In a brokerage account, your cost is mostly tied to transactions – purchases and sales of investments. This cost structure can be a great fit for investments you plan to hold for a long time or don’t need to change – examples might include CDs, stock positions with large deferred capital gains, target-date style funds, or individual bonds you plan to hold to maturity. Investing this way can be very low-cost over time, but typically doesn’t involve much oversight or management.

In an advisory account, your cost isn’t tied to transactions, but rather to the balance of your account. Also called “fee-based” investing, your cost is calculated as a fixed percentage of your account balance. This aligns our incentives with yours, because our compensation shrinks or grows along with your account. And because you don’t pay any commissions for trades, we have freedom to manage your account as best we can to seek growth over time. In an advisory relationship, our advisors happily serve clients to a fiduciary standard of care. This cost structure can make a lot of sense for clients in or entering retirement, where flexibility of withdrawals is critical. It can also make sense for investors saving aggressively for retirement, by allowing us to purchase investments on your behalf with no commissions.