Financial Planning Practice
The shortcut: Go fee-only RIA (Registered Investment Adviser) from day one. Commission-based "financial planners" hit a fiduciary-distrust wall the moment a client learns the difference between Regulation Best Interest and an actual fiduciary duty — and that learning curve is shorter every year.
Industry: Finance & Insurance | Investment level: Medium — $15,000-$40,000 | Time to launch: 4-9 months (Series 65 + state RIA registration is the gate, not the website)
Best for: Former bank advisors, wirehouse reps, CFPs at large firms, or corporate finance professionals with 5+ years of client-facing experience and one or two niches you've already lived in (physicians, federal employees, dual-income tech couples). What you'll likely make: $2,000-$5,000 month 3, $6,000-$12,000 month 6, $12,000-$22,000 month 12. Section 3 has the math.
Market Opportunity
Your client just inherited $400,000. She has a whole life pitch from her bank. She has a Roth IRA recommendation from her CPA. She has an annuity proposal in her email. What she doesn't have is one person who can look at the full picture — the taxes, the estate implications, the existing 401(k) she hasn't touched in six years — and give her an honest answer whose compensation doesn't depend on which product she picks. That person is a fee-only RIA. That's the job.
Or the dual-income couple in their late 30s who haven't touched their 401(k) allocations in eight years, the husband just got laid off in a tech round, and they have no idea whether the severance check goes into the emergency fund, an IRA rollover, or the kid's 529. They need a plan, not a product.
The fee-only RIA channel grew faster in the 2010s than any other segment of financial services, and the wave hasn't slowed Schwab Advisor Services RIA Benchmarking. Most people now know — or are one Google search from knowing — that a broker-dealer rep operates under "Regulation Best Interest," which does not prohibit recommending a higher-commission product when a cheaper equivalent exists. A fee-only RIA operates under fiduciary duty defined in the Investment Advisers Act §202(a)(11), which does. Once a client sees that distinction in writing, the commission model loses the room.
The trap is thinking you have to compete with Vanguard or Schwab on fees. You don't. You compete on the plan around the portfolio — tax-loss harvesting, Roth conversion sequencing, Social Security claim timing, equity comp coordination, the 529 vs taxable trade-off. That work is invisible to robo-advisors and unprofitable for a wirehouse rep with a 200-household book. It's the entire job for a solo RIA with 40-60 households.
Start with this idea — free signup, no card required.
