How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Ratings come from G2, Capterra or Trustpilot, with the date we checked them.
Key takeaways
- A fiduciary adviser must legally put your interest first. In the US that standard applies to registered investment advisers (RIAs) at all times; stockbrokers work to a weaker best interest standard when they sell products.
- Fee only means the client is the only one paying the adviser. Fee based sounds similar and is not: it allows commissions on products sold to you.
- Vanguard and Fidelity run the low cost advice arms of giant fund firms, Facet charges a flat subscription, and firms such as Fisher and Creative Planning manage everything for a percentage of assets.
- This guide is education, not financial advice. Verify any firm's record free on the SEC's adviser disclosure site and FINRA BrokerCheck before a first meeting.
Quick comparison
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The best fiduciary financial advisor companies in 2026
#1
Vanguard Personal Advisor
Best for: Low cost advice on Vanguard funds
Visit vanguard.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Vanguard Personal Advisor is the benchmark for cheap fiduciary advice: a real adviser, a financial plan, and a portfolio of near zero cost index funds, for an advisory fee that undercuts most of the industry. The model works because Vanguard sells nothing else; there is no product shelf whispering for a commission.
The trade is narrowness. Your portfolio will be Vanguard funds, your meetings will be scheduled and largely by phone or video, and complex tax or estate work points you to outside specialists. For the commonest case in advice, a household with retirement accounts and ordinary questions, it is the price to beat in this entire list, and every other firm below should be asked why it costs more.
What we like- Among the lowest advice fees at a large firm, published at about 0.30 percent of managed assets for its core service, portfolios built from Vanguard index funds, so fund costs stay near the floor, human advisers with automated rebalancing underneath, no commissions anywhere in the model
Watch out for- Portfolios are Vanguard funds, so the menu is the house shelf, higher service tiers raise the fee, the experience is planning led and digital first, which suits some clients and frustrates others, account minimums apply
#2
Fidelity Wealth Management
Best for: Advice inside a full service giant
Visit fidelity.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Fidelity's advice business is a ladder: start self directed, step into a managed portfolio, then into Wealth Management with a named adviser as assets and complexity grow. The fiduciary duty attaches to the advisory accounts; the same building also houses a broker dealer, so the paperwork at account opening is worth actually reading.
For a household already holding Fidelity workplace accounts, the consolidation case is strong and the planning tools are among the best here. Compare its quoted fee for your balance against Vanguard's published schedule; the gap between them is the price of the wider shelf and the branch network, and sometimes that is worth paying.
What we like- Advice tiers from guided portfolios up to dedicated advisers, built on Fidelity's huge platform, planning covers retirement, tax location and estate basics, workplace plan participants can consolidate in one place, strong digital tools beside the human service
Watch out for- Fees rise with the service tier and are quoted by relationship, Fidelity sells both fiduciary advice and brokerage, so confirm which hat your adviser wears for each account, proprietary funds feature in managed portfolios, minimums apply to higher tiers
#3
Schwab Wealth Advisory
Best for: Advice within the Schwab household
Visit schwab.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Schwab Wealth Advisory is the managed, human tier above Schwab's automated portfolios: a named adviser, a plan, and discretionary management for a percentage fee. Schwab households get the familiar benefit of everything under one login, from the bank account to the trust account.
Ask two questions here that apply across this list. First, the all in cost: adviser fee plus the expense ratios of every fund inside the portfolio, in one number. Second, the cash position: Schwab's automated portfolios have long held meaningful cash, and a managed portfolio should explain any cash it holds, because idle cash is a quiet fee on returns that never appears on an invoice.
What we like- A dedicated adviser model with planning inside the Schwab ecosystem, portfolios span Schwab and third party funds and ETFs, banking and brokerage sit in the same household view, branch access for face to face reviews
Watch out for- Fee schedule is tiered and quoted per relationship, its separate robo adviser holds a cash allocation that managed clients should ask about in their own portfolios, like Fidelity, Schwab runs fiduciary and non fiduciary businesses side by side
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Edelman Financial Engines combines two lineages: Ric Edelman's planning firm and Financial Engines, which built advice into employer 401(k) plans. The result is a fiduciary firm particularly strong at the moment this guide's readers most need one, the decade around retirement, when contribution questions become withdrawal, tax bracket and Social Security questions.
It charges like a traditional adviser, so the value case rests on the planning, not the portfolio, which will resemble a diversified fund mix available cheaply elsewhere. Judge it in the first meetings: a good fiduciary here will spend the time on your spending plan, tax map and insurance gaps, subjects a fund supermarket never raises.
What we like- One of the largest independent RIAs in the US, formed from a famous planning firm and a 401(k) advice pioneer, strong retirement income and Social Security planning, advisers in offices across the country plus a digital service, a planning first culture rather than a product shelf
Watch out for- Percentage fees sit in the industry mainstream, meaning higher than Vanguard's model, service depth varies by office and adviser, workplace advice pricing and retail pricing differ, so get your own schedule in writing
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Fisher Investments is the delegation choice: hand over a portfolio of reasonable size and the firm decides, trades and reports, for a percentage fee that declines as assets grow. Its counsellor model means you always have a person to call, which is precisely what its clients are paying for.
The honest debate is the fee against the alternative. An index portfolio at Vanguard's advice arm costs a fraction of Fisher's schedule. Fisher's answer is active management, customisation and behaviour management through storms. Decide after asking what your portfolio would hold and why, and after reading the firm's regulatory disclosures, which every fiduciary must hand you in Form ADV.
What we like- A very large pure play RIA managing money for private clients with a clear fiduciary position, portfolios are built from individual securities and funds rather than a model fund shelf, each client gets a named counsellor and regular reviews, no brokerage commissions inside its private client model
Watch out for- Fees are at the traditional end, with a tiered schedule starting around 1.25 percent on the first portion of assets in published material, minimums suit larger portfolios, its active, forecast led approach will diverge from index returns, sometimes for years, marketing is heavy and persistent
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Facet sells the conflict removal directly: because it charges a flat fee, its planners gain nothing when you roll over an account, buy a product or grow a balance with them. For professionals whose assets sit in a workplace plan, a house and equity compensation, that structure can be far cheaper than one percent of a growing portfolio.
Do the arithmetic for your household before admiring the principle. A flat fee of a few thousand dollars is a bargain against one percent of two million, and expensive against one percent of two hundred thousand. Facet's model also rewards clients who actually use the planning hours. If your need is a portfolio and nothing else, the fund firm advice arms above cost less.
What we like- A flat annual membership fee instead of a percentage of assets, which breaks the link between advice cost and portfolio size, certified financial planners as the adviser base, planning spans tax, equity compensation, insurance and estate, not just investments, virtual by design, so no local office lottery
Watch out for- Flat fees mean smaller portfolios pay a higher effective percentage, investment management is available but planning is the product, a younger firm than the giants above, the subscription renews whether you use the service heavily or not
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Creative Planning's distinction is the bench: advisers, accountants and estate attorneys under one roof, so the plan's tax return and documents are produced by colleagues rather than referrals. For business owners and households with layered affairs, that integration is the product, and it is genuinely hard to assemble alone.
The price is a traditional assets under management fee, and the firm has grown by buying other practices, which makes the individual team in front of you the real unit of quality. Interview them, not the brand. Every firm on this list will say its people are the difference; here it is structurally true.
What we like- One of the largest independent RIAs, notable for employing tax and legal professionals alongside advisers, so planning is executed in house, fiduciary across its advisory business, serves clients well below the traditional private wealth tier through to family office level
Watch out for- Percentage fees in the traditional range, an acquisitive firm, so your local office may have joined recently and culture varies, breadth can be more than a simple household needs, minimums and schedules are quoted per relationship
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Mercer Advisors packages the family office idea, one team coordinating money, tax and estate, for households below the traditional family office fortune. Like Creative Planning, it has grown partly by acquisition into a national footprint, and like Creative it charges in the conventional percentage manner.
Choose between the integrated firms on the team and the fee schedule, not the brochure. Both will manage a portfolio competently; the value sits in whether their tax and estate benches match your actual complications. A household with a plain salary, a 401(k) and a house should price Vanguard and Facet first.
What we like- A large national RIA built around integrated family office services: planning, investments, tax and estate together, fiduciary standard across the firm, serves mass affluent through wealthy households with one model, decades in business, founded as a planning led firm
Watch out for- Percentage based pricing, in house services are priced for households that use several of them, an acquisition grown footprint means office level variation, overkill for a single retirement account and a simple question
How we chose
We listed national scale firms whose core business is registered investment advice, so the fiduciary standard applies to the relationship, across the market's real pricing models: low cost fund firm advice, platform advice, flat fee planning, traditional percentage management and integrated family office service. We checked each firm's published fees and structure in October 2026 and described ranges rather than promising a quote. Well known advice brands that primarily sell insurance or brokerage were left out, despite their advertising, because that is the distinction this keyword turns on. We did not interview as mystery clients; the checks in the buying guide are the ones to run yourself, free, before any meeting.
How to hire a fiduciary adviser without overpaying
Verify before you visit. Search the firm and the individual on the SEC's adviser disclosure site and BrokerCheck. Form ADV Part 2, which every RIA must give you, lists fees, conflicts, disciplinary history and exactly which services are fiduciary. A firm that makes this document hard to get has graded itself.
Ask the three questions that cut through marketing. Are you a fiduciary for everything you will do for me? How are you paid, in total, including fund fees and any third party payments? What would my portfolio hold in year one, and what would it cost in a down year when the balance, and a percentage fee, both fall? Write the answers down; a fiduciary will not mind.
Price the alternative honestly. The comparison is never adviser versus nothing; it is adviser versus a target date fund or a three fund index portfolio you rebalance yearly. Advice earns its fee at the hard points: retirement timing, tax location, a business sale, an inheritance, a panic in a crash. If your life has none of those this decade, the cheap end of this list exists for you.
Revisit the relationship yearly. Fees deducted quietly feel painless and compound like returns in reverse. One percent a year on a retirement portfolio is a quarter or more of the growth over a long horizon, so the annual question is what the planning did this year that a spreadsheet and an index fund would not have.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a fiduciary and a regular financial advisor?
Advisor is a job title anyone in the industry can use. Fiduciary is a legal duty. Registered investment advisers owe it to clients at all times: loyalty, full disclosure of conflicts, and the client's interest first. Brokers follow Regulation Best Interest, which requires acting in the client's best interest when making a recommendation but does not impose the same ongoing duty. Ask which standard covers your whole relationship, not just one account.
Is fee only better than fee based?
Fee only removes a real conflict: the adviser is paid only by you, so no product pays them to be recommended. Fee based allows commissions alongside fees, which does not make an adviser dishonest but does mean you must ask, product by product, whether a commission sits inside. Many clients reasonably prefer the cleaner structure; at minimum, know which one you hired.
How much does a fiduciary adviser cost?
Three models dominate. Percentage of assets runs from about 0.30 percent at Vanguard's advice service to around 1 percent or more at traditional firms, tiered down as assets grow. Flat fee planning charges a set annual amount, as Facet does. Hourly and one off plans exist at smaller firms. Add the underlying fund costs to any of them for the true total.
What is Form ADV and why does it matter?
It is the disclosure document every registered adviser files and must offer you. Part 2, the brochure, states fees, services, conflicts of interest, investment approach and any disciplinary events, in plain English by design. It is the single most useful free document in this category, and the SEC site lets you read any firm's before the first phone call.
Do I need an adviser at all?
Not necessarily. A household with one employer plan, no taxable investments and simple goals can run a target date fund for decades and lose little. Advice pays when decisions multiply: retiring, selling a business, handling equity pay, drawing down across account types, or when your own behaviour in a crash is the risk. Buy advice for the decisions, not the feeling of being advised.
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Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has 5+ years in B2B and SaaS SEO. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.
Edelman Financial Engines
Fisher Investments
Facet
Creative Planning
Mercer Advisors