Publish your fees because AI assistants quote the prices they can find, and half your competitors give them nothing to quote. In our study of fee-only firm websites, 52% stated at least one price in plain text, and only 31% published an ongoing planning fee. When a client asks an assistant what a planner costs, or asks for a flat-fee advisor in their city, the firms with a readable fee page are the ones that can be named and described. Your fee schedule is already public in your Form ADV. A fee page just makes it readable.
What most firms publish
We counted a firm as publishing a price only when the number appeared in plain text on its site and we could match the quote word for word. Fees in PDFs, images or “contact us for pricing” didn’t count.
The gap is widest where clients care most. Most fee-only firms charge an ongoing fee or a percentage of assets, yet only 31% publish an ongoing fee and 22% an AUM rate.
Why price pages get cited
Clients ask what it costs
Clients want to know what advice costs, and they often put it in the first question: “a flat-fee advisor, not one who charges a percentage.” One of the three questions in our study of 600 AI answers was exactly that. An assistant answering it can only name firms whose pages say how they charge.
Assistants repeat what the page says
In a Denver answer we followed step by step in What happens when someone asks an AI assistant for a fee-only advisor in your city, ChatGPT quoted one firm’s three published planning packages by price, and another’s 1% fee with lower tiers for larger portfolios. A third firm’s page said only “flat-fee financial planning”, so that’s all the answer said about it. Across the study, most of ChatGPT’s answers quoted at least one fee.
Transparency is a reason to pick you
When Perplexity answered the same Denver question, it recommended one firm because it had “no stated account minimum and a published declining fee schedule, making it worth considering if you want transparent pricing.” The published fee wasn’t only a fact the assistant repeated. It was the reason given for the recommendation.
If you don’t set the price, someone else does
The same ChatGPT answer showed a table of “Denver median” fees taken from a third-party comparison site. The client got a price frame before speaking to any firm. A firm with its own fee page can be set against that frame. A firm without one is left to whatever benchmark the assistant found.
The minimum filters clients in or out
Assistants quote minimums and screen on them. Among fee-only firms that state an asset minimum, 50% have none. Only 20% of firm websites state an asset minimum in plain text. If you have none, say “no minimum” in those words, or you can’t be matched to a client who asks for an advisor without one.
What fee-only firms charge
If you’re deciding how to present your prices, here’s where the field sits. These are medians among US fee-only firms that publish prices.
US medians from prices firms publish on their own websites
Source: Wellspent fee report
Most firms use more than one model. Of the 2,574 fee-only firms whose fee models we know, 62% charge a percentage of assets, 48% an ongoing planning fee, 38% one-time plans or projects, 27% a flat fee and 27% by the hour. State and model breakdowns are in What fee-only advisors charge, and choosing a model is covered in How to price financial planning.
How to write a fee page
Put it at one address and link to it
Use a page called “Fees” at yoursite.com/fees/, linked from your main menu and your homepage. One page that answers the question completely is easier to find and quote than prices scattered across service pages.
Answer first
Open with a sentence that answers the question in full: “We charge a flat annual fee for ongoing planning, starting at $[amount] a year, billed quarterly. We have no asset minimum.” Then the detail. An assistant often quotes the first clear sentence it finds.
Give each way you charge its own line
For each model you offer, state the price, what’s included, and what moves it:
| Service | Price | What’s included | What changes the price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ongoing planning | From $[amount] a year | [Meetings, tax review, plan updates] | [Complexity, business ownership, number of accounts] |
| One-time plan | $[amount] | [Scope, number of meetings, follow-up period] | [Equity compensation, estate complexity] |
| Hourly advice | $[amount] an hour | [Minimum block, if any] | Fixed |
| Investment management | [Rate] of assets, with breakpoints | [What’s managed, rebalancing, reporting] | Breakpoints at $[amount] and $[amount] |
| Minimum | [Amount], or “No minimum” |
A starting price (“from $[amount]”) is enough. You don’t need to publish every quote you’ve ever given, just a number honest enough that a client who calls isn’t surprised.
Say how and when you bill
Billed monthly, quarterly or in advance; deducted from accounts or invoiced; whether fees are negotiable. Form ADV Part 2A already asks you to disclose these, so you can reuse the language.
Keep it in plain text
No PDF, no image, no calculator that only shows a number after a click. Write the prices as page text and use a real table, not a picture of one. If you want a downloadable version too, publish it alongside the page, not instead of it.
Make it match your Form ADV
Item 5 of Form ADV Part 2A asks you to “describe how you are compensated for your advisory services,” “provide your fee schedule” and “disclose whether the fees are negotiable.” Your fee page should say the same thing in plainer words. Assistants often send clients to the SEC’s adviser database to check, and 40% of the answers in our study did. A page that disagrees with your filing raises a question you don’t want in the first meeting.
Date it
Add “Fees last updated [month, year]” at the bottom, and change it when your prices do. An old price on an old page is an easy error for an assistant to repeat.
Mistakes that keep fees out of answers
- “Contact us for pricing.” Many people read it as “expensive”, and an assistant reads it as no answer.
- Fees only inside Form ADV. Public, but rarely read by an assistant answering a client.
- “Fees vary based on your needs.” True of every firm. Give a starting point.
- Different prices in different places. Your site, directory profiles and filing should agree. Update all of them when you change a fee.
- No mention of the fee model on the homepage. Even with a fee page, say “flat-fee” or “hourly” on the homepage, where it’s read first.
Before you publish, check that assistants can reach the page at all: Is your website blocking AI assistants?
Where Wellspent fits
A Wellspent record states your fees, fee model and minimum in plain text, checked against your Form ADV, in the public graph at find.wellspent.co, the same graph ChatGPT cited in 37% of its answers in our study. Membership is $89 a month and includes the monthly AI visibility report, introductions from prospects with no lead fees, and quarterly press placement with media partners.