Daily Money Manager Fees: What Is Published, and the Two Caps That Bind

Updated August 25, 2026. Quick answer: the association that certifies this occupation publishes a billing structure and no rate, and no government body publishes one either. What is published is a pair of federal ceilings that bind only when the person managing the money is a Social Security representative payee ($57 a month or 10% of the benefit, whichever is lower, in 2026) or a VA fiduciary (4% of the monthly benefit). An individual serving as your representative payee may not charge you at all. Outside those roles the fee is whatever your engagement letter says.

What the certifying body actually publishes

The American Association of Daily Money Managers is the body that certifies this occupation, so it is the first place to look for a rate. It publishes the shape of the bill and declines to publish the amount:

“Most DMMs charge for their services on an hourly basis – rates varying with geographic areas and expertise. In addition to the hourly rates, most DMMs charge for their travel time and for out-of-pocket expenses such as postage costs incurred for their clients and or other purchases made on the client’s behalf. Some DMMs request payment at the time of service and others bill on a monthly or bi-weekly basis. You may also find some DMMs are willing to set a flat rate for service each month.”

— AADMM, Frequently Asked Questions

That is the whole of it. There is no figure on the association’s public FAQ, none on its page for people about to hire one, and no federal occupational wage series covers daily money management as an occupation. So the honest answer to what does it cost is that the market sets it locally and you have to ask — which the association also tells you to do, in these words:

“What are the costs of your services and how do you bill? (What are your fees? Do you charge hourly, monthly or by the project? Do you charge for travel?)”

— AADMM, Working With a DMM

What that means for the quote you get. Three items in the association’s own description are the ones people forget to ask about: travel time, out-of-pocket costs advanced on your behalf, and whether the arrangement is hourly or a flat monthly figure. Get all three settled before the first visit.

“Some DMMs offer a free initial consultation — ask in advance for their policy on first meeting charges. Rates may vary by geographic area, types of services provided and expertise of the daily money manager.”

— AADMM, Working With a DMM

Where a published cap does exist, and when it binds

Two federal programmes cap what may be deducted from a benefit for managing it. They are narrow: each binds a specific appointed role, not the occupation. The same person can be your daily money manager on Monday under a private contract with no cap, and your representative payee on Tuesday under a cap with a criminal penalty behind it. What changes is the appointment, not the work.

If they are your Social Security representative payee

The rule starts in the statute, and it is a ceiling with two limbs:

“a qualified organization may collect from an individual a monthly fee for expenses (including overhead) incurred by such organization in providing services performed as such individual’s representative payee pursuant to this subsection if such fee does not exceed the lesser of-”

— 42 U.S.C. § 405(j)(4)(A)(i)

The two limbs are “10 percent of the monthly benefit involved” and $25.00 per month ($50.00 per month in any case in which the individual is described in paragraph (1)(B)). Congress wrote $25 in 1995 and told the Commissioner to raise it with the benefit cost-of-living increase every year since:

“The Commissioner shall adjust annually (after 1995) each dollar amount set forth in subclause (II) under procedures providing for adjustments in the same manner and to the same extent as adjustments are provided for under the procedures used to adjust benefit amounts under section 415(i)(2)(A) of this title , except that any amount so adjusted that is not a multiple of $1.00 shall be rounded to the nearest multiple of $1.00.”

— 42 U.S.C. § 405(j)(4)(A)(i)

The current figures are published once a year in the Federal Register. For 2026:

“The dollar fee limit for services performed as a representative payee will be $57 per month ($106 per month in the case of a beneficiary who is determined to be disabled, has an alcoholism or drug addiction condition, and is incapable of managing benefits) in 2026.”

— 90 FR 49047 (November 3, 2025)

Published in the annual cost-of-living determinations notice

Which limb binds you. $57 is 10% of $570. So if the monthly benefit is above $570, the dollar figure is the ceiling and the percentage is irrelevant; below it, the percentage bites first and the fee is smaller than $57. Most retirement benefits sit above that line, so in practice $57 a month is the number to check the deduction against.

An individual payee may not charge you anything

This is the part that is almost never said plainly. The fee is not available to whoever happens to be serving. The statute grants it to a defined class:

“(B) For purposes of this paragraph, the term “qualified organization” means any State or local government agency whose mission is to carry out income maintenance, social service, or health care-related activities, any State or local government agency with fiduciary responsibilities, or any certified community-based nonprofit social service agency (as defined in paragraph (10)), if such agency, in accordance with any applicable regulations of the Commissioner of Social Security- (i) regularly provides services as the representative payee, pursuant to this subsection or section 1007 or 1383(a)(2) of this title, concurrently to 5 or more individuals, (ii) demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of Social Security that such agency is not otherwise a creditor of any such individual.”

— 42 U.S.C. § 405(j)(4)(B)

And the regulation adds working conditions on top of the definition: the organisation must serve at least five beneficiaries at once, must not be the beneficiary’s creditor, and must have asked for and received permission in writing before it takes a cent.

“A qualified organization must regularly provide representative payee services concurrently to at least five beneficiaries.”

— 20 CFR 404.2040a(b)(1)

“An organization must request in writing and receive an authorization from us before it may collect a fee.”

— 20 CFR 404.2040a(d)(1)

A private individual — a neighbour, a friend, a daily money manager in solo practice — is not a qualified organisation and cannot be authorised to collect this fee. If someone in that position is taking a monthly cut of a benefit for acting as payee, the law does not treat it as an overcharge to be renegotiated. It treats it as misuse of the benefit:

“Any agreement providing for a fee in excess of the amount permitted shall be void and treated as misuse of your benefits by the organization under § 404.2041.”

— 20 CFR 404.2040a(g)(2)

For an organisation that is authorised but charges above the ceiling, the statute goes further than voiding the agreement:

“Any qualified organization which knowingly charges or collects, directly or indirectly, any fee in excess of the maximum fee prescribed under subparagraph (A) or makes any agreement, directly or indirectly, to charge or collect any fee in excess of such maximum fee, shall be fined in accordance with title 18, or imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both.”

— 42 U.S.C. § 405(j)(4)(C)

Six months is the outer limit of the custodial exposure. The point of quoting it here is not the sentence; it is that Congress thought this specific overcharge worth a criminal provision, which tells you how firm the ceiling is.

“Fees for services may not be taken from any funds conserved for the beneficiary by a payee in accordance with § 404.2045.”

— 20 CFR 404.2040a(g)(4)

So the savings a payee has built up for the beneficiary are outside the fee base entirely. The fee comes off the incoming benefit or not at all. How someone becomes a representative payee in the first place is a separate application, and a power of attorney will not do it.

If they are your VA fiduciary

The VA runs its own appointment with its own ceiling. It begins by presuming there should be no fee at all:

“A fee is necessary only if no other person or entity is qualified and willing to serve without a fee and the beneficiary’s interests would be served by the appointment of a qualified paid fiduciary.”

— 38 CFR 13.220(a)

“The Hub Manager will not authorize a fee if the fiduciary: (1) Is a spouse, dependent, or other relative of the beneficiary; or (2) Will receive any other form of payment in connection with providing fiduciary services for the beneficiary.”

— 38 CFR 13.220(a)

Where a fee is authorised, the ceiling is 4% and it is a percentage all the way — there is no dollar cap in this programme:

“reasonable monthly fee means a monetary amount that is authorized by the Hub Manager and does not exceed 4 percent of the monthly VA benefit paid to the fiduciary on behalf of the beneficiary for a month in which the fiduciary is eligible under paragraph (b)(2) of this section to collect a fee”

— 38 CFR 13.220(b)(1)

The 4 percent ceiling is not a monthly entitlement. It is chargeable only for a month in which the fiduciary, under paragraph (b)(2), provided fiduciary services, received a recurring VA benefit payment for the beneficiary, and was authorised by the Hub Manager to receive a fee.

Two exclusions are worth knowing before a back-payment lands, because this is where the arithmetic can go badly wrong:

“Fees may not be computed based upon: (i) Any one-time, retroactive, or lump-sum payment made to the fiduciary on behalf of the beneficiary;”

— 38 CFR 13.220(b)(3)

“The Hub Manager will not authorize a fee for any month for which: (i) VA or a court with jurisdiction determines that the fiduciary misused or misappropriated benefits”

— 38 CFR 13.220(b)(4)(i)

The trap. A retroactive VA award can be many months of benefit arriving in one payment. 4% of that would be a large number, and it is not chargeable: fees are computed month by month on recurring payments, never on the lump sum.

If a court appointed them, the answer is different again

Court-appointed conservators and guardians are paid under state law and approved by the judge, and at least one state forbids its courts from publishing a benchmark rate at all — which is why no honest national hourly figure for that work exists. That is covered on its own page, along with which states license the occupation and how to check a licence.

Outside those roles, the engagement letter is the cap

For an ordinary private arrangement there is no ceiling, no regulator setting one, and no published benchmark to argue from. The protection is the document. The association’s own list of questions to ask is the right starting point, and two of them do more work than the rest:

“Do you have a letter of engagement? Does it include a confidentiality clause?”

— AADMM, Working With a DMM

“What kinds of professional insurance do you have? Do you have Errors & Omissions insurance and, if so, how much?”

— AADMM, Working With a DMM

Errors and omissions cover is not the same as fiduciary cover. If the arrangement will ever include acting as agent under a power of attorney, as trustee or as executor, the association says to ask for the fiduciary extension specifically. And the referral route matters more than the search:

“Always ask for a referral from someone you know and trust, such as a friend, relative, lawyer, or accountant.”

— AADMM, Working With a DMM

One more, which is a red flag rather than a fee question, and belongs in the same conversation because it is the thing a low quote can hide:

“Access to your own records, especially financial records, should not be restricted by the DMM. If you are being kept in the dark about the status of your own affairs, take this as a sign of trouble and contact a lawyer or outside counsel immediately.”

— AADMM, Working With a DMM

Whether they hold the CDMM credential is a separate question from what they charge, and the credential does not set a rate either.

Free and reduced-fee help exists, and it is worth asking first

“Some local governments have reduced fee or free services available for low-income clients.”

— AADMM, Working With a DMM

The association keeps a state-by-state list of agencies that provide daily money management on a pro-bono or reduced-fee basis, and a search by postcode for practitioners. We have not checked the individual programmes on that list, so treat it as a starting point rather than a verified directory. Programmes are usually local, and eligibility and services vary between them.

What we could not verify

Honest gaps. There is no published hourly rate for daily money management anywhere we could find — not from the certifying body, not from a federal wage series, not from any state. Any page quoting a confident national hourly figure is quoting a survey or an estimate, not a published rate, and we are not going to repeat one. We also did not verify: whether any state licenses daily money management as an occupation (distinct from professional fiduciary licensing, which some states do run); the individual programmes on the association’s reduced-fee list; and what a court in any particular state actually approves for a conservator, which is decided case by case. The SSA and VA figures on this page are the 2026 published amounts and change annually.

Related: Daily money managers: what they do and what to check · Professional fiduciary cost and licensing · Social Security does not accept a power of attorney · What a bank charges to be executor or trustee · Who can be my power of attorney with no family · Building a safety net when you are aging alone · The CDMM credential, requirement by requirement.

General information drawn from the federal statute and regulations named above and from the certifying body’s own published pages, not legal, tax or financial advice. The federal caps on this page bind a representative payee or a VA fiduciary in that role only; a private engagement with a daily money manager is a contract and no authority sets its price. Fiduciary licensing is STATE law and differs materially between states. Every figure here is cited to the paragraph or page it comes from and is labelled with the year it applies to; fees change without notice, and nothing here is a substitute for reading your own engagement letter or taking advice on your own facts.