What Is a Fair Financial Adviser Fee?

What is a fair price for financial advice? It is one of the most common questions people ask before they engage an adviser, and one of the hardest to answer cleanly, because “fair” depends on the size of the job, the complexity of your finances and the value the advice delivers. A fee that is generous for a simple ISA top-up would be steep for a full retirement plan, and vice versa.

This guide sets out what counts as a fair financial adviser fee in 2026: the going rates across the market, what a reasonable fee should include, when a percentage stops being proportionate, and the warning signs that you are paying over the odds. It is information rather than personal advice, everyone’s situation differs, and investments can fall as well as rise, but it will give you a firm benchmark to judge any quote against.

The going rate in 2026

The UK advice market has settled into a fairly consistent band of pricing. For ongoing advice, most people pay an adviser charge of between 0.5% and 1% a year, with 0.75% being about the mid-point of the market. On top of that sit the platform charge, usually 0.15%–0.40%, and the fund charges, anywhere from around 0.1% for passive investments to close to 1% for active management. Add them and a typical all-in cost lands somewhere between 1% and 1.75% a year.

Initial advice, the up-front work of building and implementing a plan, is commonly charged at 1%–3% of the money invested, or as a fixed fee of a few thousand pounds for a defined piece of work. Hourly rates, where offered, tend to run £150–£350. None of this is fixed in stone, and a good adviser will explain exactly how their figure is arrived at. Our full breakdown of UK adviser costs puts these numbers in context.

It is worth understanding why these bands exist at all. Since commission was banned on investment advice in 2013, firms have had to set fees that cover the real cost of running a regulated business, qualified advisers, professional indemnity insurance, technology and compliance, while still representing value to the client. That floor is why an all-in cost much below 1% a year usually signals a lighter or more automated service, and why fees clustering around the middle of the range are the norm rather than a coincidence. A fair fee is one that sits sensibly within that band and is justified by what you receive for it.

What a fair fee includes

A fair ongoing fee is not just a number: it is a number attached to a service. Before you can judge whether 0.75% is reasonable, you need to know what that 0.75% actually buys. A fee at the top of the range should come with a full, active service; one at the bottom may reflect a lighter touch, which can be perfectly fair if that is what you need.

• 1

  A regular review

  At least an annual review of your plan, ideally face to face or by video, checking your goals, your risk level and whether the strategy is still on track.

• 2

  Portfolio management

  Ongoing monitoring and rebalancing of your investments so the mix does not drift away from the risk you agreed.

• 3

  Tax-efficiency work

  Using your ISA and pension allowances each year, managing capital gains, and keeping the plan tax-efficient as rules change.

• 4

  Access between reviews

  The ability to pick up the phone or email when life changes, a house move, an inheritance, a redundancy, without every contact triggering a bill.

• 5

  Clear reporting

  Straightforward statements showing what you hold, how it has performed and exactly what you have paid, in pounds as well as percentages.

If a fee at the higher end of the range comes with little more than an annual email, it is not fair value, however normal the percentage looks. Conversely, a fee that funds genuine, active planning can be a bargain even at 1%. The test is always the ratio of service to price, not the price alone.

It also helps to distinguish advice from mere administration. Some of what an ongoing fee covers is routine, rebalancing, reporting, keeping records straight, and could, in principle, be done more cheaply by a low-cost platform. What justifies a full advice fee is the planning layered on top: matching the strategy to your life, adjusting it as circumstances change, and being on hand when a decision really matters. If you are paying advice-level fees but only receiving administration, the arrangement is not fair, and it is worth asking pointedly what planning you are actually getting for the money.

When a fee stops being proportionate

The most common way a fee stops being fair is scale. A percentage charge is convenient, but it rises automatically with your portfolio while the underlying work often does not. Reviewing and managing a £1 million portfolio is not ten times harder than managing a £100,000 one, yet at a flat 1%, you would pay ten times as much. This is why fairness on larger sums usually means a tiered or fixed fee.

For portfolios above roughly £500,000, it is entirely reasonable to ask whether a percentage still makes sense, or whether a fixed annual fee would be fairer. Many good firms will happily discuss this, and a reluctance to do so is itself informative. The same logic applies to wealth management arrangements, where the sums are larger and the case for a fixed or heavily tiered fee is stronger still.

The other way a fee can quietly stop being fair is drift. A percentage agreed years ago on a modest pot keeps applying automatically as the pot grows, so the pounds you pay can double or treble without anyone ever revisiting the deal. Because the increase is silent, no new letter, no fresh conversation, it is easy to miss. Setting a reminder to check your total charge against the market every couple of years is the simplest guard against paying a fee that was fair when you signed it but has since outgrown the work behind it.

Benchmarks by job

Because “fair” depends on the task, it helps to have a rough benchmark for common pieces of work. These are broad market ranges rather than quotes, but they give you a yardstick to hold any proposal against.

• Setting up a £100,000 investment or ISA: an initial fee of roughly £1,000–£3,000, then 0.5%–1% a year ongoing.
• A full retirement income plan: often £2,000–£5,000 to build, reflecting the complexity of turning pensions into sustainable income.
• Consolidating several pensions: commonly 1%–3% of the amount, though a fixed fee is often fairer, see our note on whether to consolidate pensions.
• A one-off financial review: a few hundred to a couple of thousand pounds, or a handful of hours at an hourly rate.

Signs you are paying too much

A few warning signs suggest a fee may not be fair. None is proof of a problem on its own, but together they are worth heeding. The clearest is an all-in cost pushing well above 2% a year, which is hard to justify for most straightforward portfolios. Another is a fee you cannot get a straight, pounds-and-pence answer on, transparency is a hallmark of a fair arrangement, and an adviser regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority is required to provide it.

Other red flags include a flat percentage that has never fallen as your portfolio has grown, charges for routine contact that should be part of the ongoing service, and pressure towards in-house or “restricted” products that happen to carry higher fund charges. If any of these ring true, it is a good moment to compare your arrangement against the market: our guide on whether an adviser is worth it can help you judge.

One further point often overlooked: fees are not set in stone once agreed. If your circumstances change, a portfolio grows substantially, or your affairs simplify as you settle into retirement: it is entirely legitimate to revisit the arrangement and ask whether the fee still reflects the work. A firm confident in the value it delivers will welcome that conversation; one that resists it is telling you something. Reviewing your fee every few years, in the same way you would review the investments themselves, is simply good financial housekeeping and one of the surest ways to keep what you pay fair over the long run.

When a higher fee is justified

None of this means cheap is always fair and expensive never is. A fee at the top of the range, or a substantial fixed fee, can be entirely justified where the work is genuinely complex: intertwined pensions and investments, a business sale, inheritance tax planning across generations, or a portfolio large enough that a small improvement in structure saves far more than the fee costs. What makes a fee fair is not its size but whether the value delivered exceeds the price paid. Judged that way, the right question is never simply “is this cheap?” but “is this worth it?”.

Common questions on fees & costs