Financial advisor cost calculator
over 25 years: $290,648 in fees and $277,133 in the growth they would have earned
The dashed line is the fees themselves. The solid line is what they cost once the growth they would have earned is counted. The gap between them widens every year the money is not there.
A 1.00% annual fee on $500,000 costs $567,781 over 25 years at a 7.0% return: $290,648 handed over in fees and $277,133 more in the growth those fees would have earned. That is 21% of what the portfolio would otherwise have reached. The median US adviser charges 1.00% on a portfolio this size.
- Enter the fee as the percentage of assets you are quoted; the chart turns it into money over the years.
- Blended is what you actually pay across the whole portfolio; the top tier's smaller rate is just the last slice.
- The cost is not the fee alone - it is the fee plus everything the fee money would have earned invested.
What the same advice costs another way
Year one costs $5,000, and the percentage grows with the portfolio while a retainer does not. A median retainer of $4,500 and a median 1.00% fee cost the same at a portfolio of about $450,000. Above that the percentage is the dearer of the two.
What US advisers charge
Median blended fees from Kitces Research's 2024 study of 621 advisory teams. The row closest to your portfolio is marked.
| Portfolio | Median fee | A year | Stated rate | Middle half |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $250k | 1.00% | $2,500 | 1.00% | 1.00–1.25% |
| $500k | 1.00% | $5,000 | 1.00% | 1.00–1.25% |
| $1.0m | 1.00% | $10,000 | 1.00% | 0.90–1.10% |
| $2.0m | 1.00% | $20,000 | 0.90% | 0.80–1.00% |
| $5.0m | 0.85% | $42,500 | 0.75% | 0.75–1.00% |
| $10.0m | 0.75% | $75,000 | 0.60% | 0.60–1.00% |
Questions people ask
How much does a financial advisor cost?
What is the difference between a stated fee and a blended fee?
Is a 1% fee a lot?
Is a flat fee cheaper than a percentage?
What do these fees include?
Are fees usually tiered?
Does this mean an adviser is not worth it?
Method and sources
- Kitces Research, 2024 (n=621)Median blended and stated fees by portfolio size, fee-model prevalence, and hourly, project and retainer pricing. Quartiles are read from the published chart to the nearest five basis points.
- Inside Information adviser fee survey, Bob Veres, 2017 (n around 1,000)Stated breakpoint rates on the same downward slope, used as a cross-check rather than averaged in
- SEC Form ADV Part 2A brochuresPublished schedules confirming graduated mechanics and minimum annual fees
The calculation
A portfolio earning a return and paying a percentage of assets each year compounds at the difference between them, so the cost of the fee is the gap between the same portfolio grown at the full return and grown at the return less the fee. Fees handed over are summed year by year against the balance the percentage is actually charged on, which is the balance after previous fees. The difference between the two figures is the growth the fees would have produced had they stayed invested.
What these figures do not cover
- A constant return and a constant fee percentage are assumed across the term. Real returns arrive unevenly and schedules change.
- Fund expense ratios, platform charges, trading costs and separate-manager fees sit on top of the advisory fee and are not counted here.
- Minimum annual fees are not modelled. On a small portfolio a minimum can raise the effective rate well above the schedule: a $4,000 minimum on $250,000 is 1.60%, whatever the headline says.
- The benchmark sample skews toward planning-centric independent advisers rather than banks, wirehouses or automated services.
- This prices the fee. It does not value the advice, and it is not a recommendation either way.
Last updated August 2026.
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