US fee-only firms that publish prices charge a median $4,500 a year for ongoing planning, $2,000 for a one-time plan, $300 an hour, or 1% of assets a year to manage investments. Where a firm is matters more than any other single factor for ongoing fees: state medians run from $2,100 in Minnesota to $7,450 in New Jersey.
This is the advisor edition of the Wellspent fee report, the same data clients see on find.wellspent.co, organized around the question an advisor asks: where does my price sit?
The four prices and their spread
Medians of the prices firms publish on their own websites
Source: Wellspent fee report
“Middle half” means the 25th to 75th percentile: half of firms charge inside that range, a quarter below and a quarter above. Three things stand out.
- Hourly rates are the most uniform price in the business. The middle half sit within $250 to $350.
- Percentage fees barely vary at the first tier. Almost everyone starts at or just under 1%. Firms compete on the breakpoints above it, not the starting rate.
- Ongoing and one-time fees vary threefold or more. That’s where scope, niche and location show up in the price.
All four are published starting prices. A firm that lists “from” a price charges more complex households more, so what firms actually collect per client is higher than these medians.
How firms charge
A percentage of assets is still the most common model, at 62% of firms, but 48% now offer an ongoing planning fee that doesn’t depend on assets, and 38% sell one-time work. Fee-only no longer means one model. Most firms run a menu, and the flat fee vs AUM guide covers what each does to revenue.
Ongoing planning fees by state
Every state below has at least 12 firms publishing an ongoing fee. The dot is the median, the band is the middle half.
Yearly fee: median and middle half of firms, states with at least 12 firms publishing
Source: Wellspent fee report
Data
| State | Median | Middle half |
|---|---|---|
| New Jersey | $7,450 | $5,000 to $10,000 |
| California | $6,000 | $3,550 to $8,000 |
| Colorado | $6,000 | $2,900 to $9,800 |
| Illinois | $5,000 | $2,300 to $8,000 |
| Oregon | $5,000 | $4,500 to $6,600 |
| Massachusetts | $5,000 | $2,900 to $10,000 |
| Georgia | $5,000 | $2,400 to $7,500 |
| Virginia | $5,000 | $3,000 to $7,200 |
| Arizona | $4,800 | $3,600 to $7,150 |
| Missouri | $4,750 | $2,350 to $6,000 |
| North Carolina | $4,500 | $2,400 to $9,800 |
| Washington | $4,500 | $3,000 to $7,200 |
| Tennessee | $4,200 | $2,400 to $6,000 |
| Florida | $4,200 | $2,400 to $7,050 |
| Maryland | $3,800 | $1,950 to $5,750 |
| New York | $3,600 | $2,000 to $6,000 |
| Pennsylvania | $3,600 | $2,500 to $10,000 |
| South Carolina | $3,600 | $1,750 to $4,000 |
| Indiana | $3,500 | $2,550 to $8,550 |
| Texas | $3,000 | $2,000 to $5,000 |
| Michigan | $3,000 | $1,150 to $4,850 |
| Ohio | $3,000 | $2,450 to $5,500 |
| Wisconsin | $3,000 | $1,050 to $6,000 |
| Minnesota | $2,100 | $1,200 to $3,450 |
The ranking is roughly what you’d expect from local costs: New Jersey ($7,450), California and Colorado ($6,000) at the top; Texas ($3,000), the Midwest and Minnesota ($2,100) at the bottom. New York, at $3,600, sits below the national median of $4,500, so a high-cost metro doesn’t guarantee high published prices.
The bands matter more than the dots. In Pennsylvania the median is $3,600, but the middle half runs from $2,500 to $10,000. In North Carolina it’s $2,400 to $9,800. Within one state, two firms can easily differ by more than the gap between the highest and lowest state medians. Your niche and scope set your price more than your zip code does.
Other prices move far less with location. In the same data, state medians for hourly rates run only from $250 to $325, and for one-time plans from $830 in Maryland to $3,000 in Washington and Massachusetts (Wellspent fee report data, October 2026).
The state numbers are small samples, from 12 firms in South Carolina to 112 in California. Read them as a guide to the local market, not a rule.
One-time plans have the widest spread
The one-time plan is the least standardized price in the report. More than a quarter of firms start under $1,000, and about 1 in 7 start at $5,000 or more.
Much of the gap is scope. A low starting price often means a narrow project, such as a single-question review or a second opinion, while a high one usually means a full plan for a household with a business, equity pay or income in two countries. If you sell a one-time plan, name what it covers on the page. A prospect comparing a $900 review with a $4,000 plan can’t tell them apart from the price alone.
Firms without an asset fee charge more for planning
Ongoing planning fees are higher at firms whose websites list no percentage-of-assets fee: a median $5,000 a year, against $3,600 at firms that also charge on assets (Wellspent fee report data, October 2026). The likely reason is simple. At a planning-only firm, the planning fee is the whole relationship. At a firm that also manages money, it often sits beside an investment fee, so it can be lower. When you benchmark your price, compare it with firms that sell the same thing.
Canada
Fee-only planners in Canada who publish prices charge a median C$2,300 a year for ongoing planning (middle half C$1,200 to C$4,000), C$1,900 for a one-time plan and C$250 an hour. One-time and hourly work is far more common there than in the US, and most Canadian fee-only firms list no percentage-of-assets fee at all (Wellspent fee report data, October 2026). See how to set an advice-only fee.
Asset minimums
Of the 781 US firms that state an asset minimum, 50% say they have none. Firms that charge an ongoing or hourly fee don’t need assets to get paid, so a minimum becomes a choice about who you serve rather than a condition of the business model. Should you have an asset minimum? covers the trade-offs.
Where your price sits
Use the data in three steps:
- Find your band. Compare your ongoing fee with the middle half for your state and nationally. Above the band, your website needs to show why: a niche, a scope, a credential. Below it, check whether you’re pricing your hours or your nerves.
- Compare like with like. If your price includes investment management or tax preparation, compare it with firms that bundle the same, not with planning-only fees.
- Decide which market you’re in. If you meet clients by video, prospects in other states will compare you with firms there. A Minnesota planner serving clients in California can price for California.
For setting the number itself, see how to price financial planning.
How the data is built
The fee report reads the prices fee-only firms publish on their own websites and checks each one word for word against the page. Each firm website counts once, however many advisors it has, and no figure is shown unless at least 12 firms publish it. This edition covers 2,144 firms with published prices out of 24,501 fee-only advisors in the public graph. It’s refreshed every quarter, and this page updates with it. See the methodology.
One bias to keep in mind: these are the firms that publish. Only about half of fee-only firm websites (52%) state a price we could verify (website study). Firms that hide their fees may charge differently, and from a prospect’s point of view they’re simply missing from the comparison.
Where Wellspent fits
Prospects compare fees before they call, on find.wellspent.co and through the AI assistants that read it. A Wellspent membership, $89 a month, gives you a verified record there with your fees, specialties and the clients you serve, introductions with no lead fees and no share of client fees, a monthly report on who AI assistants recommend in your market, and quarterly press placement with media partners. See how it works.