For years, clients have paid their financial professionals via commissions for the financial services
they provide. However during the last decade, the management of investment services businesses
and financial professionals in many financial institutions began to understand the opportunity in the advisory or fee-based business. During this time, registered investment advisory firms were the fastest growing segment of the financial services industry.

Despite this growth, some banks and credit unions have been significantly more successful at transitioning to advisory business than others, and their experience is instructive. This paper examines the reason a financial planner would transition their business to fee-based, some of the barriers moving from commission to fee-based, the optimal product mix for a successful advisory business and much more.