NASD Newbie has made some good points.  As I've previously stated, I've been a proponent of fee-based arrangements (where appropriate) from day 1.  I took a lot of clients out of the market in late 99/early 2000 as I felt the market was WAY overvalued and it was prudent to take profits (btw I thought we would have a sudden crash, not a 3 year train wreck).  And back then mmkt's were paying over 6% and you could get around 5% muni's. Many clients were very grateful; still after a year or so, many said they didn't feel they should be paying a fee to be in mostly cash or s/t bonds.  Regardless of how I tried to convince them that I was doing what I thought was in their best interest and deserved to be paid for it, it pretty much fell on deaf ears.  It significantly impacted my production (for the negative).

Clients will resent seeing fees in down markets.  While you can still manage to salvage many of them, some will leave.  In recent years, I have placed a lot of $ in C shares, where we get paid decently and no fee is seen by the client.  And yes, I disclose to them the annual fees associated with the investment. And ironically, these are my best performing accounts (vs outside managers, mf wrap accounts, etc).

This business is, has been, and will continue to be an asset-gathering business.  That is what you can control.  Regardless of how good your performance is, the number of reviews/meetings you have with the client, etc you will still have some attrition. Keep bringing it in.