Forest Hill's Jeff Judge in Forbes: The fee detail most advisor comparisons skip

By Jeff Judge, CFP®, AEP®, ChFC®, CLU®, Managing Partner, Chesapeake Financial Planners, Forest Hill, MD.

Most people assume a 1% advisory fee means the same thing no matter who charges it. It usually doesn't.

Forbes asked me about this for a recent piece on financial advisor costs, and my answer centered on the fee structure I use here at Chesapeake, a cliff structure. A client with $2 million in assets pays 0.90% on the entire amount, not a blended rate stacked across tiers. Cross into the $2.5 million tier, and the rate on everything drops to 0.75%.

That single detail changes behavior. A client sitting just below the threshold has a real incentive to add assets, consolidate an old 401(k), or move an outside account over, all at once, to cross the line and drop the whole rate.

For families in Fallston, retirees in Aberdeen, and commuters heading into Towson, this matters more than a rate sheet suggests. Harford County and the Baltimore metro are full of households with money spread across old employer plans and outside accounts, and most never ask how their own advisor's fee actually behaves as their assets grow.

The takeaway is simple: know your fee structure, not just your fee percentage. Ask your advisor what happens at the edges, not just at today's balance. It's a five-minute conversation that can meaningfully affect what you pay over time, and most people never have it.

This piece builds on "How Much Does A Financial Advisor Cost?," in Forbes (September 2026).

Jeff Judge, CFP®, AEP®, ChFC®, CLU®, is Managing Partner at Chesapeake Financial Planners in Forest Hill, MD. Book an intro call.