--- title: "Are Financial Advisors Charging What They're Worth? The 1% Fee Debate | Aspen" description: "Are advisors charging what they're worth, or undercharging? A candid look at how the 1% fee now has to cover investment management, financial planning, and tax planning, plus the rise of flat-fee firms." lang: en json-ld: | [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Get Aspen", "url": "https://getaspen.com", "logo": "https://getaspen.com/apple-touch-icon.png", "description": "AI implementation firm for financial advisors. Strategy, content, automation, and growth executed by operators who become your AI team.", "sameAs": [ "https://www.linkedin.com/company/getaspen" ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "name": "Get Aspen", "url": "https://getaspen.com" }, { "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [ { "@type": "Question", "name": "What is Get Aspen?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Get Aspen is an AI implementation firm for financial advisors. We become your AI growth team, powered by Aspen Agent, our AI platform built for advisors." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Who does Aspen work with?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Aspen works with ambitious financial advisory firms and RIAs that want to grow through AI-powered strategy, content, lead generation, client servicing, and automation." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How is Aspen different from marketing software?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Aspen is an AI agent that runs the work, not a tool the advisor has to configure. It sounds like the firm, stays compliant, and operates as a teammate that executes across marketing, lead follow-up, and client communication." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What does Aspen Agent do for a firm?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Aspen Agent runs websites, lead generation, outreach sequences, content, email nurture, and client servicing workflows like annual reviews, referrals, and Google reviews — end to end." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How do I get started with Aspen?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Book a call with the Aspen team to walk through your firm's goals. If it is a fit, Aspen builds and runs your growth engine for you." } } ] } ] }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "headline": "Are Advisors Charging What They're Worth?", "description": "Are advisors charging what they're worth, or undercharging? A candid look at how the 1% fee now has to cover investment management, financial planning, and tax planning, plus the rise of flat-fee firms.", "articleBody": "The 1% fee keeps buying more\n\nLook at the advisor business model and they are doing five more services just to come close to justifying that 1%. Back in the 2000s, advisors could charge 1% for investment management alone.\n\nThen financial planning got bundled in at the same 1% fee. Now tax planning is part of the package too. Clients are getting more and more services for the same headline rate, which is why many advisors are arguably undercharging.\n\nThe rise of flat-fee firms\n\nIf you are shopping around different advisory firms, now is the time. New firms are popping up charging something like 2,500 dollars for a full year, including financial planning, advisor access, and a complete written plan.\n\nIt raises the obvious question: how many clients can one advisor realistically serve at that price? The economics only work at high volume.\n\nThe real question is retention\n\nPer the Kitces research, the sweet spot might be 150 to 250 clients per advisor, which is a ton. At that load, the advisor probably cannot meet with you as often as you would like, especially with more complex finances.\n\nThat makes retention the number to watch. If clients do not feel they are meeting with their advisor enough, how long do those low-cost, high-volume businesses actually last? Time will tell.", "author": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Get Aspen" }, "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Get Aspen" } }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [ { "@type": "Question", "name": "Are financial advisors charging what they're worth?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Many are arguably undercharging. The same 1% fee that once covered investment management now has to cover financial planning, tax planning, and a growing list of services." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What does the 1% advisory fee cover today?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Where it once bought investment management alone, the 1% now typically bundles financial planning and increasingly tax planning, so clients get far more for the same rate." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Are flat-fee advisory firms worth it?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Some firms now offer a full year of planning and advisor access for a flat fee like 2,500 dollars. The trade-off is volume: one advisor can only serve so many clients well at that price." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How many clients can one advisor handle?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Research suggests a sweet spot of roughly 150 to 250 clients per advisor. Beyond that, meeting frequency and retention tend to suffer, especially for clients with complex needs." } } ] } ] --- [aspen ](#top) [Approach](#work)[Operators](#operators)[Work](#approach)[Resources](/resources) [Book a Demo](https://calendly.com/d/3rs-82d-kpc) [← Resources](/resources) Videos # Are Advisors Charging What They're Worth? 2 min watch Are advisors charging what they're worth? If anything, many are undercharging. The 1% fee that once bought investment management now has to stretch across planning, tax, and a growing stack of services. ## The 1% fee keeps buying more Look at the advisor business model and they are doing five more services just to come close to justifying that 1%. Back in the 2000s, advisors could charge 1% for investment management alone. Then financial planning got bundled in at the same 1% fee. Now tax planning is part of the package too. Clients are getting more and more services for the same headline rate, which is why many advisors are arguably undercharging. ## The rise of flat-fee firms If you are shopping around different advisory firms, now is the time. New firms are popping up charging something like 2,500 dollars for a full year, including financial planning, advisor access, and a complete written plan. It raises the obvious question: how many clients can one advisor realistically serve at that price? The economics only work at high volume. ## The real question is retention Per the Kitces research, the sweet spot might be 150 to 250 clients per advisor, which is a ton. At that load, the advisor probably cannot meet with you as often as you would like, especially with more complex finances. That makes retention the number to watch. If clients do not feel they are meeting with their advisor enough, how long do those low-cost, high-volume businesses actually last? Time will tell. ## Frequently asked questions Are financial advisors charging what they're worth? Many are arguably undercharging. The same 1% fee that once covered investment management now has to cover financial planning, tax planning, and a growing list of services. What does the 1% advisory fee cover today? Where it once bought investment management alone, the 1% now typically bundles financial planning and increasingly tax planning, so clients get far more for the same rate. Are flat-fee advisory firms worth it? Some firms now offer a full year of planning and advisor access for a flat fee like 2,500 dollars. The trade-off is volume: one advisor can only serve so many clients well at that price. How many clients can one advisor handle? Research suggests a sweet spot of roughly 150 to 250 clients per advisor. Beyond that, meeting frequency and retention tend to suffer, especially for clients with complex needs. Aspen partnership ## See what Aspen can automate for your firm. 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