What You Pay. What It Includes. What It Does Not.
This page exists because fee structures in wealth advisory are often buried in disclosure documents most people never read. Ours is published here in plain language. If anything on this page is unclear, call us and ask.
One Fee. The Entire Protocol.
We charge an annual advisory fee of 1.00% based on the assets under our coordination. The fee is calculated on the average daily balance of your account and billed monthly in arrears. You pay for the month after you receive the service, not before.
The fee covers the full scope of The Four-Pillar Protocol: the Coordination Audit, the Income Diagnosis, the Single-Path Recommendation, Coordinated Implementation, Quarterly Coordination Reviews, and every coordination memo we send to your CPA and estate attorney. Financial planning is included for advisory clients. There is no separate planning fee.
| Service | Annual Fee |
|---|---|
| Advisory fee (BWA) | 1.00% |
| When a sub-advisor or third-party manager is used as part of a coordinated recommendation, their fees are additional. These are the current platforms and their costs: | |
| Dunham & Associates platform fee | 0.25% |
| Synergy platform fee + strategist fee | 0.50% + $30/yr |
| Sub-advisor fee (when applicable) | 0.50% |
| Hansen & Associates (third-party manager) | 0.70% |
The advisory fee is disclosed in writing before any account is opened. You will know exactly what you pay before you agree to anything. The fee schedule above is also published in our ADV Part 2A, the regulatory document filed with the SEC describing our advisory business, compensation, and conflicts of interest.
The annual fee may be negotiable. Accounts within the same household may be combined for a reduced fee.
An Alternative for Qualified Clients.
Clients who meet specific regulatory thresholds may choose a performance-based fee in place of the standard advisory fee. Under this structure, we charge 10% of any quarterly gain above a high-water mark. If your account does not grow, you do not pay.
This option is available to clients with at least $1,100,000 under our management, or a net worth exceeding $2,200,000 (excluding primary residence), as required by SEC rules.
The performance-based structure aligns our compensation with your results. The details, including how deposits, withdrawals, and the high-water mark are calculated, are fully documented in our ADV Part 2A, Item 5.
Everything Required to Run the Protocol.
Every component of The Four-Pillar Protocol is included in the advisory fee. There are no add-on charges for planning, reviews, or coordination work.
The Coordination Audit
A written review of how your current advisors are coordinating, where the seams are, and the approximate dollar cost of each gap. Delivered before we propose anything else.
The Income Diagnosis
A side-by-side analysis of what your wealth currently produces across four layers of income versus what it would produce under a coordinated plan.
The Single-Path Recommendation
One integrated recommendation across all four pillars, with every alternative we considered and the documented reasoning for each one ruled out.
Coordinated Implementation
Execution of the approved recommendation, plus written coordination memos to your CPA and estate attorney describing what we did and why.
Quarterly Coordination Reviews
A written update every quarter covering all four pillars, not just the investment account. Changes since last quarter, decisions made, and anything relevant before the next one.
Annual Tax Coordination Session
Held with your CPA. We bring our recommendations for the current tax year. Your CPA brings theirs. The session produces a coordinated tax plan for the year.
Annual Insurance Review
Every policy reviewed for performance against original assumptions, pricing competitiveness, and continued fit with your overall plan.
Annual Estate Review
Trust structure, gifting strategy, and beneficiary designations reviewed against life events, regulatory changes, and asset changes from the year. Coordinated with your estate attorney.
Basic Estate Plans Are Billed Separately.
When a client needs estate planning documents created or updated, we coordinate the drafting through a third-party scrivener service or estate planning attorneys. These services are billed separately from the advisory fee.
Basic estate plan: $1,000 to $1,500 flat fee, depending on complexity.
Additional property or entity: $250 per property or entity added to the plan.
Fees are agreed upon before work begins. Estate plans are completed within 90 days of receiving all required information. The annual estate review described above is included in your advisory fee. The creation or revision of estate planning documents is the separate charge.
When We Place Insurance, We Are Paid by the Carrier.
When a coordinated recommendation includes an insurance product, we receive a commission from the insurance carrier. Commissions vary by product type and carrier.
Our disclosure practice is straightforward: every commission we will receive is disclosed in writing before you sign any policy. You see the number before you decide. If the commission creates a conflict with our recommendation, we document the conflict and explain why we are recommending the product despite it.
You are never required to purchase insurance products through us. You may purchase equivalent products through any licensed agent of your choosing.
We are a fiduciary on the advisory side and a best-interest representative on the insurance side. Both standards are documented on every recommendation we make.
Costs You Will See That We Do Not Collect.
Your advisory fee pays for our work. It does not cover the costs charged by other parties involved in managing your accounts and investments.
Custodian fees
Your accounts are held at a qualified custodian, not at our firm. We recommend Charles Schwab & Co. The custodian may charge brokerage commissions, transaction fees, or account service fees. These are disclosed by the custodian directly. We do not receive any portion of these fees.
Fund and investment expenses
Mutual funds, ETFs, and other pooled investment vehicles carry their own internal expense ratios. These are charged by the fund managers, not by us. We factor these costs into every recommendation we make.
Insurance policy charges
Insurance products carry internal charges set by the issuing carrier: cost of insurance, administrative fees, and rider charges. These are detailed in the policy illustration we review with you before any policy is signed.
We do not mark up, share in, or receive any portion of third-party custodian or fund fees.
Verify Everything on This Page.
Every fee, compensation structure, and conflict of interest described on this page is documented in our regulatory filings. You can verify any of it through these public records:
ADV Part 2A (Firm Brochure)
The complete disclosure document filed with the SEC. Contains our fee schedule, conflicts of interest, methods of analysis, and disciplinary history.
Read ADV Part 2ASEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD)
Public record for Bigham Wealth Advisory LLC, CRD #310958.
View on SEC.govYou now know what we charge. The better question is what uncoordinated advice is costing you.
The examples on our How We Work page describe coordination failures that cost families $30,000, $40,000, and $1.2 million. None of those families knew the gaps existed until someone looked. The Coordination Audit is the first step. It identifies every gap between your current advisors and estimates the dollar cost of each one.
Not ready to talk? Read our writing. Many current clients read for six to twelve months before reaching out.