You need an asset minimum only if your fee depends on assets, and even then a minimum fee often works better. Of the 781 US fee-only firms in the Wellspent fee report that state an asset minimum, 50% say they have none. A minimum protects revenue per client under a percentage-of-assets fee. Under a flat, ongoing or hourly fee, it mostly turns away households you could have served at a profit.
What fee-only firms do
From prices and terms firms publish on their own websites
Source: Wellspent fee report; Wellspent website study
Two things follow. First, a minimum is no longer the default: half of the firms that address it say there isn’t one. Second, most firms don’t address it at all. Only 20% of fee-only firm websites state a minimum we could verify (website study). A prospect looking at the rest can’t tell whether they qualify.
Why minimums exist
An asset fee pays you in proportion to the portfolio. Set your minimum by working backward from the fee you need per household: divide it by your rate. At a 1% fee, a household pays the median flat planning fee of $4,500 a year at about $450,000. If your service model costs you that much per client, a household with $200,000 at 1% pays you $2,000 for the same meetings, the same plan and the same compliance work.
That’s the whole case for a minimum: it keeps revenue per client above your cost to serve one. It’s a sound reason. It’s also a reason that only applies when the fee is a percentage.
If you charge a flat, ongoing or hourly fee, the price already covers the work. A $200,000 household paying your flat fee earns you the same as a $2 million one with the same complexity. An asset minimum on top of that turns people away for a reason your pricing has already solved.
What a minimum costs you
Clients who’ll grow into it. High earners early in their careers, physicians, tech employees with equity pay and business owners often have more income than investable assets. They’re the households most likely to cross your minimum in five years, and the ones a minimum sends elsewhere today.
Family and referrals. Advisors with minimums usually carve out exceptions here, because the alternative is awkward. “Our firm minimum is 2mil but we are raising it to 5mil. We will not turn away family though,” one advisor wrote (thread). Another said their firm counts the household, not the individual: “Most aum relationship with a minimum we usually go off the household. Not the accounts of the individual” (same thread). Each is one advisor’s experience, and both describe a minimum bent to fit the clients the firm actually wants.
Being named by AI assistants. Assistants quote minimums and screen on them. In one Perplexity answer for New York, a large firm’s asset minimum came in the same sentence as its name (why AI recommends big firms over boutiques). In another, for Denver, Perplexity recommended a smaller firm for having “no stated account minimum and a published declining fee schedule” (what happens when you ask AI for a fee-only advisor). If you have no minimum, saying so in plain text makes you an answer for every prospect a big firm’s minimum excludes.
Alternatives that protect revenue
A minimum fee. Instead of a floor on assets, set a floor on the fee: a yearly amount in dollars that every client pays, whatever their balance. One advisor on r/CFP described theirs simply: “Our minimum is $7,500/year” (thread). A household below your asset level can still hire you, at a price that covers the work. It’s that advisor’s practice, not a benchmark; the median published ongoing fee is $4,500, with the middle half between $2,400 and $7,200.
A planning tier. Keep the asset fee for households who want management, and add a flat-fee planning tier for those below your level. Many fee-only firms already run two menus. 62% of fee-only firms whose websites say how they charge use an asset fee and 48% offer an ongoing planning fee, so plenty offer both. See flat fee vs AUM for your firm.
A one-time plan as the way in. For households not ready for an ongoing relationship, a one-time plan (median $2,000) is a paid first step that doesn’t commit you to serving them forever.
Household counting. If you keep a minimum, count every account in the household, including spouses and accounts you advise on but don’t manage. That’s how the second advisor quoted above applies theirs, and it saves an awkward conversation with a client’s spouse.
If you keep a minimum
- Disclose it. Form ADV Part 2A, Item 7, asks you to disclose any requirements for opening or maintaining an account, such as a minimum account size. Your website should say the same thing in the same words.
- Publish it in plain text. A minimum hidden until the first call wastes your time and the prospect’s. A stated one filters your calendar.
- Say what happens below it. Point to your planning tier, a one-time plan, or a colleague you refer to. A prospect turned away with a next step remembers you.
- Name the exceptions. Family of clients, referrals from CPAs and attorneys, a niche you want to grow in. Writing them down keeps them consistent.
- Review it each year. As your fee or your service model changes, the minimum your fee implies changes too.
If you drop it
Say “no asset minimum” in plain text on your fees page and anywhere you can be found. A blank looks like a minimum you’d rather not state. Then make sure your pricing covers the work without one: a minimum fee, complexity tiers, or a flat fee that holds at every asset level. See how to price financial planning.
The short version
| If your fee is | An asset minimum | Better alternative |
|---|---|---|
| A percentage of assets only | Protects revenue per client | A minimum fee in dollars, or a planning tier below it |
| Flat or ongoing | Turns away clients your price already covers | No minimum, complexity tiers |
| Hourly or one-time | Rarely makes sense | No minimum, published starting price |
Where Wellspent fits
The households a minimum turns away are still looking for an advisor, and some of them are asking an AI assistant. Wellspent is $89 a month: a verified record in the public graph at find.wellspent.co that states your fees and your minimum, or that you have none, so prospects and assistants can match on it. 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 and quarterly press placement with media partners. See how it works.