing engagement.
- Hourly. The client pays for time used. It suits single questions and second opinions, and it’s the easiest model to start with, but it caps your income at your billable hours.
- Percentage of assets (AUM). The fee rises and falls with the portfolio and usually covers planning as well as investment management.
How common each model is
The shares add up to well over 100% because most firms offer a menu. A common shape is a percentage fee for households who want their investments managed, an ongoing fee for those who don’t, and a one-time plan as the way in. For the trade-offs between the two biggest models, see flat fee vs AUM for your firm.
Step 1: decide what the client is buying
Write down what a client gets in a year before you put a number on it: how many meetings, whether you build and update a written plan, whether you answer email between meetings, whether you manage investments, review tax returns or coordinate with an estate attorney. Two firms both charging $4,500 can be selling very different amounts of work. The scope is also what you’ll point to when a prospect asks why your price is higher than someone else’s.
Step 2: price your time
Estimate the hours a typical client takes in a year, including the parts clients don’t see: gathering data, building the plan in software, preparing for meetings, writing follow-ups. Then put a rate on those hours. At the median hourly rate of $300, 15 hours a year comes to roughly the median ongoing fee, which is a useful sanity check: if your clients take 30 hours, a median price means you’re charging about half your hourly rate.
Advisors who have done this describe two simple methods. One advisor on r/CFP works from a scorecard: “I use a complexity scoring system. I have a list of about 20 questions that has 3 levels of complexity” (thread). Another works backward from income: “How much money I wanted to make divided by how many households I wanted to serve” (thread). Both are one advisor’s experience, and both get you to a number you can explain.
Step 3: check it against the market
Once you have a number, see where it sits. The middle half of firms charge $2,400 to $7,200 a year for ongoing planning and $845 to $3,600 for a one-time plan. Hourly rates cluster tightly: the middle half charge $250 to $350.
Location moves ongoing fees more than any other price. State medians run from $2,100 a year in Minnesota to $7,450 in New Jersey, with California at $6,000 and Texas at $3,000. If you work with clients by video, your competition is national, not local. The full state table is in what fee-only advisors charge.
A price above the middle half isn’t a mistake if your scope is bigger or your niche is narrower. A price below it is worth a second look: it often means the hours in Step 2 were underestimated.
Step 4: tier by complexity, not assets
A single price rarely fits everyone. Many flat-fee firms set two or three tiers based on how much work a household takes: salaries and a 401(k) at one level, a business, equity pay or rental property at another. Some use income or net worth bands as a shortcut. Tying a planning fee to assets brings back the thing a flat fee is meant to remove, so if you use net worth, say plainly that it stands in for complexity.
Keep the tiers few and the line between them clear. A prospect should be able to place themselves before the first call.
Step 5: plan for increases
A percentage fee grows when markets rise. A flat fee only grows when you raise it. Put a yearly review in the client agreement from the start, tied to inflation or to a stated schedule, so an increase is expected rather than negotiated. Without it, your longest-standing clients slowly become your cheapest ones, since their price stays put while costs and their complexity grow.
Billing and disclosure
The fee schedule goes in your Form ADV Part 2A brochure. Item 5 asks you to give the schedule, say whether fees are negotiable, explain how often you bill, and, if clients pay in advance, explain how they get a refund when the contract ends early.
Prepayment has a threshold. Under Item 18, a firm that requires or solicits more than $1,200 in fees per client, six or more months in advance, must include an audited balance sheet in the brochure. For firms registered with a state, the threshold is $500. That’s one reason most firms bill ongoing fees monthly or quarterly and split one-time plans into a deposit and a balance on delivery.
Publish it
About half of fee-only firm websites (52%) state a price we could verify, and only 31% publish an ongoing planning fee (website study). Prospects compare prices before they call, and AI assistants build their answers partly from firm websites: 77% of the answers in our AI recommendations study cited at least one firm’s own site. A price in plain text on your fees page can be read and quoted. A line that says “contact us for pricing” can’t. For what a fee page should say, see publish your fees.
Publishing a starting price also filters your calendar. Prospects who can’t afford it don’t book, and those who do arrive having already accepted the number.
Where Wellspent fits
Wellspent is a membership for fee-only advisors, $89 a month. Your record in the public graph at find.wellspent.co states your fees, specialties and the clients you serve, verified, so search engines and AI assistants can quote them. Prospects write to you directly, with no lead fees and no share of client fees, and members get a monthly report on who AI recommends in their market plus quarterly press placement with media partners. See how it works.