Reasonable ria fee schedule for fixed income accounts

May 21, 2012 5:56 pm

Hi guys,

I've worked in the last two years under the hybrid model. But my b/d getting out of the business (brokersxpress) has caused me to reevaluate going RIA only.

One of last few snags is deciding how to charge for customers doing few changes: setting up a bond ladder in year 1 and pretty much leaving it unchanged until each rung matures, then buying new bond to replace that one. On brokerage side, I used to charge 1.25% for that as a one time fee when buying or selling the bond.

I charge my managed accounts 0.75% - 1.5% based on sliding scale. I thought about charging 35 bps for bond only accounts, cd ladders etc. Too high? Too low?