Financial Planner Fees Report 2026

Key findings from the filings

1. Of the 8,139 US fee only financial planning firms in the PlannerFees data, 5,564 (68%) publish a planning fee in dollars in their Form ADV brochure (the 107 with no brochure on file count as not publishing); among the 265 with more than 20 employees, 41% do.
2. Among the 38 US states where at least 10 fee only firms publish a current flat or project fee, the median one time plan is highest in Iowa, $7,000 (19 firms), and lowest in South Carolina and Kentucky, $2,750 (31 and 15 firms); no state's plan price differs from the rest of the US by more than chance would explain.
3. In 40 of the 44 US states where at least 10 fee only firms publish a current hourly rate, the median rate is between $250 and $300; Nevada has the highest median, $350 (27 firms), and Utah and Maine the lowest, $200 (32 and 19 firms); only California's rate ($300, against $275 elsewhere) and Utah's rate ($200, against $300 elsewhere) differ from the rest of the US by more than chance would explain.
4. Among the 35 US states with at least 50 fee only planning firms, the share that publishes a planning fee in dollars runs from 59% of 56 firms in Kentucky to 76% of 70 firms in Kansas; no state's share differs from the rest of the US by more than chance would explain.
5. Among the 10 US cities with the most fee only planning firms, New York City has the highest median hourly rate, $350 (42 firms), and Houston and Chicago the lowest, $250 (38 and 33 firms); only New York City's rate differs from the rest of the US by more than chance would explain.
6. US fee only firms whose brochure lists a CFP® professional publish a median hourly rate of $300 (1,114 firms) and a median one time plan of $5,000 (874 firms), against $270 and $4,500 at firms that list none (2,374 and 1,663 firms).
7. US fee only firms with one employee list a median hourly rate of $250 (2,108 firms), against $300 at firms with two or more employees (1,369 firms); for a one time plan the medians are $4,250 and $5,250 (1,533 and 995 firms), a clear gap.
8. Advice only US planners, who manage no client assets, list a median hourly rate of $295 (365 firms), not clearly different from $298 at fee only firms that also manage assets or charge a fee on them (3,123 firms); for a one time plan the medians are $4,250 and $5,000 (212 and 2,325 firms), a clear gap.
9. Among US fee only firms that publish a planning fee and have a registration year on record, 30% of the 3,049 registered in 2016 or later publish a monthly or quarterly subscription fee, against 6% of the 1,230 registered before 2016.

Highest and lowest state medians

State medians for a one time plan spread wider than hourly rates, but no state's plan price passes the test, so much of that spread may be chance. 20 of the 38 ranked states have a median plan price between $4,000 and $5,375, while 40 of the 44 ranked states have a median hourly rate between $250 and $300. A state is ranked when at least 10 of its firms count toward that median.

No state's plan prices differ from the rest of the US by more than chance would explain, and only the hourly rates of California and Utah differ. So read the top and bottom of the chart as a range, not a league table.

* Differs from the rest of the US by more than chance would explain (Holm adjusted p < 0.01).

Among the 44 states where at least 10 firms count toward the hourly rate median, Nevada has the highest median hourly rate, $350 (27 firms). 2 states tie for the lowest median hourly rate, $200: Utah and Maine. The cost study has the hourly rate for every ranked state.

Which firms publish a dollar planning fee

Form ADV Part 2A asks each firm to give its fee schedule, but many give it as a percent of assets, a range, or a fee set case by case, not a dollar planning fee. Of the 8,139 US fee only firms we list, 68% put a dollar figure on a planning fee that our software found. It can miss one, and the 107 firms with no brochure on file count as not publishing. Most of the rest, 2,298 of 2,575, report a fee based on a percentage of assets on Form ADV and likely give their fee that way. By state, no share below differs from the rest of the US by more than chance would explain. By type of firm, the share is 41% for firms with more than 20 employees and 73% for firms with one employee. It's 74% for firms registered in 2016 or later and 58% for older firms with a registration year on record.

Firm types compared

Against the rest of their comparison, firms that list a CFP® professional publish higher fees, both by the hour and for a one time plan. Firms with one employee publish lower fees, both by the hour and for a one time plan. Advice only firms, which manage no money for clients, publish lower fees for a one time plan, with no clear gap by the hour. These are descriptions, not causes: a firm with a CFP® professional may also be bigger, or in a pricier city. The CFP® fee study splits this by firm size and state, and adds CPAs, CFA charterholders, enrolled agents and ChFC® holders.

* The gap between this group and the rest of its comparison is larger than chance would explain (Holm adjusted p < 0.01). A firm lists a CFP® professional when our software finds the CFP® or CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® mark in its brochure, and it misses some. Firm size is the employee count on Form ADV, which leaves out clerical staff; 45 firms report no employees and sit out that comparison. The year registered is the first state registration, or the date SEC registration took effect. 1,898 firms have no year in our data, including every firm whose record shows an ended registration, such as a move from state to SEC registration, so the year comparisons lean toward firms that never changed registration.

The 10 cities with the most firms

Cities by the city in the firm's main office address, not the metro area, so a suburb counts on its own. New York City means a New York, NY address; Brooklyn and the other boroughs count separately. Only New York City has an hourly rate that differs from the rest of the US by more than chance would explain. Every city with enough firms to rank is in the plan cost by city study.

* Differs from the rest of the US by more than chance would explain (Holm adjusted p < 0.01).

Firms registered since 2016 publish subscription fees more often

The most common published fee is an hourly rate, at 73% of firms that publish a dollar planning fee. Subscription planning, a set monthly or quarterly fee, shows up at 21%. Among firms registered in 2016 or later it's 30%, against 6% of older firms with a registration year on record. And 2,803 of the 5,564 firms with a published fee (50%) publish more than one kind.

A firm counts as publishing a fee type when its brochure gives one in dollars, including a cap, a floor or a brochure over 18 months old.

How the report was made

• The firms: 8,139 registered investment advisers that offer financial planning for an hourly or fixed fee and pass our fee only filter. On Form ADV: no commission pay, no broker dealer ties and no insurance agent registration for the firm. In the brochure: no mention our software found of commissions or referral pay. A firm can still earn commissions through a related company the filings don't show.
• The prices: read from each firm's Form ADV Part 2A brochure, filed with the SEC or a state regulator. A median counts one value per firm, ranges at their midpoint, and leaves out caps, floors and brochures more than 18 months old. No median is shown under 8 firms. The share of firms that publish a price counts the dollar fees our software found; the accuracy audit below checks fees it found, not ones it missed.
• Accuracy: software reads the fees, so it makes mistakes. In a check on October 7, 2026 of 100 counted fees picked at random, an AI review tool reading each full brochure judged 87 right, and we fixed the 13 it flagged. The check ran on an earlier version of the data, so read 87 in 100 as a rough guide (audit CSV).
• Differences: each state or city is tested against the rest of the US, and each firm type against the rest of its comparison, with a Mann-Whitney rank test for fees and a two proportion z test for shares. Running many tests at once turns up some gaps by luck, so the p-values are Holm adjusted within each family (all ranked states for one fee type, all states' price shares, the 10 cities for one figure, all firm types for one figure). A gap is called clear only when its adjusted p is under 0.01: if nothing in a family really differed, the chance of flagging even one of them would be under 1 in 100. Subscription share by registration year is a single test, so its p-value stands as it is. The CSV has both the raw and the adjusted p-values.
• Left out: account minimums. Our software reads one in only 281 brochures, and 256 say there's none, too few for a reliable figure.

The full rules are on the methodology page.

How to cite this report

PlannerFees, "Financial Planner Fees Report 2026," 2026, https://plannerfees.com/financial-planner-fees-report/ (data as of November 4, 2026).

The data is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: credit PlannerFees, link to this page, name the license (CC BY 4.0) and say if you changed the data. The numbers update every month with new filings, so give the data as of date when you quote one.

Download the data

Report tables (CSV): every table on this page, one row per figure, with the firm count, the raw and Holm adjusted p-values and whether the gap is clear. The firm level data behind it is in the full fee dataset.

CC BY 4.0 covers PlannerFees' compilation and the fee figures. The quoted brochure sentences are the firms' own words, quoted for reference, and the license doesn't cover them. Terms of use.