Business owner reviewing fee-only financial advisor costs with a fiduciary advisor for the "How Much Does a Fee-Only Advisors Cost" blog post for Portus Wealth Advisiors.

How Much Does a Fee-Only Advisor Cost?

Most people asking how much a fee-only advisor costs are really asking two questions at once. First, what will I pay? Second, what am I actually getting for it?

The first question has a reasonably clean answer, and we’ll give you the current industry numbers below. The second question is where most cost articles fall short, especially for business owners. A fee structure built for someone with a $2 million retirement portfolio does not automatically fit someone whose largest asset is a $15 million operating company. The way an advisor charges tells you a lot about what they’re set up to help you with.

This guide covers what fee-only actually means, what the common fee models cost in 2026, why the standard model often breaks down for business owners, and how Portus structures fees for the owners we work with.

What “Fee-Only” Actually Means

A fee-only advisor is paid directly by clients and only by clients.

  • No commissions on insurance policies.
  • No revenue sharing from fund companies.
  • No bonuses for placing you in a particular product.

The fee you pay is the only compensation the advisor receives.

That sounds like a technicality, but it’s the single most important distinction in the industry, and it’s often blurred by a nearly identical term: fee-based. A fee-based advisor charges you a fee and may also earn commissions on products they sell you. Both can be legitimate businesses, but they create very different incentives. When an advisor earns more by recommending one product over another, that pull exists whether or not the advisor acts on it. We cover that distinction in more depth in what a fee-only financial advisor is and why it matters.

Fee-only advisors operate as fiduciaries, meaning they are legally required to put your interests ahead of their own on every recommendation. If you want a deeper look at why that standard matters for business owners specifically, our page on working with a fiduciary financial advisor walks through it in detail.

One practical tip: when you interview an advisor, ask directly, “Do you or your firm receive any compensation from anyone other than me?”

A fee-only advisor can answer that with a simple no.

The Four Common Fee Models and What They Cost in 2026

1. Assets Under Management (AUM)

The most common model in the industry. You pay a percentage of the investment assets the advisor manages, billed quarterly. The 2026 State of Financial Planning Fees study from Datos Insights and Envestnet MoneyGuide puts the average bundled AUM fee at 0.96 percent, down from 1.05 percent in 2023. It’s the only fee model in that study that declined.

Most AUM schedules step down as assets grow. A typical schedule runs around 1 percent on the first $1 million, with breakpoints near 0.85 percent above $1 million, 0.75 percent above $2 million, and 0.50 percent above $5 million. On a $2 million portfolio with a tiered schedule like that, the annual fee works out to roughly $18,500.

AUM works well for clients whose financial life is mostly an investment portfolio. The advisor is paid more as the portfolio grows, which aligns incentives around investment results.

2. Annual Retainer or Subscription

A flat annual or recurring fee for ongoing planning, independent of how much you’ve invested. This is the fastest-growing model in the industry. The same 2026 study found the average annual retainer rose to $6,815, up 52 percent from $4,484 in 2023. Registered investment advisors averaged $7,550, compared with $5,237 at non-RIA firms. Monthly subscription fees nearly tripled over the same period, from $215 to $595 per month.

That growth reflects a real shift. More advisors are pricing the planning relationship itself rather than tying everything to a portfolio balance.

3. Flat Fee for a Standalone Plan

A one-time project fee for a comprehensive financial plan, with no ongoing relationship required. The 2026 study puts the average at $2,926, up 15 percent from 2023. Complex situations involving business interests, multiple entities, or estate planning issues typically run higher.

4. Hourly

Pay-as-you-go advice, typically $200 to $400 per hour depending on the advisor’s credentials and market. Useful for a narrow question. Less useful for anything that requires an advisor to understand your full picture, because you pay for that learning curve every time.

Why AUM Often Breaks Down for Business Owners

Here is the problem with applying a standard AUM fee to a business owner. For most owners generating $5 million to $50 million in revenue, the business is the largest asset on the balance sheet, often by a wide margin. An owner might have $2 million in investable assets and a company worth $15 million.

Under a pure AUM model, the advisor is paid on the $2 million. The $15 million business, along with the tax strategy, entity structure, insurance exposure, succession questions, and exit planning that come with it, sits largely outside the fee. That creates one of two outcomes. Either the advisor does the business planning work without being paid for it, which rarely lasts, or the business planning simply doesn’t get done in a meaningful way.

There is also a subtler incentive issue. An AUM advisor is paid more when assets move into the portfolio they manage. For a business owner weighing whether to reinvest in the company, pay down debt, or fund a key hire, that incentive doesn’t always point in the same direction as the best decision for the owner.

A fee tied to the complexity of your situation, rather than the size of your investment account, solves both problems. The advisor gets paid for the work your situation actually requires, and the recommendation about where your next dollar should go is not tangled up with how the advisor gets paid. This is how integrated business financial planning is supposed to work.

How Portus Structures Fees for Business Owners

For many of our individual and family clients, Portus uses a traditional AUM fee. For business owners, we use a complexity-based model built around three parts: a standalone Discovery engagement, followed by a quarterly retainer in one of three tiers. The principle is simple. Revenue determines your tier. Complexity determines your Discovery fee. Urgency determines what we tackle first.

Step One: Discovery

Every business owner relationship begins with a Discovery engagement. Over 10 to 16 weeks, we produce a formal Discovery Report that includes a business valuation range, an owner dependency score, a personal financial independence analysis, and a prioritized list of findings scored by urgency. The report tells you what needs attention now, what can wait until later this year, and what simply needs monitoring.

The Discovery fee is a standalone investment and is not credited toward the retainer. It reflects the value of the report itself. At the end of Discovery, you decide whether to engage Portus on an ongoing basis or take the report and address the findings on your own. Either way, you own the report.

The Discovery fee is a fixed project fee, priced within a range for each tier based on the complexity of your business: the number of entities, the ownership structure, and the depth of analysis required. We quote it before any work begins.

Business Revenue Tier Timeline Business Assessment
Under $10M Harbor 10 to 12 weeks Portus internal business questionnaire
$10M to $25M Course 14 to 16 weeks Value Opportunity Profile (VOP)
$25M+ Horizon 14 to 16 weeks Value Opportunity Profile (VOP)

Revenue bands are guideposts, not hard lines. A business near the $10 million or $25 million boundary may be placed in either tier depending on entity structure, ownership composition, and the depth of analysis required. When in doubt, we price on what the engagement actually demands.

Step Two: The Quarterly Retainer

Harbor Course Horizon
Business revenue Under $10M $10M to $25M $25M+
Billing Flat quarterly retainer Flat quarterly retainer Flat quarterly retainer
Check-in cadence Monthly Monthly Monthly
Tax planning Annual Semi-annual Quarterly
Commercial insurance review Every 2 to 3 years Every 2 to 3 years Annual
Primary advisor access John Sanders and team John Sanders and team Direct access to William Bissett


Every tier includes the same planning foundation: personal financial independence modeling, personal and business cash flow management, investment allocation and glidepath strategy, annual tax planning coordinated with your CPA, personal and business insurance reviews, estate planning review coordinated with your attorney, a live net worth dashboard covering both personal and business assets, and access to the Portus Crew, our vetted network of business service professionals including a PEO broker, fractional HR leadership, a fractional CFO, and a brand strategist.

Course adds entity and corporate governance review, financial statement review with KPI benchmarking against industry peers, third-party investment manager review, and advanced semi-annual tax planning including pass-through entity strategy, deferred compensation, and exit tax modeling.

Horizon adds ongoing business valuation tracking and enterprise value optimization, active business value growth strategy, organization and growth structure review, private deal reviews of up to two opportunities per quarter, a broker opinion of value on commercial real estate, peer group calls, and a speaking slot at Charting Opportunities, our monthly business owner event series.

Portus is a fee-only registered investment advisory firm. We do not sell insurance products, prepare tax returns, or draft legal documents. We coordinate with your CPA, attorney, and insurance professionals so the work fits together. Specific fees for your situation are quoted in writing before any engagement begins.

How to Evaluate Whether a Fee Is Worth It

When you compare retainer fees, keep in mind what the industry averages are built on. A typical retainer is priced for personal financial planning. A business owner retainer should cover personal planning and the business planning work that most owners have never had done in a coordinated way: valuation tracking, entity structure, commercial insurance, exit tax modeling, and the business exit planning that determines what you actually walk away with.

Whatever advisor you choose, here is how to judge the fee:

Compare the fee to the decisions it covers. For an owner of a $15 million business, a single structuring decision at exit, such as asset sale versus stock sale, the terms of an earnout, or a pre-sale tax strategy, can move the after-tax outcome by far more than a decade of advisory fees. The question isn’t whether a fee is high or low in isolation. It is whether the advisor is equipped to get those decisions right.

Ask what the fee leaves out. If the fee is tied only to your investment account, ask who’s handling succession planning, business risk management, and business retirement plan strategy. If the answer is “nobody,” the fee is lower because the scope is smaller.

Check the credentials behind the work. At Portus, William Bissett holds the CFP® and CEPA designations, focused on the full mechanics of a business transition. John Sanders, CFP®, CVGA®, focuses on growing business value in the years before a sale. Sakshi Chauhan, CFA®, leads investment strategy and post-sale wealth positioning.

Confirm the compensation is clean. Ask for the firm’s Form ADV Part 2A, which every registered investment advisor must provide. It discloses how the firm is paid and any conflicts of interest. A firm that holds itself to a fee-only fiduciary standard should be able to walk you through it in plain language.

Ready to See Where Your Business Stands?

Portus Wealth Advisors works with business owners throughout the Southeast and eastern seaboard who want one integrated plan for their business and their personal financial life. If you’re generating between $2M and $50M in revenue and want an honest conversation about whether a Discovery engagement makes sense for you, we welcome that conversation.

You can also download our free e-book, Charting Your Exit, which features in-depth interviews with M&A specialists, attorneys, and successful founders who have navigated the exit process. Or explore our Founder’s Final Act framework to see how we think about the years leading up to a transition.

Portus Wealth Advisors is a Charlotte, NC-based, fee-only wealth management firm serving business owners throughout the Southeast and eastern seaboard. We specialize in integrated financial planning for founders, executives, and business owners navigating growth, transition, and legacy.

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By /Published On: October 30, 2026/