What does it mean to be a fee-only advisory firm?

Financial professionals are generally compensated two ways, through fees or commissions.  Commissions are paid by a product company for the sale of an investment product, whereas fees generally are paid directly by the client.  Fee-only management can be either hourly, by the project, by retainer, or as a percentage of the assets that are managed.  Our philosophy is that an advisor should only be compensated via fees, as opposed to commissions.  Please note: Fee-Only investment advice is different than fee-based advice.  Fee-based advice allows an advisor to charge fees on certain types of accounts, and collect commissions on other accounts. Also, fee-based advisors may also be paid a “kick-back” from the product providers.