For me, client pays.  On the RIA side, there is additional scrutiny if the advisor eats it, as it constitutes a "wrap program".  I cut the clients a little break on the fee, so in most ways, I am eating it.  But technically, it is not a wrap. 

To be on the safe side, I would tell you to plan to eat the ticket charges on clients you definitely want to keep.  For new clients, if you tell them its (for example) 1% plus $10 a trade, no big deal to most people.  Hard to go from not paying it to paying it--or at least I wouldn't take the chance with existing relationships.  Then you re-evaluate after a year or two and talk to a client individually if trading is eating up your margin.

But generally I think people would rather see 1.2% (for example) "all in" even if that ends up costing more...think about airline baggage fees:  just a feeling of nickel and dimed even when total costs are about the same.

Good example Cowboy with the airlines. 

My clients have not said anything about ticket charges, $4.50 ticket charges don't seem to matter. Most trades are free.

They also know my over all  fee is far less then a wire house by as much .5% to 1%.

My indy bd has a program for managed accounts. They charge 20 bps admin, at zero payout, then say I charge 80 bps on top of that. 80 bps is about what I want to make doing transactional, the way I've always done biz. For you folks that have gone from transactional, to fee based, can I ask what I'm missing?

I don't like starting at virtually zero each month, especially in tough markets like the one we are in, but going from full transaction to fee based looks like a ton of labor, some arm twisting, for roughly the same result?