What North Carolina Financial Advisors Charge: A Form ADV Study
The typical North Carolina financial advisor lists a top annual rate of 1.25% of managed assets. For a $1 million portfolio, that rate would mean $12,500 a year. Among firms with a fee band that ends at $1 million, the median rate is 1.00%, or $10,000 a year on a $1 million portfolio. Most firms also charge hourly or flat fees for planning, so the asset-based fee does not cover everything a client may pay.
Every federally registered advisor files Form ADV with compensation details and a brochure that explains its fee schedule. We pulled the current filing for all 288 advisors with a main office in North Carolina and then reviewed the fee section in 148 brochures from firms that work with individual clients. The tables that follow break the data down by factors like billing method and firm size.
Key Takeaways
- 1.25% is the median top annual rate across 148 North Carolina advisor brochures, and 1.00% appears more often than any other figure.
- 97.9% of North Carolina advisors charge a percentage of the assets they manage.
- 45.1% of North Carolina advisors bill by the hour, compared with 30.0% of advisors nationwide.
- $1,290,117 in assets per individual client is the median at Triad firms, the highest of any North Carolina region.
How This Study Measures Fees
Brochures format fee schedules differently, so we applied one fixed definition to each metric before comparing firms.
- Top annual rate means the highest asset-based percentage a firm lists in its fee section. Usually, that rate applies to the first dollars invested or represents a stated maximum.
- $1 million band rate means the percentage a firm assigns to the fee band that ends at $1 million.
- Assets per individual client means the median amount across firms after dividing each firm’s individual client assets by its individual client count.
The brochure sample starts with the 212 North Carolina firms that manage portfolios for individuals and report at least 25 individual clients, and 148 of those brochures list a readable asset-based rate. Billing method data comes from all 288 firms in the October 2026 federal data release.
How North Carolina Advisors Bill Clients
Nearly every firm in the state charges on assets, but North Carolina advisors add hourly and flat fees far more often than firms elsewhere in the country. The table below compares the compensation methods firms report in Item 5E of Form ADV.
- North Carolina firms offer financial planning at 71.5%, compared with 48.4% nationwide.
- Item 5E reports how the advisory firm itself gets paid, so commissions a representative earns through a separate brokerage firm do not show up in this table.
Top Fee Rates North Carolina Advisors Publish
Most firms list a top rate at a round percentage. The most common top rate is 1.00%, while roughly one in five firms lists 2.00% or more. The table below groups the 148 brochures by each firm’s highest asset-based rate.
- Sixty of the 148 brochures, or 40.5%, list a top rate of 1.00% or less.
- A larger account can pay a blended rate below the top rate when a firm uses a declining fee schedule.
Fee Benchmarks for a $1 Million Portfolio and Hourly Advice
Retirees with $1 million or more want to know the rate that applies to their account balance. Many also want to know what an hour of planning costs before committing to ongoing management. The table below shows the rates firms report for a $1 million fee band and for hourly planning work.
- Only 33 of the 148 brochures publish a fee band that ends exactly at $1,000,000.
- At the $300 median, a 10-hour planning project costs about $3,000 before any ongoing management fee.
What Triad Advisors Charge Versus the Rest of North Carolina
Triad firms bill by the hour at close to the statewide rate, but they charge performance fees far less often than Charlotte firms. They also report the largest median client accounts in the state. We grouped firms by the city of their main office. The table below shows the regional breakdown.
- Triad firms report no commission compensation in Item 5E, the only region with a zero rate.
- Just 10.3% of Triad firms charge performance-based fees, compared with 28.4% of Charlotte metro firms.
How Firm Size Changes the Way Advisors Bill
Billing habits differ by firm size. Firms managing $100 million to $500 million bill by the hour more often than any other group. The table below sorts all 288 North Carolina firms by regulatory assets under management.
- Firms with $5 billion or more charge performance fees at a rate of 59.1%, compared with 10.8% among firms with $100 million to $500 million.
- Just 22.7% of the largest firms offer financial planning, compared with 81.5% of firms with $100 million to $500 million in assets.