By Hans Goldstein, Founder, Retirement Literacy Foundation. He is also a licensed California insurance producer (#4273294). Education, not a product recommendation.Published · Methodology dated October 3, 2026
Published minimums jump from $5,000 at a large robo-advisor to $500,000 for a personal advisor program and $10 million in investable assets for one firm’s private wealth tier. Meanwhile a 1% annual fee on $1,000,000 costs about $10,000 a year and, at a 6% gross return, about $1.42 million (25% of the ending balance) over 30 years.
The minimums
| Service tier | Stated minimum | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Large robo-advisor (automated portfolios) | $5,000 | account minimum |
| Large firm, human advisor service | $50,000 | account minimum; a dedicated advisor typically at $500,000 invested |
| Large firm, personal advisor program | $500,000 | minimum to work with its advisors |
| Large firm, private wealth tier | $10,000,000 | investable assets, with at least $2,000,000 invested there |
| Family offices (survey average, not a minimum) | $2.7 billion | average net worth of 317 families in a 2025 global family office report |
Minimums as stated on each firm’s own website or report, checked October 3, 2026. Firms are not named here; the sources list links each page.
Between the robo minimum and the private-wealth minimum sits most of retired America with real money: enough that tax, income timing and estate decisions are worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, not enough to get a coordinated team.
What a 1% fee costs over time
| After | At 6% | At 5% (after fee) | Cost of the fee | Share of wealth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 years | $1,790,848 | $1,628,895 | $161,953 | 9.0% |
| 20 years | $3,207,135 | $2,653,298 | $553,838 | 17.3% |
| 30 years | $5,743,491 | $4,321,942 | $1,421,549 | 24.8% |
A wealth tax you choose to pay
Norwegians complain about a roughly 1% wealth tax; many Americans pay a 1% advisory fee voluntarily. For 2026, Norway’s wealth tax (formuesskatt) is 1.0% of net wealth above NOK 1.9 million and 1.1% above NOK 21.5 million per person, according to the Norwegian Tax Administration (Skatteetaten), checked October 3, 2026. A typical 1% advisory fee has no exempt band: it applies to every managed dollar, every year.
A fee can be worth it if the advice is coordinated and changes outcomes. The point is to know the dollar cost and what you get for it.
Every profession has structural limits
- Tax preparers and CPAs are mostly paid for compliance, the return for last year. Planning for next year is a different, often unpaid, job.
- Estate attorneys are paid for documents. Once the trust is signed, few clients hear from them again until something changes or someone dies.
- Insurance and annuity sales are paid on the product sold, and products are easiest to sell with fear of a crash, of outliving money or of taxes.
- Asset managers are paid on assets they keep, which can cut against paying off a mortgage, buying an annuity or spending down.
- "Fiduciary" is a real duty (the CFP Board’s standard, for one, is enforceable), but the label does not remove conflicts like asset-based fees. Ask how they are paid.
Projections are not promises
Any insurance or annuity illustration shows a guaranteed column and a non-guaranteed one. California requires a midpoint column too (Insurance Code 10509.956), halfway between guaranteed and illustrated. Real results rarely match the illustrated column exactly; they land somewhere in between, which is why the midpoint matters. Two habits help:
- Listen for "will" versus "up to" or "could." Only contractual guarantees "will." Illustrated values, index credits and living benefits are "up to."
- Ask for the guaranteed minimum cap and participation rate written in an indexed contract, not just today’s cap. In current product documents we checked from three insurers, guaranteed minimum caps on one-year accounts were 2% to 3%.
What to ask for
- A written plan that coordinates taxes (Roth conversions, capital gains, required distributions), income (Social Security timing, withdrawals, any guaranteed income) and estate documents, not a product proposal.
- The total annual cost in dollars, including fund expenses and any product commissions.
- Who reviews it each year, and what triggers a revisit.
- Guaranteed values and minimums for any insurance or annuity, in writing.
- How the professional is paid, for every recommendation.
Methodology (dated October 3, 2026)
Minimums are taken from each firm’s own public web pages or published report, checked October 3, 2026; where a firm publishes no dollar minimum we omit it. We describe tiers rather than naming firms. The family office figure is a survey average from a published global family office report and is not a minimum. The fee illustration is arithmetic: $1,000,000 compounding at 6% a year versus 5% (6% less a 1% annual fee), no taxes or withdrawals. Norway’s 2026 wealth tax rates and thresholds are from Skatteetaten’s published rate table (municipal 0.35% plus state 0.65% above NOK 1.9 million; state 0.75% above NOK 21.5 million). The median 1% fee figure is from Kitces (July 31, 2017), citing Bob Veres’ research. Guaranteed minimum caps come from current product documents in a separate verification file. Opinions are the author’s and describe incentives, not any individual or firm.
Sources
- Schwab Intelligent Portfolios ($5,000 minimum)
- Fidelity Wealth Services (account minimum and dedicated advisor threshold)
- Vanguard Personal Advisor ($500,000 minimum)
- Fidelity Private Wealth Management (qualification footnote)
- UBS Global Family Office Report
- Kitces: independent financial advisor fees comparison (July 31, 2017)
- California Insurance Code 10509.956 (guaranteed, midpoint and illustrated values)
- CFP Board: Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct
- Skatteetaten (Norwegian Tax Administration): wealth tax rates (formuesskatt), 2026, checked October 3, 2026
Goldstein, H. (2026, October 3). The Retirement Advice Gap: Why People With $300,000 to $8 Million Rarely Get Coordinated Planning. Retirement Literacy Foundation. https://retirementliteracyfoundation.org/research/the-retirement-advice-gap/
Journalists and educators may quote and chart these findings with a link to this page. Data: download the CSV.
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