Guides › Financial Advisor Fees
Updated September 23, 2026. Quick answer: Aspiriant is a registered investment adviser. Per its own current fee brochure, a $500,000 account would run $14,000 a year under its published fee schedule; the minimum to open an account is no published minimum account size, but a $14,000-a-year minimum fee for Standard Fees for High Net Worth Clients. Already a client and thinking about leaving? Budget $0 from Aspiriant itself; about $50.00 if you are custodied at Schwab. Is it a fiduciary? Yes, as a registered investment adviser, on the advisory services this page covers.
Aspiriant at a glance
| Fact | What Aspiriant’s own pages say |
|---|---|
| Legal entity | Aspiriant, LLC |
| Registration | Aspiriant, LLC is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) as an investment adviser. |
| Fee on a $500,000 account | $14,000 a year, per its own current brochure |
| Minimum to open an account | No published minimum account size, but a $14,000-a-year minimum fee for Standard Fees for High Net Worth Clients |
| Cost to leave (exit fee) | $0 from Aspiriant itself; about $50.00 if you are custodied at Schwab |
What Aspiriant’s own fee schedule charges
“Our standard fee schedule for investment management services provided to high net worth individuals, families and their entities, and retirement plans, ranges from 0.85% to 0.2% of the value of your portfolio, per annum, with a minimum annual fee of $14,000.”
Aspiriant discloses a range (0.85% down to 0.2%) rather than a published breakpoint table, so the exact percentage that applies at any given balance is individually negotiated and not disclosed in the brochure – extrapolating undisclosed breakpoints would violate the no-invented-numbers rule. To stay defensible, dollar_at is computed using the disclosed ceiling (maximum) rate of 0.85% – the worst case a client at this balance could be charged – floored at the disclosed $14,000 minimum annual fee: max(balance x 0.0085, 14000). At $250k/$500k/$1M, 0.85% of the balance ($2,125/$4,250/$8,500) is below the $14,000 floor, so the floor applies and the true fee could be lower than $14,000 only if the firm reduces its stated minimum at its own discretion. At $2M, 0.85% x $2,000,000 = $17,000, which exceeds the floor; the true fee could be as low as roughly 0.2% ($4,000) if the client qualifies for the bottom of the disclosed range, but 0.85% is the only rate Aspiriant discloses as a bound, so $17,000 is reported as the defensible ceiling figure.
| Account balance | Annual fee |
|---|---|
| $250,000 | $14,000 |
| $500,000 | $14,000 |
| $1,000,000 | $14,000 |
| $2,000,000 | $17,000 |
See the full breakdown, including how the figure is calculated, on Aspiriant’s own fee page.
Is Aspiriant a fiduciary?
Aspiriant, LLC is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) as an investment adviser.
“We are fiduciaries when we provide investment advice to you. We are a fee-only advisor, and therefore only make money from the fees you pay us.”
We are fiduciaries when we provide investment advice to you. We are a fee-only advisor, and therefore only make money from the fees you pay us.
Full detail, including the exact registration type and source: Aspiriant’s fiduciary status, explained.
The minimum to open an account
“We do not have an absolute minimum for investment portfolios or a minimum account size. We typically provide investment management services to clients with investment portfolios of $1,500,000 or more. We do sometimes provide investment management and wealth planning services to individuals with smaller investment portfolios.”
No published minimum account size, but a $14,000-a-year minimum fee for Standard Fees for High Net Worth Clients. See the full minimum-investment breakdown, including what that minimum would cost per year, on Aspiriant’s minimum investment page.
What it costs to leave
Aspiriant itself charges nothing extra to end the engagement and promptly refunds any prepaid, unearned fee. It does not custody assets itself; if you are custodied at Charles Schwab, budget $50.00 per account for a full outgoing transfer, per Schwab’s own pricing guide. Fidelity and Pershing publish no comparable figure.
Full mechanics, sources, and the ACATS transfer process: how to leave Aspiriant.
What we would compare it against
Before you decide, run the numbers against another firm using the financial advisor fee comparison, or price the dollar cost of any percentage fee over time with the Financial Advisor Fee Calculator and the Fee Drag Calculator.
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Source: WiserAdvisor’s service descriptionSources
- Aspiriant, LLC Form ADV Part 2A (August 21, 2026): https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=1055630
- Aspiriant, LLC Client Relationship Summary (August 21, 2026): https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/crs/crs_146720.pdf
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Aspiriant, LLC (CRD #146720): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/146720
- Aspiriant, LLC, SEC Form ADV filing: https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/reports/ADV/146720/PDF/146720.pdf
Methodology. This page was built September 23, 2026, drawing directly on Aspiriant’s own current fee brochure and Form CRS, both linked above, plus this site’s own already-published fiduciary, minimum-investment, and (where one exists) how-to-leave pages for the same firm, each independently sourced when it was built. Any distinction we could not independently confirm this session is named as an honest gap rather than presented as verified. Nothing here is personalized financial, tax, legal, or investment advice, and it is not a substitute for reading Aspiriant’s own Form ADV Part 2A and Form CRS. We have not used Aspiriant as a client. Aspiriant did not pay for, review, or influence this content. See our Editorial Policy, Corrections, Affiliate Disclosure, and Disclaimer.
Comparing firms? See all 182 advisor firm reviews in one table, with each firm’s type and its fee on a $500,000 account.