Fee-only
The client advisory fee is the revenue source for the relationship. The fee schedule, billing method, and minimums should be visible before engagement.
Definitions, compensation sources, legitimate use cases, and review questions for comparing fee-only and fee-based advisory relationships.
Fee-only means the advisory relationship pays the firm through the advisory fee charged to the client. Fee-based usually means advisory fees may be combined with other revenue sources depending on the account, product, affiliate, or representative arrangement.
The client advisory fee is the revenue source for the relationship. The fee schedule, billing method, and minimums should be visible before engagement.
The relationship may include advisory fees along with product, transaction, referral, insurance, banking, or affiliate compensation in some parts of the relationship.
A useful review separates the advisory fee from fund expenses, custodian charges, account fees, product compensation, transaction charges, referral arrangements, and affiliate revenue. The answer should be documented in the firm disclosure documents and account paperwork.
How is the fee calculated, when is it billed, what assets are included, and what services are covered by that fee?
Can the firm, representative, or affiliate receive revenue from funds, insurance products, lending, deposits, referrals, or transactions?
Form ADV, account agreements, custody disclosures, and product documents should make the revenue path inspectable.
Some households want one institution for advisory accounts, brokerage access, lending, banking, insurance, or employer-plan support. A fee-based platform may be acceptable when you understand which hat the professional is wearing and how each part is compensated.
A household may value access to services that sit outside a pure advisory-fee relationship.
Existing accounts or product relationships may create practical reasons to keep part of the relationship on a platform already in place.
The key is whether the client can see the role, standard, cost, and incentive structure for each recommendation.
A fee-only structure can make the revenue path easier to inspect because the relationship centers on the advisory fee. That does not make every fee-only relationship identical; you still need to evaluate process, services, custody, account minimums, tax awareness, and communication.
Compensation structure does not replace the need to understand how portfolios are built, reviewed, and changed.
Ask what planning context is included, what is separately scoped, and what specialist work is outside the engagement.
Caldric provides investment management and focused financial planning through the Portfolio Design Record at the start of the relationship and periodic portfolio-fit reviews as part of ongoing wealth management.
Before engaging any advisory structure, ask who pays the firm, who else can pay the firm or affiliate, what standard applies to each recommendation, how conflicts are disclosed, what costs are deducted from the account, and whether the person explaining the recommendation has discretion over the portfolio.
Is the professional acting as an investment adviser, broker, insurance agent, bank representative, or more than one role?
What is paid directly by the client, what is paid indirectly through products or platforms, and what expenses remain inside funds or accounts?
Which Form ADV, brochure supplement, account agreement, fee schedule, or product disclosure answers the question?
The next step is to connect compensation, services, custody, portfolio process, and household facts in one review.