Should your advisor’s fee double because your portfolio does?
Even if the work doesn’t.
After 30 years as a fiduciary, this is the first question I ask every family I meet. Most have never seen the answer in dollars. This page shows you yours.
A 1% fee on $2 million, every year.
If markets carry that portfolio to $4 million, the fee becomes $40,000. Same meetings. Same plan. Same phone calls.
Our Florida flat fee is $10,000 a year, at $2 million or at $4 million.
Hear it from Bruce
In about 90 seconds, I explain why I ask every family the same three questions, and why I offer one flat fee through our Florida office.
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The raise nobody voted for
A percentage fee rises every time your portfolio does, whether or not anyone did a thing more for you. Enter your own figures to see what it adds up to.
| Percentage fee | Flat fee | |
|---|---|---|
| This year | $20,000 | $10,000 |
| If your portfolio doubles | $40,000 | $10,000 |
| In year 10 | $0 | $0 |
| Total over 10 years | $0 | $0 |
The two biggest bills of retirement
The families who keep the most of what they built are not usually the ones with the best returns. They are the ones who manage what they pay for advice, and what they pay in taxes.
What you pay for advice
Your nest egg quietly writes two paychecks every year: yours, through the withdrawals you live on, and your advisor’s, through a fee withdrawn on schedule. On $2 million, a 4% withdrawal is $80,000 for you and $20,000 for your advisor, a quarter the size of yours. At a careful 3%, it is a third.
What you pay in taxes
Every dollar in a traditional IRA or 401(k) still owes income tax. Required withdrawals can push you into higher brackets. A surviving spouse usually pays single-filer rates on much the same income. And children who inherit an IRA generally must empty it within ten years, often in their own highest-earning years.
Why the two bills are tied together
A percentage fee is charged on your whole balance, including the part that is really the government’s. And many of the smartest tax moves, like paying some tax early and on purpose at lower rates, make your account smaller. Under a percentage fee, recommending them means your advisor gets paid less. That is not an accusation, just arithmetic.
One flat annual fee, through our Florida office
That is why, through our Florida office, I offer one flat annual fee for investment management, so the right tax advice never costs your advisor a dime. Your fee does not rise just because the market does.
$10,000 a year, billed $2,500 a quarter.
A flat fee is not right for everyone. If a percentage fee would serve you better, I will tell you so, and show you why in dollars.
The flat-fee program is currently offered only through our Florida office in Summerfield; other WealthKare offices use an asset-based fee. The flat fee covers investment management only.
Your Honest Fee and Tax Review
If you would like to see your own answers in dollars, I will sit down with you and show you what you paid for advice last year, how much income tax is already owed inside your accounts, and what a cost-focused plan could keep in your family. No cost, no obligation, and I am happy to do it over coffee.
Please bring
- Your latest account statements
- Your most recent tax return
Request your review online, or call 888-888-6001.
Your thank-you gift: a signed copy of my new bookFrom one neighbor to another
Like many of you, I chose The Villages to enjoy this chapter of life. My career started in 1978 in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear power program, aboard fleet ballistic-missile submarines, then at Three Mile Island and Peach Bottom. In 1986 I moved into financial services, and for more than 30 years I have worked as a fiduciary, spending more than 50,000 hours inside other families’ retirement plans.
These days I have slowed down. I meet with four new families a week, in the order they reach out.
Bruce J. Smith III
Fiduciary advisor, author of Retain Your Wealth™ and The Flat Fee Revolution™
- Fiduciary
- More than 30 years of best-interest advice
- Veteran
- U.S. Navy nuclear power, 1978 to 1984
- Author
- Inside Your Retirement education series, including an Amazon #1 Best Seller (2018)
- Broadcaster
- Hosted a financial radio show for 28 years
Free report: The Two Bills Nobody Ever Sends You
One composite household, followed from retirement through the ten years after: what a percentage fee and autopilot taxes cost, next to a flat fee and a planned tax strategy. Every assumption is printed in full, and so is the strongest case against our own conclusion.
Hypothetical projection of one composite household; not any client’s results.
Not ready to talk?
No problem. I have written six guides on exactly these questions, and they are free to read at InsideYourRetirement.com. No sign-up, no sales pitch. Start with The Flat Fee Revolution™.
