AdvicePay, the fee-for-service financial planning platform, announced it has processed $1 billion in lifetime fees, a milestone that underscores the model's evolution from a niche offering to a mainstream billing solution. The figure, drawn from over 2 million transactions, reflects a decade of steady adoption since the company's founding in 2015. Today, 11 of the top 15 broker-dealers rely on AdvicePay to manage fee-for-service billing and compliance workflows, according to a statement from CEO and co-founder Alan Moore.
The company's 2026 Fee-for-Service Industry Trend Report, based on more than 525,000 transactions, reveals that 85.6% of invoices on the platform last year came from recurring subscriptions, up from 83% in 2023. Average monthly subscription fees rose 4.7% year-over-year to $291, while quarterly subscription fees climbed 9.4% to $1,074. These data points challenge the long-held assumption that fee-for-service clients are less sticky than those in asset-under-management (AUM) arrangements.
From Niche to Institutional Scale
Moore, who was fired from his RIA in 2012 at age 25, co-founded AdvicePay with Michael Kitces after struggling to find a payment processor willing to handle small, recurring fees. At the time, major processors deemed the market too small to bother with. Moore's insight was that younger clients—those in their 20s, 30s, and 40s—could not afford asset-based fees but could support cash-flow-based fees. "They don't have the assets to support an asset-based fee, but they do have income to support a cash flow-based fee," he said in the statement.
The shift has been gradual. "This industry moves 2% a year," Moore noted. "Over the course of a year, that's not very much. Over the course of 10 to 20 years, that's where you really see transformational change." The 2008 financial crisis, which exposed the volatility of AUM-based revenue, helped catalyze interest in fee-for-service models. Moore observed that transaction volumes on AdvicePay tend to spike during market downturns, as advisors seek non-market-dependent income sources.
Subscription Billing and Client Stickiness
Moore emphasized that subscription billing, not one-time plans, is the key to scaling fee-for-service practices. "Doing one-time plans for $1,000 or $2,000 provides great value. It's a really hard business to scale," he said. "Subscription billing is predictable. It's not tied to the markets." The report's data on recurring invoices supports this view, showing that advisors are increasingly building ongoing relationships rather than transactional engagements.
Moore cited a comic by advisor Carl Richards to illustrate the value of long-term relationships: an advisor standing between a client and a bad decision, such as selling at the bottom of a market. "Stopping them from selling at the bottom of the market—that's the game-changing decision," Moore said. "And that only happens every 10 years sometimes in a relationship."
AdvisorBOB Acquisition and Back-Office Complexity
Approximately one year ago, AdvicePay acquired AdvisorBOB, a compensation software firm serving RIAs with 20 to 100 advisors. The acquisition aims to complete the revenue lifecycle: AdvicePay handles incoming client payments, while AdvisorBOB manages how those funds are distributed to advisors. Moore admitted that the complexity of RIA compensation structures surprised him. "I knew before we bought AdvisorBOB that compensation in RIAs was complex. And I had no idea just how complex it is," he said.
Many firms still rely on Excel spreadsheets with macros that only the CEO understands, spending days each month on manual calculations. "This is back-office work," Moore acknowledged. "It doesn't get headlines. It's not AI or some super sexy tech thing. But it's our bread and butter."
AI and the Future of Advice
Moore pushed back against the narrative that artificial intelligence will replace financial advisors. "I don't buy any of it," he said. "What people are looking for is advice from a human they connect with, that they have a relationship with, that they trust. That is not going away." He argued that AI cannot replicate the depth of human relationships, which are central to the value of financial planning. For more on how advisors are leveraging technology, see Raymond James Launches AI Academy and Client 360 at Elevate Conference.
As the industry grapples with a looming advisor-client gap, Moore sees fee-for-service as a blue ocean for growth. The model allows advisors to serve clients across wealth levels, not just high-net-worth individuals. For insights on platform trends, read Inside the platform race: what advisors actually want from custodians. The 10-year data from AdvicePay suggests that the model is not only viable but increasingly essential for firms seeking stable, recurring revenue streams.
