Share of Affluent Investors Willing to Pay for Advice Climbs to 68% – Report
By Staff
The share of affluent investors willing to pay for financial advice rose to 68% in 2025, up from 38% in 2010, according to new research from Cerulli Associates.
The 30-percentage-point increase reflects greater accessibility of financial advice, continued fee compression across both adviser and product fees, and the proliferation of fiduciary advice models, Cerulli said in its Cerulli Edge—U.S. Managed Accounts Edition, Q1 2026.
Willingness to pay scales with wealth. Cerulli found 75% of high-net-worth investors with $5 million or more in assets said they were willing to pay for advice, compared with 64% of those with between $2 million and $5 million.
“As an individual’s wealth grows, taxes become more burdensome, financial and estate planning becomes more complicated, and additional investment products (e.g., separately managed accounts, alternatives) become more accessible,” said Michael Manning, research analyst at Cerulli. “Investors encountering these challenges for the first time naturally need assistance navigating the numerous complex variables linked to asset growth. The value of financial advice now extends beyond higher market returns.”
Even among less-affluent investors, resistance to paying for advice is limited. Cerulli found that fewer than one-third of investors with less than $100,000 in financial assets said they were not willing to pay for advice.
Manning said self-directed platforms face a strategic challenge as a result. “There remains a segment of investors who are not interested in paying for advice and prefer no-fee self-directed platforms,” he said. “Whether this is due to lower financial assets or do-it-yourselfers managing their own portfolios, they may require advice at some point in their lives. Firms operating these self-directed platforms must create a path of least resistance for these clients to transition from self-directed to advised during that time of need, or they will seek advice elsewhere.”
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