Our Commitment

Fee-Only

Fee-only means clients are the only people who pay me: no commissions, no product sales, no referral fees. Here is why that changes the advice.

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What does Fee-Only mean?

Fee-only means clients are the only people who pay me. No commissions, no referral fees, no third-party incentives, and nothing that arrives because I recommended one product rather than another. It removes the conflict at the source rather than disclosing it afterwards.

What that buys you is a simple test: when I tell you to do something, there is no version of the answer that pays me more. Advice to buy, to wait, or to do nothing all pay exactly the same.

Fee-only vs. fee-based: the difference matters

The two sound almost identical, which is precisely the problem. A fee-based advisor charges a fee and can still collect commissions. A fee-only advisor cannot. One word separates a fee from a fee plus whatever the product pays, and it is the word most people skim past.

When compensation is simple, incentives are simple. You know what you pay, and you know that it is the whole of what I receive.

Who I serve

Planning for Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners.

Fee-only matters most where the recommendations are large and the conflicts would be too: business owners whose personal wealth and company finances are the same balance sheet.

Financial Planning

Planning that connects the business and the household, cash flow, retirement, estate, tax and risk, as one picture rather than two.

Business Advisory

Value assessment, value acceleration and exit planning, so the company is worth transferring when you are ready to transfer it.

Investment Management

Portfolios built around the plan, with no product sales and no commissions anywhere in the arrangement.

Why fee-only matters most for business owners

The moments that matter to an owner are exactly the moments a commission is largest. A rollover of the company plan, an insurance policy sized to a buy-sell agreement, an annuity offered at the point of a sale: each one can pay whoever recommends it more than a year of advice fees, and each one arrives when you are busy and the decision is hard to reverse.

Fee-only takes that pressure out of the room. What I earn does not move with the recommendation, so a suggestion to wait, or to do nothing at all, costs me the same as the one that would have paid the most.

Independent, fee-only, fiduciary. Three parts of the same commitment: there is nobody else I have to please.

The whole arrangement

What I am paid, and what I am not.

Fee-only is a short list of things that are true, and a longer list of things that never happen. Both are worth seeing.

What you pay

One fee, agreed in writing before any work starts.

Investment Advisory from 1% a year
Wealth Planning from $3,000 a year
Both together from 1.25% a year
Billed transparently, with the amount and the basis for it visible to you
The same fee whether the advice is to act or to leave things alone

What I never receive

Nothing, from anyone who is not you.

Commissions on insurance, annuities, funds or any other product
Trail commissions that keep paying years after a sale
12b-1 fees or revenue sharing from a fund company
Referral fees for sending you to a lender, an agent or an attorney
Payment of any kind from anyone who is not you

Do not take my word for it

Compensation is the one claim in this industry you can check yourself in about ten minutes, and the check does not depend on trusting the person making the claim.

Start with Form ADV Part 2A, the disclosure brochure every registered adviser files. Item 5 sets out every way the firm is paid, and it is a regulatory filing rather than marketing copy. If commissions, trails or revenue sharing exist anywhere in the arrangement, they appear there. Mine is linked in the footer of every page on this site.

Then look the firm up on the SEC's adviser search and on FINRA BrokerCheck. If a broker-dealer registration sits next to the advisory one, the person is dually registered, which means the fiduciary duty applies to part of the relationship rather than all of it. That is the distinction the word fee-based is usually doing its best to blur.

Questions people ask

Before we start.

What exactly do you get paid?

A fee, paid by you, and nothing else. Investment Advisory starts at 1% a year, Wealth Planning at $3,000 a year, and Private Wealth Management, which is both, starts at 1.25% a year with a $500,000 minimum. The figure is agreed in writing before anything begins and it is the whole of what I receive.

What does fee-only rule out that fee-based does not?

Commissions on any product, trail commissions that keep paying for years after a sale, 12b-1 fees inside a fund, referral fees for sending you to an insurance agent or a lender, and revenue sharing from a custodian or fund company. A fee-based advisor can charge a fee and still take all of those. Fee-only cannot take any of them.

How do I verify that for myself?

Read Item 5 of my Form ADV Part 2A, which is filed publicly and linked in the footer of every page. Every way a firm is paid has to appear there. If commissions, trails or revenue sharing exist, they are disclosed in that item, whatever the website says. Cross-check the firm on the SEC's adviser search and on FINRA BrokerCheck while you are at it.

Is fee-only always cheaper?

Not always, and anyone promising that is guessing. A commission is paid once and can be large; a fee is smaller and recurs. Over a long relationship the fee often costs more in total. What fee-only buys is not a lower price, it is the removal of the reason to recommend the wrong thing.

Do you sell insurance?

No. I analyse what you need and size the exposure, then you buy the policy elsewhere, usually through an independent agent. That keeps the analysis of whether you need cover separate from the commission on the cover, which is the whole point.

Fees are current as of this page's last update and are set out in the written agreement and in Form ADV Part 2A, which controls. Modern Wealth does not provide legal or tax advice. Advisory services are offered only under a written agreement.

Start with a conversation.

A complimentary thirty-minute Exploration Call. No pressure, no commissions, no agenda but yours.

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