Within practically any other industry, a prospective client can expect to get a quote upfront by their service provider before agreeing to go ahead with the service.
The same principle should exist within the Financial Planning industry, though this has unfortunately not always been the case.
The financial planning industry has quite a chequered history when it comes to disclosing fees. Traditionally (and well before our business was existed), financial planners were paid commissions by the product provider. These commissions were funded by the client, though the client often never knew how much they were actually paying to their advisor. Different products offered different levels of commission and there were strong temptations to the planner to direct client funds to what worked best for them and not for their client.
A lot has (thankfully) changed since the old days and investment commissions have been effectively banned. Financial Planners will generally provide an upfront quote though usually only after you meet and have a detailed discussion. Plenty of people still walk into their financial planner’s office for the first time without a clear idea about fees.
We’ve taken this upfront approach one step further and built a detailed model which allows you to get an idea of fees before you even walk into our office.
We encourage you to enter your key variables and see what your upfront fee could be under our system.