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Updated September 28, 2026. Quick answer: Arete Wealth Advisors discloses a tiered schedule starting at 3.00% in its Form ADV Part 2A (January 30, 2026). Converted to dollars, that runs $13,750 a year on a $500,000 account; see the full table below for $250,000, $1 million and $2 million.
The published numbers
From the Form ADV Part 2A (January 30, 2026): “Arete’s standard fee schedule for both individual and non individual Clients is the following: ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT MAXIMUM ANNUAL FEE $0* $249,000 3.00% $250,000 $749,999 2.50% $750,000 $1,499,999 2.00% $1,500,000 $4,999,999 1.75% $5,000,000 and over 1.50%”
Note: CRD 145488 was confirmed ACTIVE and SEC registered through a live SEC IAPD lookup on September 28, 2026. The registrant is Arete Wealth Advisors, LLC of Chicago, Illinois, the advisory affiliate of the broker-dealer Arete Wealth Management, and its advisers also operate under many branded names. The firm reports about $2.75 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2025. The priced schedule is the standard assets under management schedule, which the brochure says applies to individual and non-individual clients, and the firm generally requires a $50,000 initial account minimum that may be waived.
- $0-$249,000: 3.00%
- $250,000-$749,999: 2.50%
- $750,000-$1,499,999: 2.00%
- $1,500,000-$4,999,999: 1.75%
- $5,000,000 and above: 1.50%
The schedule is labeled a maximum annual fee on assets under management, and the brochure says fees are negotiable from client to client and that the final fee schedule is attached to the client agreement. Clients are generally charged per-transaction ticket charges that flow through to the custodian, plus custodial fees, transfer taxes, wire fees and the internal expenses of mutual funds and ETFs, none of which are in the figures. Clients placed with a third-party money manager pay that manager’s own advisory fee under a separate agreement, in addition to the other charges the brochure lists. Three rules-based asset allocation models carry a separate execution fee of 0.15% a year with a $100 annual minimum per account. The wrap program brochure lists a Program Fee of up to 3.0% that covers advice, execution and custody, which is a different arrangement from the schedule priced here.
What you would pay
| Account balance | Annual fee (dollars) | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|
| $250,000 | $7,500 | 3.00% |
| $500,000 | $13,750 | 2.75% |
| $1,000,000 | $25,000 | 2.50% |
| $2,000,000 | $43,750 | 2.19% |
The brochure does not say whether the rates apply to the whole balance or stack by band, so the marginal reading is used here: each rate applies only to the dollars inside its band. The printed first band ends at $249,000 and the second begins at $250,000, and the band break is treated as $250,000. Under the whole-balance reading each figure would be lower at every balance above $250,000. The brochure discloses no minimum annual dollar fee, so no floor applies. The figures are maximums under a negotiable schedule, not typical charges.
How this compares
Our benchmark of published adviser fee schedules puts the weighted median annual cost near $2,000 to $2,500 on $250,000 (the benchmark). At $500,000, Arete Wealth Advisors’s own published rate runs $13,750 a year.
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- Form ADV Part 2A (January 30, 2026): https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=1007061
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Arete Wealth Advisors, LLC (CRD #145488): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/145488
- Arete Wealth Advisors, LLC, SEC Form ADV filing: https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/reports/ADV/145488/PDF/145488.pdf
Methodology. This page was built September 28, 2026, drawing on Arete Wealth Advisors’s own SEC-filed disclosure and, where cited, its published fee schedule, with sources linked above; any figure we could not independently confirm before publication is named as an honest gap rather than presented as verified. Nothing here is personalized financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. See our Editorial Policy, Corrections, Affiliate Disclosure, and Disclaimer.
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