Key Takeaways
- Most UHNW households are served by RIAs that hold less than half of the family’s total assets under management—a gap that rewards firms able to price for the full scope of services these clients need, not just the assets they hold.
- The fastest-growing pricing model pairs an asset-based investment management fee with a flat annual retainer for estate, tax, and other non-investment services.
- Schwab’s 2024 RIA Benchmarking Study found 95 percent of firms bundle financial planning into their asset management fee, but only 37 percent bundle lifestyle management—a sign of how unevenly firms price non-investment services today.
- Four practices keep pricing aligned with cost: annual fee reviews, a formal client acceptance process (often run by a pricing committee), client segmentation, and a written pricing policy.
The registered investment advisor (RIA) industry's growth is increasingly tied to ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) clients, but most UHNW households still spread their assets across multiple firms, and none of those firms typically manages more than half of a given family's wealth. Paul Ferguson of Schwab Advisor Family Office and family-office consultant James “Jamie” H. McLaughlin argue that the flat, asset-based fee model most firms rely on can no longer cover the cost of serving UHNW clients, who now expect estate planning, tax strategy, philanthropic design, family governance, and consolidated reporting alongside investment management.
Drawing on Charles Schwab's 2024 RIA Benchmarking Study, the authors trace a shift toward hybrid pricing — an asset-based fee for investment management paired with a flat retainer for everything else — and lay out operational practices firms can use to keep revenue aligned with the true cost of serving this segment: annual fee reviews, a formal client acceptance process, client segmentation, and a written pricing policy.
