Insights

How advisory fees work.

Fees are one part of investing you can know in advance. Here are the common ways advisers charge, the other costs inside an account, and the questions that make a fee schedule clear.

A plain guide from Acrylic Financial
General education, not investment advice

The common ways advisers charge

Most advisers use one of these, or a mix.

Asset-based fee: A yearly percentage of the assets the adviser manages, billed in parts through the year and often deducted from the account.
Hourly fee: A rate for time spent. Common for planning or one-off advice.
Fixed fee: An agreed price for a defined piece of work, such as a written financial plan.
Commission: Paid on the sale of a product, not for advice. It comes through a broker-dealer or an insurance company, to a person acting in that role.

Reading an asset-based schedule

Asset-based fees usually come as a table of tiers, called breakpoints. Larger accounts fall into tiers with a lower rate. A table can be applied in two ways, and the difference matters.

Tiered. Each slice of the account is charged at the rate for that slice. Only the part above a breakpoint gets the lower rate.
Flat breakpoint. Once the account reaches a tier, the single rate for that tier applies to the whole balance.

Two more details matter. Some advisers add together the accounts in one household to reach a tier. And a fee can be billed in advance, at the start of each period, or in arrears, after the period ends.

At Acrylic

Acrylic's portfolio management fees use a flat breakpoint schedule: when an account reaches a higher asset level, the single rate for that tier applies to the entire account balance. Accounts from the same household are aggregated to calculate the fee, unless the client instructs otherwise.

The fee is calculated on the average daily balance, paid monthly in arrears and withdrawn from the client's account with written authorization. Fees are generally negotiable, and the final schedule is set out in the client's advisory agreement. The brochure also lists a one-time first-year setup fee per account, and states that lower fees for comparable services may be available from other sources.

Form ADV Part 2A, brochure dated March 3, 2026, Items 5A and 5B. The full schedule is in Item 5.

Costs that are not the adviser's fee

The adviser's fee is rarely the only cost in an account. Others to look for:

Fund expenses: the yearly costs inside a mutual fund or an exchange-traded fund, taken from the fund's assets and set out in its prospectus.
Trading costs: commissions or transaction fees when securities are bought or sold.
Custodian and account fees: charges from the firm that holds the account.

A wrap fee program bundles advice and trading costs into one stated fee.

Acrylic's brochure says clients are responsible for third-party fees, such as custodian fees, brokerage fees and commissions, internal mutual fund fees and transaction fees, which are separate from Acrylic's fees. Acrylic does not participate in wrap fee programs (Form ADV Part 2A, Items 4D and 5C).

When a second manager is involved

Some advisers place part of a portfolio with another investment manager. That usually means two layers of advisory fees: one to your adviser, one to the manager.

Acrylic's brochure says that if it recommends a third-party investment manager, the client will generally pay Acrylic's advisory fee in addition to the fees charged by the third-party manager, so total advisory costs may be higher than working with a single adviser. All applicable fees are disclosed to the client in writing before engagement (Form ADV Part 2A, Item 5A).

Every way of paying has an incentive

No fee model is free of incentives. An asset-based fee rewards the adviser for keeping more of your money under management. An hourly fee rewards more hours. A fixed fee rewards doing the work quickly. A commission rewards a sale, and sometimes one product over another. None of these is wrong by itself. Disclosure is what lets you weigh it.

At Acrylic

Acrylic's Form CRS says: "the more assets you have in your advisory account, the more you will pay us and thus we have an incentive to increase those assets in order to increase our fee."

Its brochure says certain supervised persons are also registered representatives or licensed insurance agents who may receive commissions in those separate capacities, that this creates a conflict of interest, and that advisory fees are not reduced based on commissions received.

Form CRS, dated April 30, 2025, Item 3. Form ADV Part 2A, Item 5E.

How fees add up over time

An asset-based fee is charged again every period, on the account's value at the time. Money paid in fees is no longer invested, so it no longer grows. Over many years, a small difference in rate can become a large difference in what you keep.

Fees are also paid whether the account rises or falls.

Questions to ask before you sign

What will I pay in a year, in dollars, counting fund, trading and custody costs?
Is the fee negotiable?
Is it billed in advance or in arrears, and from my account or by invoice?
What happens to fees if I end the agreement?
Does anyone at your firm earn a commission on what you recommend?

On the fourth question, Acrylic's brochure says clients may end the investment advisory contract without penalty, for a full refund of Acrylic's fees, within five business days of signing, and after that generally with 30 days' written notice (Form ADV Part 2A, Item 5A).