Fee & Revenue Map
Where the money actually comes from.
Every fee model in wealth management, mapped to the channels that run them — plus the client cost stack and where each dollar of revenue lands.
Lenstap to apply
Which fee models actually run in each channel — and how much they cost.
| Channel ↓ / Fee → | AUM % | Planning | Comm. | 12b-1 | Spread | Sub. | Perf. | Custody | Sweep | RevShare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wirehouse Merrill, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Wells FA. | 80–150 bps Discretionary + non-disc wrap accounts. | $2.5–15k Bundled with private-client tier. | $25–150/trade | 25 bps | 10–75 bps Bond desk markups. | 10–20% PE / hedge sleeves only. | 0 bps Custody is captive. | 1–4% NII Massive revenue line post-2022. | ||
| Bank PWM JPM, Citi, BNY, Northern Trust wealth arms. | 60–120 bps | $5–25k Trust + planning bundled. | 15–100 bps Structured notes. | 10–20% PE / alts platform. | 2–5% NII | |||||
| Mega RIA Creative Planning, Mariner, Mercer, Edelman-style. | 70–110 bps | $0–7.5k Often included at scale. | 5–15 bps Passed through from Schwab/Fidelity. | 0.5–1.5% NII | ||||||
| Boutique RIA Sub-$5B AUM independents. | 85–125 bps | $2.5–8k/yr Retainer + AUM stacking is now the norm. | 5–15 bps | |||||||
| Indep. BD LPL, Osaic, Cambridge, Commonwealth. | 90–140 bps | $30–100/trade | 25 bps Still material — often 30%+ of rep GDC. | 1–3% NII | ||||||
| Robo Betterment, Wealthfront, SoFi Invest. | 15–40 bps | $4–8/mo Betterment, SoFi tiers. | 3–5% NII High-yield cash is the real product now. | |||||||
| Family Office Single- or multi-family office ($100M+ HH). | 25–75 bps Blended with retainer. | $100–500k Retainer covers CFO / tax / concierge. | 5–20% | |||||||
| Direct Schwab / Fidelity self-directed brokerage. | $0/trade | 0.2–2 bps PFOF on equities/options. | 3–5% NII | 10–40 bps Fund-family shelf-space payments. |
PrevalenceDominantCommonRare
Cross-linked to Regulatory — every fee model has a disclosure obligation attached. Sources: Cerulli 2024, Kitces fee surveys, FA Insight, SIFMA.