€150 Isn’t the Price of Advice. It’s the Price of Your Attention.

€150 sounds like a reasonable fee for financial advice. It feels responsible. You are not being reckless with free advice. You are paying a professional. But it is not nearly enough for a financial adviser to run a business. Think about it: the office, the qualifications, the compliance, the insurance, the staff, the IT. Nobody is building a practice on €150 meetings. So where does the money come from? Commissions. On the products they recommend after that first meeting. The insurance plans. The pension products. The savings plans. The mortgages.

And this is the clever part. That €150 fee does two things for them. First, it makes you feel like you have paid for advice. You walked in, you handed over money, so what you are getting must be independent. It must be in your best interest. Second, it means you are ready to take action. You have already committed. You showed up. You paid. So when they slide a product across the table, you are far more likely to sign. The €150 is not the price of advice. It is the price of your attention.

I was on a call recently with someone who had met a qualified adviser through his employer, a free consultation, a nice perk from a large Irish bank. He wanted to invest for the long term and build wealth over 20-plus years. He was sold a medium-risk savings plan at €500 a month, with high fees and inflation eating the returns. If he had spoken to someone who was not paid to sell that product, the advice would have been different: put that €500 into your corporate pension through AVCs instead. The result? He would have got around €2,400 back in tax relief every year, and the money would grow tax free until retirement. Instead he got a savings plan that benefits the bank more than it benefits him. That is the cost of “free” advice. Not the fee you pay upfront. The money you lose because the person across the table has a product to sell.

Here is what I would do this week. If you are getting financial advice right now, ask one question: “How do you get paid?” If the answer involves commissions on products, that is not advice. That is sales. And there is nothing wrong with sales, but you should know the difference. You do not go to a software vendor for impartial advice on which software to buy. If you have been offered a “free” financial review through your employer, be careful. The person on the other side of that table has a number to hit, and it is not your number. And if you have dealt with advisers in the past, there is a good chance you are still paying them. Just search “trail commission financial adviser”.

I started this business because I believe people deserve better than being served up to product sellers. If you want to talk to someone who does not earn a cent from what you invest in, here is a short video on what I actually do: https://go.bamillionaire.com/watch-now, or book a call: https://go.bamillionaire.com/apply

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