How to use this calculator
- Enter what your investments are worth today and how much you add each year.
- Under Compare, untick any kind of fee nobody quoted you. Then put each quote in the box that matches how it's charged.
- If a quote has tiers, bills every quarter, or adds a planning fee on top of a percentage, open More options. That is also where fee increases, rising contributions and today's dollars are.
- The ranked list shows each option's total cost, lowest first. Below it, the break-even rates tell you how low a percentage fee would have to be to beat each of the others.
The numbers already filled in are only an example. Replace them with your own quotes.
How it's calculated
The calculator works through your investments one year at a time. Each year your contribution goes in, the account grows at the return you chose, and then the year's fee comes out. All four options start with the same balance, get the same contributions and earn the same return, so the fee is the only thing that differs between them.
An example
Say you have $500,000 invested, add $12,000 a year, and earn 7.0% a year for 20 years. With no advisory fee you'd end up with $2,461,224.
With a 1.00% fee on your assets, you'd pay $235,765 in fees over those years and end with $2,046,621. That's $414,603 less than the no-fee result: the fees themselves, plus $178,839 of growth that money would have earned if it had stayed invested.
With a $5,000 flat fee that rises 2.5% a year, you'd pay $127,723 and end with $2,213,328, a total cost of $247,896. A percentage fee would have to be 0.58% or lower to cost you less than that flat fee.
Why the total cost is bigger than the fees
A dollar paid in fees this year is a dollar that doesn't compound for the rest of the time you're invested. The earlier a fee is paid, the more growth it gives up, which is why the total cost grows faster than the fees do over a long horizon.
Quarterly billing
Many advisors bill a quarter of their annual rate every three months. The fee leaves your account sooner, but each bill is based on a smaller balance than a year-end bill would be, so the two effects partly cancel out. In the example above, quarterly billing raises the ending balance by $1,415. The setting only affects the percentage-of-assets fee.
The break-even rate
For each of the flat, hourly and project fees, the calculator finds the percentage fee that would leave you with exactly the same ending balance. A percentage quote below that rate costs you less; one above it costs you more. It compares ending balances rather than fees paid, because the ending balance is what you keep.
How this calculator differs from most fee calculators
- It includes hourly and project fees. Most online fee calculators compare one percentage fee with another, or with a flat fee. None of the popular ones we tried handled hourly or project pricing.
- It shows all four options at once, so you can compare quotes that are priced in completely different ways.
- It charges a percentage fee on your balance, not your return. Many calculators subtract the fee from the return instead, turning a 7% return with a 1% fee into 6%. That shortcut takes the fee out before each year's growth and usually shows a lower cost. Advisors differ on whether they bill at the start or the end of a period, and your agreement will say which.
- Fixed fees rise over time by default. A flat fee, an hourly rate or a project price is a price, and prices tend to go up. You can turn this off.
- It works out the break-even percentage from your own numbers, instead of leaving you to guess whether 1% is a lot.
Assumptions and limits
- The return is the same every year and is never negative. Real markets have good and bad years, and a percentage fee collects more in the good ones than a flat fee does.
- Your contribution stays the same each year unless you choose to raise it. The flat, hourly, project and planning fees rise 2.5% a year unless you change the rate or turn it off. The percentage rate itself never changes.
- Today's dollars always uses 2.5% a year of inflation, whatever the fee increase is set to.
- Taxes aren't included, including any tax treatment of the advisory fee itself.
- Fund expense ratios, trading costs, commissions and custody charges aren't included. Your total cost of investing will be higher than any figure here.
- Hourly work is treated as the same number of hours every year. If you'd use an advisor in bursts, the project fee is a closer fit.
- This shows cost, not value. A higher fee can be worth paying, and no calculator can tell you what a particular advisor will do for you.
- It doesn't cover withdrawals, performance-based fees, or retainers that are neither yearly nor tied to a project.
Input field details
What to enter in each box, where to find the number, and how this calculator treats it. When two calculators give different answers from the same numbers, it's usually because they handle one of these differently.
Starting portfolio value
What the advisor would manage or advise on today.
Where to find itThe balances on your most recent statements, added together for every account the advisor would cover.
How this tool treats itInvested for the whole of year 1, and identical under all four fee structures.
Allowed range$0 to $50,000,000
Added each year
What you add to the portfolio each year.
Where to find itYour payroll deferrals and employer match, plus any standing transfers into the accounts.
How this tool treats itAdded at the start of each year, before that year’s growth, and the same under all four fee structures.
Allowed range$0 to $1,000,000 a year
How what you add changes each year
Leave it the same every year, or raise it by a set dollar amount, a set percentage, or with inflation.
How this tool treats itThe first year’s contribution is the amount above. A dollar increase adds the same amount each year; a percentage increase compounds; the inflation option uses 2.5% a year.
Dollar increase each year
How many dollars more you add each year than the year before.
How this tool treats itUsed only when the contribution rises by a dollar amount.
Allowed range$0 to $100,000
Percentage increase each year
How much your contribution grows each year, as a percentage.
How this tool treats itUsed only when the contribution rises by a percentage.
Allowed range0% to 20%
Expected annual return
The average yearly return to assume, before the advisor’s fee and before fund costs.
How this tool treats itThe same return every year, applied after the contribution goes in. Every fee structure earns the identical return, so the only difference between the four results is the fee.
Allowed range0% to 20%
Not includedNegative returns and the order in which good and bad years arrive. A percentage fee takes more in good years and a flat fee does not, so a real sequence of returns changes the comparison.
Years
How long you expect to work with the advisor.
How this tool treats itYear 1 is the first full year. Results are the position at the end of the last year.
Allowed range1 to 60 years
Percentage-of-assets fee
The annual percentage the advisor charges on the assets they manage. If the schedule has tiers, this is the rate on the first tier.
Where to find itThe engagement letter or advisory agreement, the firm’s published fee schedule, or Item 5 of its Form ADV Part 2A brochure, which every registered adviser must give you.
How this tool treats itCharged on the balance after that year’s growth. Set it to 0 if none of your quotes charge a percentage.
Allowed range0% to 5%
Second fee tier starts at
The balance above which a lower rate applies, if the fee schedule has one. Leave at 0 for a single rate.
Where to find itThe engagement letter or advisory agreement, the firm’s published fee schedule, or Item 5 of its Form ADV Part 2A brochure, which every registered adviser must give you.
How this tool treats itEach rate applies only to the part of the balance inside its band. A balance of $1,500,000 with 1% to $1,000,000 and 0.75% above pays 1% on the first million and 0.75% on the rest.
Allowed range$0 (no tier) to $50,000,000
Fee on the second tier
The rate on the balance between the second and third thresholds.
How this tool treats itHas no effect until a second-tier threshold is set.
Allowed range0% to 5%
Third tier starts at
The balance above which a third rate applies. Leave at 0 for no third tier.
How this tool treats itMust be above the second-tier threshold. If it is not, the third tier is ignored and the calculator says so.
Allowed range$0 (no tier) to $50,000,000
Fee on the third tier
The rate on the balance above the third threshold.
How this tool treats itHas no effect until a third-tier threshold is set.
Allowed range0% to 5%
How the percentage fee is billed
Annually or quarterly, as your agreement says.
Where to find itItem 5 of the adviser’s Form ADV Part 2A, which must explain how often the firm bills or deducts its fees.
How this tool treats itAnnual billing charges the full rate on the year-end balance. Quarterly billing charges a quarter of the rate on each quarter-end balance. The fee leaves the account sooner, but each charge is taken from a smaller balance, so the result can move either way.
Not includedThis setting changes the percentage-of-assets column only. The flat, hourly and project fees are charged once a year either way.
Planning fee on top of the percentage
An annual planning or retainer fee the same advisor charges on top of the percentage, if there is one.
Where to find itThe engagement letter or advisory agreement, the firm’s published fee schedule, or Item 5 of its Form ADV Part 2A brochure, which every registered adviser must give you.
How this tool treats itCharged once a year at year end, after the percentage fee, and it rises with the other fees while that option is on. With a planning fee the percentage column is a combination of both charges, and its label says so.
Allowed range$0 to $100,000 a year
Flat annual fee
A fixed yearly fee for ongoing advice, whatever the portfolio is worth.
Where to find itThe engagement letter or advisory agreement, the firm’s published fee schedule, or Item 5 of its Form ADV Part 2A brochure, which every registered adviser must give you.
How this tool treats itCharged once a year at year end. Monthly or quarterly subscription fees go in as the yearly total.
Allowed range$0 to $100,000 a year
Hourly rate
What the advisor charges per hour.
Where to find itThe engagement letter or advisory agreement, the firm’s published fee schedule, or Item 5 of its Form ADV Part 2A brochure, which every registered adviser must give you.
Allowed range$0 to $2,000 an hour
Hours a year
How many hours of the advisor’s time you expect to use in a typical year.
Where to find itAn estimate from the advisor, or last year’s invoices if you already work with one.
How this tool treats itThe same number of hours every year. For a single engagement with no ongoing work, use the project fee with no repeat instead.
Allowed range0 to 500 hours
Project fee
The price of one defined piece of work, most often a written financial plan.
Where to find itThe proposal or engagement letter for the project.
How this tool treats itCharged at the end of the year the project happens.
Allowed range$0 to $100,000
Repeat every (project)
How often you would pay for the project again, for example to update the plan. Enter 0 for a single engagement.
How this tool treats itThe first project is in year 1. At 3, repeats fall in years 4, 7, 10 and so on, each at the price that year if fees are rising.
Allowed range0 (once) to 60 years
Raise the flat, hourly, project and planning fees each year
On if you expect those fees to rise over time, as most prices do. Turn it off to hold every fee at today’s amount.
How this tool treats itThe percentage-of-assets rate never changes. Its dollar amount rises and falls with the balance on its own.
Yearly fee increase
How much the flat, hourly, project and planning fees rise each year.
How this tool treats itCompounds from year 1. Defaults to 2.5%, the calculator’s inflation assumption.
Allowed range0% to 10%
Compare
Tick the kinds of fee you have been quoted. Untick one to leave it out of the results.
How this tool treats itLeaving a fee out hides it from the results, the charts and the downloads. It does not change how the others are calculated.
Show in today’s dollars
On to see every dollar figure at today’s prices.
How this tool treats itDivides every dollar figure by 2.5% a year of inflation compounded over the whole horizon, whatever the fee increase is set to. A fee that does not rise and money that loses value are different things. Percentages, including the break-even rate, do not change.
Questions
What do financial advisors typically charge?
Why is the total cost bigger than the fees I pay?
Do flat fees go up over time?
Does this include fund expense ratios?
My advisor bills quarterly. Does that matter?
What is a project fee?
Can I save or share my numbers?
Version history
- September 24, 2026 (version 1.0.0): First version. Compares a percentage-of-assets fee, a flat fee, an hourly rate and a project fee side by side, with the break-even percentage against each. Replaces our earlier fee comparison calculator.