As if the financial industry weren’t complicated enough, there are fee-only investment advisors and fee-based advisors — and a Registered Investment Advisor firm can be either. As the wording implies, fee-only investment advisors like Rockbridge receive NO commissions or any other forms of compensation from ANY outside sources. At the other end of the spectrum, commissioned brokers receive most or all of their revenue from the companies whose products they buy and sell.
Fee-based advisors fall into a gray area. They receive most of their revenue from client fees, but they also receive portions of their revenue from outside sources. A common example is investment advisors who also are insurance agents, receiving fees from their clients as well as commissions from selling insurance policies.
Personally, we prefer to keep things clean and simple. If an insurance policy or any other wealth management tool is in your best interest, we provide you with our unbiased, fee-only advice on how to proceed. We collaborate with your own or our recommended alliances to implement the advice. With this arrangement, you have the peace of mind in knowing we have no conflicting incentives for recommending one service or service provider over any other.