Price the planning separately from the AUM, before someone else does it for you.
Why this offering, why now
Subscription is the default mechanic now, not a niche test. AdvicePay’s 2026 Fee-for-Service Trend Report analyzed 525,000+ transactions across 2025 and found 85.6% of invoices were subscriptions, with more than $1B in planning fees billed through the platform and 11 of the top 15 broker-dealers on the system. Average monthly subscription runs $291; average quarterly, $1,074, up 9.4% year over year (AdvicePay 2026).
AUM-fee compression is now in advisors’ own forecasts. Cerulli reports 83% of advisors will charge less than 1% on $5M+ clients by 2026, with average fees on $10M+ clients projected at 66 bps. The independent RIA channel is the only one Cerulli expects to see asset-based fees decline through 2026 (Cerulli via ThinkAdvisor).
AI-native consumer apps reset the price expectation for what planning is worth on its own. Facet sells annual subscriptions of $2,400–$8,000 with a dedicated CFP. Domain Money sells $1,800–$7,800 memberships that cover written plans, coaching, and tax and estate work. Range raised a $60M Series C in November 2025, manages $400M AUM, and reports its in-app AI advisor handles thousands of client questions a month with a 50% reduction in messages to human advisors.
Clients want advisors who use AI, not AI instead of advisors. Northwestern Mutual’s 2025 Planning & Progress Study (Harris Poll, 4,626 U.S. adults) found 47% of all Americans prefer an advisor who understands and uses AI, rising to 54% of Gen Z and Millennials. Visible AI in the planning process keeps the relationship.
What it is
Three pieces: a flat monthly or annual fee, a dedicated planner inside your firm, and AI in the workflow for document intake, scenario modeling, and meeting prep. Portfolio management is a separate, optional component at a separate price.
The model is familiar. AI-native consumer apps already sell it. Subscription-planning networks already sell it. The mid-market RIA version sits on top of a relationship base and a depth of domain knowledge those entrants can’t match. The Workshop’s job is naming the offering, scoping what AI does versus what the planner does, and pricing each tier so a prospect can read it and decide.
Done right, this stops being a discount on the AUM bundle and starts being a separately marketable book of recurring revenue that survives portfolio repricing.
Who buys it
Mass-affluent or HNW individual who wants comprehensive planning priced separately from AUM, with a dedicated planner and visible AI in the workflow.
A $5M+ client renewal cycle arrives. Cerulli’s fee-compression forecast is now the conversation the client has heard from two other places this quarter. The bundle is no longer defensible at 1%.
What the firm gains
- Recurring revenue that doesn’t depend on portfolio size or market level.
- A named, priced offering an acquirer can value in a redundancy review.
- A planning book that scales without proportional advisor headcount, because AI absorbs the document-intake and modeling load.
- Visible AI in the client experience, which 47% of Americans now actively prefer.
Why a mid-market firm can win this
A mid-market RIA already has the relationships and the planner-level talent. What it usually doesn’t have is a priced, named planning offering separate from AUM. The platform layer (planning software, document AI, billing) is mature and rentable. What only the firm can deliver is the judgment and the named planner the client wants to call. That combination is what the AI-native consumer apps can’t ship.
What it takes to design properly
- Tier structure: how many tiers, what’s in each, what’s the highest-value tier explicitly for.
- Where AI sits in the workflow, where the planner sits, and how the client sees the difference.
- Disclosure, supervision, and recordkeeping design for AI use (load-bearing under SEC 2026 and FINRA 2026 oversight).
- How the subscription book interacts with the existing AUM book without cannibalizing or confusing it.
These are the decisions the Workshop helps financial advisory firms answer for their specific firm. You leave with the offering specified end to end and ready to test with a named client.
The pressure this responds to
Other offerings for Financial Advisory Firms
Tax-aware investment management
Direct indexing plus a structured annual tax-planning cycle, priced as a discrete service tied to client-realized tax outcomes rather than bundled into the investment management fee.
AI-augmented estate planning advisory
Document intake and AI summarization, advisor-led strategy and beneficiary review, attorney coordination, priced per engagement or as a planning retainer.
$15,000
Fixed fee. A full day with your senior team. 2–3 new offerings your team or an implementation partner builds and tests.
Book a Conversation30 minutes with Shawn Yeager. No pitch.