By taxclubadmin 
Financial planners continued to use fee-for-service billing models in 2025, as advisory firms and broker/dealers try to serve more clients and scale financial planning across their businesses. The 2026 AdvicePay Fee-for-Service Industry Trend Report found that in 2025, there were 525,000 fee-for-service transactions recorded, $1 billion in lifetime fees billed through AdvicePay, and 11 of the top 15 broker/dealers using the platform, all indicators that the model is no longer niche but becoming mainstream.
As of the end of January, there were 15,000 paid users on the AdvicePay platform.
“This is a legit service offering,” said Alan Moore, co-founder and CEO of AdvicePay. “It’s not going away. It’s certainly not going to decrease, and we think we will continue to see this expand and more advisors adopting the service model.”
Fee-for-service models are not just being used for one-time engagements. In fact, nearly 86% of invoices on AdvicePay in 2025 were recurring subscriptions, up from 85% in 2024 and 83% in 2023.
“Ten years ago when we got started, saying you charged a fee-for-service was a niche, that is what was unique and what people might be looking for,” Moore said. “Now it’s, ‘Hey, this is the client we serve, and therefore we charge this way.’”
Advisors continued to raise their prices in these models last year, with the average monthly subscription fee at $291, up 4.7% year-over-year. The report recorded average quarterly subscription fees of $1,074, up 9.4% year-over-year and average one-time fees of $1,676, up 3.2% over 2024. This is a trend that has persisted since AdvicePay launched the report in 2023.
Advisors were able to increase their fees without client attrition, the report found.
“The ability to increase fees while maintaining client engagement signals that fee-for-service planning is moving beyond early adoption into a more durable, scalable phase— supported by stronger value propositions, clear packaging and confidence,” the report stated.
“Moore said that’s an indicator of the growing confidence in the value of ongoing financial planning, and of the strong relationship advisors have with their clients.
“I think people were really expecting like, ‘Oh, this is going to be a very transactional relationship. The moment things get rocky, the moment something happens, they’re going to turn it off,’” he said. “But the truth is when things get rocky is when they need us the most.”
“There was an assumption in the industry that attrition rates would be significantly different between AUM advisory relationships and fee-for-service relationships, and that is not the case. Ultimately, it is the relationship that’s keeping people.”
When asked about their pricing adjustments for 2026, 54% of fee-for-service advisors said they expect no changes, while nearly 19% said they plan to increase their fees by 10% or more. About 15% said they expect a 3% to 5% boost in fees, while about 7.5% said they’ll increase fees 1% to 2%, and 4% will increase prices by 6% to 9%. Only 0.5% plan to decrease fees.
Many of the large firms and broker dealers, in particular, are increasingly adopting fee-for-service models, as they work to scale financial planning, report found.< p>
“The broker/dealers are reinventing themselves,” Moore said. “They’re not just killing their old business and bringing in a new one. They’ve got to transition it, but they recognize that the way that they have done business in the past, what has gotten them here is probably not what’s going to get them where they want to go. And so ultimately, broker/dealers, like most large companies, large firms in this business, they listen to the requests and the demands of advisors that are either on the platform or that they’re recruiting.”