Guides › Financial Advisor Fees
Updated September 28, 2026. Quick answer: Mostly yes, with one carve-out. Wintrust Wealth Management is registered with the SEC only as an investment adviser, so on your advisory account it owes you a fiduciary duty under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Its own Form CRS states: “As your investment adviser, we are a fiduciary and therefore have to act in your best interest and not put our interest ahead of yours.” Wintrust Wealth Management’s own Form CRS describes no broker-dealer capacity for its financial professionals. They may be paid a salary and bonus or a share of the advisory fees their accounts generate, which the Form CRS names as an incentive to recommend more assets to advisory programs.
How it’s registered
From Form CRS, Customer Relationship Summary, Wintrust Wealth Management (January 25, 2025): “Great Lakes Advisors, LLC (“GLA,” “our firm”, “we” or “us”) is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) as an investment adviser.”
The standard of conduct, in its own words
“As your investment adviser, we are a fiduciary and therefore have to act in your best interest and not put our interest ahead of yours.”
On commissions: “Your Financial Professional may receive a salary and bonus, or they may receive a portion of the advisory fees that your account(s) generate. For the latter, the portion they receive is based upon their overall monthly production level, and thus it increases as the fees they generate rise. Financial Professionals therefore have an incentive to recommend more assets to advisory programs to generate more fees.”
Fiduciary status by capacity
| Capacity | Registration | Standard you’re owed | Can earn commissions | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| As your investment adviser (most clients) | SEC-registered investment adviser | Fiduciary duty (Investment Advisers Act of 1940) | No (asset-based advisory fee: $5,000 a year, 1.00% on a $500,000 account) | Form CRS, Customer Relationship Summary, Wintrust Wealth Management, January 25, 2025 |
| Pay tied to advisory fees generated (limited) | A share of the advisory fees their accounts generate (no broker-dealer capacity described) | A disclosed conflict of interest, not a separate broker-dealer standard | No transaction commissions named | Form CRS, Customer Relationship Summary, Wintrust Wealth Management, January 25, 2025 |
What this means for what you pay
Fiduciary status is one input, not the whole picture. Wintrust Wealth Management discloses a published fee that runs $5,000 a year on a $500,000 account, per its own current Form ADV Part 2A (September 3, 2026), cited in Sources below. A dedicated fee page for Wintrust Wealth Management has not been published on this site yet.
If the answer above changes your mind about staying, read the general mechanics of switching financial advisors, or use a dated termination letter once you decide. A dedicated how-to-leave page for Wintrust Wealth Management has not been published on this site yet.
Other fiduciary-status pages
Read this one, this one too, and one more.
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Source: WiserAdvisor’s service descriptionSources
- Form CRS, Customer Relationship Summary, Wintrust Wealth Management (January 25, 2025): https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/crs/crs_110757.pdf
- Form ADV Part 2A (September 3, 2026), the primary source for the fee figure above: https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=1057263
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Wintrust Wealth Management (CRD #110757): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/110757
- Wintrust Wealth Management, SEC Form ADV filing: https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/reports/ADV/110757/PDF/110757.pdf
Methodology. This page was built September 28, 2026, quoting directly from Wintrust Wealth Management’s own current Form CRS, with the source linked above; 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 the firm’s own Form CRS. See our Editorial Policy, Corrections, Affiliate Disclosure, and Disclaimer.