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Updated September 28, 2026. Quick answer: First Foundation Advisors discloses a tiered schedule starting at 1.00% in its Form ADV Part 2A (July 15, 2026). Converted to dollars, that runs $5,000 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 (July 15, 2026): “Equity and Balanced Accounts Program On the First $3,000,000 1.00% Annual Fee On the Next $2,000,000 0.75% Amount over $5,000,000 0.50%”
Note: CRD 106075 was confirmed ACTIVE and SEC registered through a live SEC IAPD lookup on September 28, 2026. The registrant is First Foundation Advisors of Irvine, California, which the SEC record also lists under the names FirstSun Advisors and Sunflower Wealth Advisors. The firm reports about $5.06 billion in regulatory assets under management. The priced schedule is the annual advisory fee for individual clients, whom the brochure lists among its clients along with families, trusts and institutions, and the brochure states a generally required minimum asset base of $500,000.
- $0-$3,000,000: 1.00%
- $3,000,000-$5,000,000: 0.75%
- $5,000,000 and above: 0.50%
The priced schedule is the firm’s Equity and Balanced Accounts Program fee. The brochure lists separate, lower schedules for its Fixed Income and Fixed Income Short Duration programs, and notes that the firm earns a higher fee on equity and balanced strategies, which it flags as a conflict of interest. Brokerage commissions, transaction fees and custodian charges, and the internal fees and expenses of mutual funds, ETFs and money market funds, are in addition to the advisory fee. The brochure says the fee is negotiable and that a flat annual fee may be agreed in limited circumstances.
What you would pay
| Account balance | Annual fee (dollars) | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|
| $250,000 | $2,500 | 1.00% |
| $500,000 | $5,000 | 1.00% |
| $1,000,000 | $10,000 | 1.00% |
| $2,000,000 | $20,000 | 1.00% |
The brochure states the fee as a percentage of the assets under management “on the first” and “on the next” bands, so each balance is priced marginally, with each band’s rate applied only to the dollars inside it. Every balance shown here falls inside the first $3,000,000 band and is priced at 1.00%. The brochure discloses no minimum annual dollar fee, so no floor applies. The schedule is a starting point that the brochure says is negotiable, not a guaranteed charge.
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, First Foundation Advisors’s own published rate runs $5,000 a year.
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- Form ADV Part 2A (July 15, 2026): https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=1051893
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, First Foundation Advisors (CRD #106075): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/106075
- First Foundation Advisors, SEC Form ADV filing: https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/reports/ADV/106075/PDF/106075.pdf
Methodology. This page was built September 28, 2026, drawing on First Foundation 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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