The discomfort is almost entirely about timing. Advisers who raise it early find it is not a difficult conversation at all.
A fee introduced by the adviser is information. A fee extracted by the client is a negotiation.
Same number, entirely different frame, decided by who spoke first.
Not just the advisory fee. Underlying fund expenses, platform or TAMP fees, and anything else the client pays.
Clients discover the layers eventually. Discovering them later feels like something was concealed, even when it was disclosed in a document they signed.
A percentage is abstract. An annual figure in currency is what they will actually pay, and it is what they will compare to other things they buy.
Advisers avoid this because the number sounds larger. It sounds larger because it is the truth.
If the dollar figure is uncomfortable to say out loud, that discomfort is information about your value proposition, not about your pricing.
It is a claim you cannot make and should not want to. It also sets an expectation that will eventually be disappointed by conditions you do not control.
Justify by what you do — the actual inventory.
When a client raises a cheaper alternative, agree that it is cheaper. Then describe what is different, without disparaging it.
Some clients will choose it. Those were usually going to.
An asset-based fee means you are paid less if a client withdraws to pay off a mortgage or buy a business. Saying that out loud, before the situation arises, is unusual and it is very hard to argue with.
Fee conversations become difficult when they are continuous. Say it clearly once, put it in writing, and let the work be the argument.
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