Fee disclosures

In a constantly changing industry, clearing and custody fees defy generalizations. The largest independent broker-dealers present financial advisors with the choice of working with a "self-clearing" firm or one that outsources those essential services.

Retirement savers often don't realize what they're paying in fees or how much they can lose by leaving rollover cash uninvested, but advisors can help on both fronts.

Altruist has earned legions of fans among financial advisors for sleek technology and low, clear fees. But its critics question whether that is enough to catch up to the giants that have dominated the business for decades.

SEI may not be the first firm that comes to mind when thinking about the industry's custodians, but the firm has built a substantial client base of financial advisors over more than 30 years.

BNY Pershing declined to state the size and fees of its clearing and custody business with RIAs and other wealth management firms. But that's hardly unique in a channel of the industry with shrinking margins.

Raising firm fees — whether under a flat-fee or AUM model — is essential to maintaining a profitable RIA. Wealth advisors shared how they were able to increase prices and revenue with little client turnover.

For some RIAs — particularly those that focus on financial planning — adopting a flat-fee structure can make more sense than a traditional AUM-based model.

Members of the Transparent Advisor Movement are meeting around the country in "Flat Fridays" events. And the collaboration is revealing all of the nuance around fees.

Fidelity Institutional Wealth Management Services faces competitive threats in an era of ETFs and multicustodian advisory practices. But it has big advantages.

Financial planners who joined the Transparent Advisor Movement's first "Flat Fridays" meetup touched on the difficulty of explaining the industry to consumers.

Rossby Financial is deploying a profitability tool as it competes against much larger RIAs for financial advisor talent.

The influential planning entrepreneur and the FPA are leading an effort to change a tiered fee structure for continuing education providers that started three years ago.

Schwab services 16,000 RIAs with 2,000 different fee structures. According to the industry's largest custodian, the exact costs come down to "a very personalized negotiation" with the firms.

Jess Polito of Turkey Hill Management says she believes her firm is the only M&A advisory firm that exclusively uses retainer fees, rather than commissions.

Advisors with asset minimums find themselves rejecting clients arbitrarily and can often feel disconnected from their clients' planning goals.

Steve Lockshin and Michael Kitces tied what they view as some mistaken assumptions around fees to the competitive need for more estate planning services.

Vanguard was accused of giving advisors incentives to enroll clients in certain financial service without disclosing how they were being compensated.

Other than satisfying important regulatory requirements, RIAs and their clients can exercise a lot of choice on costs. Here's how experts view the process.

Net of expenses, many financial advisors and investors could find similar yields and exposure for their portfolios elsewhere, according to a Morningstar study.

They must file the lengthy and highly specific Form ADV document with the SEC and state-level agencies. And that's just one aspect of the many strategic decisions.