Fee-Only Financial Planners
Financial planners charging flat or hourly fees without commissions.
Market snapshot
These figures describe Investment Advisory & RIA (3.6.4), the segment that Fee-Only Financial Planners sits within. They are not figures for Fee-Only Financial Planners on its own.
- Market size
- ~$373B
- Growth
- ~5.5%CAGR (2017–22, nominal)
The heart of wealth management is a vast, fragmented base of registered advisory firms earning recurring fees on assets under management, and among the most actively consolidated markets in all of finance. Aging advisor demographics, the value of scale and technology, and abundant private-equity capital drive a roll-up led by national platforms (Creative Planning, Mariner, Mercer, Hightower). Revenue is AUM-based fees; a clean firm count isn't shown because the 2022 advisory code has no matching 2017-vintage firm data.
NAICS 523940. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census.
Business model & economics
Revenue model
Recurring fees on assets under management
Key economics
- Recurring revenue
- High
- EBITDA margin
- 20–35%
- Capex intensity
- Low
sticky AUM-based fees
Characteristics
- Vast, fragmented base of advisory firms.
- Aging advisors and scale value drive the roll-up.
- Recurring AUM fees and sticky relationships.
M&A deal context
Who’s acquiring
- National RIA consolidators
- PE-backed wealth platforms
- Bank & brokerage strategics
What’s driving deals
- Aging-advisor succession driving sales.
- Scale, technology, and platform value.
- Abundant private-equity capital.
Find Fee-Only Financial Planners acquisition targets
Search Acquisera’s index for companies classified under Fee-Only Financial Planners (3.6.4.1) and build a targeted deal pipeline.
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