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Blog The Devil’s in The Details

March 01, 2023

You may have seen the acronym “CRM2” floating around over the last few years. “Client Relationship Model 2” was meant to improve the reporting of investment performance and disclosure of investment account fees, to the investor.

Unfortunately, the fees being headlined are not always the total fees within the account. For the average client who isn’t pouring through their statement, they are trusting the ‘disclosure’ as being complete even though they only have half of the information.

Recently, we’ve seen an investment statement with fee information in big bold letters on the front page stating:

ADVISORY FEE: 0.76%

That sounds like a great deal! What the statement did not make apparent is that the underlying funds each have a separate management fee. These details were buried in the fine print.

With the addition of the management fee, the client’s total fee was actually: 1.6%. Unfortunately, the CRM2 model has not provided the clarity that was intended.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

Simply ask your advisor for a complete breakdown of your fees. Have the advisor disclose what the investment firm charges for the management of the funds and what the advisory firm charges to manage the account.

Then decide if you are getting what you’re paying for.

Reach out to us if you have a client situation you’d like to discuss.


I can go to sleep at night without worry.

Sheila White.