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Updated September 28, 2026. Quick answer: Wintrust Wealth Management is registered with the SEC as an investment adviser (CRD #110757, confirmed ACTIVE this session via SEC IAPD). Per its own current fee brochure, a $500,000 account would run $5,000 a year under its published fee schedule. Already a client and thinking about leaving? Budget $125 at LPL Financial. This review covers what its own fee brochure and current SEC registration confirm today; this firm also has a fiduciary-status page and minimum-investment page on this site.
Wintrust Wealth Management at a glance
| Fact | What Wintrust Wealth Management’s own pages say |
|---|---|
| Legal entity | Great Lakes Advisors, LLC |
| Registration | Great Lakes Advisors, LLC is registered with the SEC as an investment adviser (CRD #110757, confirmed ACTIVE this session via SEC IAPD). |
| Fee on a $500,000 account | $5,000 a year, per its own current brochure |
| Minimum to open an account | See the minimum-investment page for Wintrust Wealth Management |
| Cost to leave (exit fee) | $125 at LPL Financial |
What Wintrust Wealth Management’s own fee schedule charges
CRD 110757 is confirmed ACTIVE and SEC registered via a live IAPD lookup performed this session. Great Lakes Advisors’ own Form ADV Part 2A brochure states $15,870,645,674 in discretionary and $287,384,697 in non-discretionary regulatory assets under management as of December 31, 2025, a combined total near $16.16 billion. The priced schedule is the firm’s own Private Wealth Direct program for individual and high net worth clients, marketed under the Wintrust Wealth Management brand, distinct from Great Lakes Advisors’ much larger Institutional Services fee schedules described in the same Item 5.
“Maximum Allowable Fee as a Percent of Market Value Investment Strategy Account Size Annual Fee Rate Minimum Equity, Balanced, and Fixed Income $1 Million $1 to $5 Million $5 to $10 Million $10 to $25 Million $25 Million + 1.00% 0.75% 0.50% 0.35% 0.25% $1 Million”
Great Lakes Advisors prices its Private Wealth Direct accounts on a stepped schedule that starts at 1.00% on the first million dollars and steps down through 0.75%, 0.50%, 0.35%, and 0.25% as the balance rises past each breakpoint; the schedule carries a stated one million dollar minimum account size rather than a minimum dollar fee, so nothing floors the figures below. Each balance shown is priced by applying the marginal rate to the portion of assets falling in each bracket.
| Account balance | Annual fee |
|---|---|
| $250,000 | $2,500 |
| $500,000 | $5,000 |
| $1,000,000 | $10,000 |
| $2,000,000 | $17,500 |
See the full breakdown, including how the figure is calculated, on Wintrust Wealth Management’s own fee page.
Registration
Great Lakes Advisors, LLC is registered with the SEC as an investment adviser (CRD #110757, confirmed ACTIVE this session via SEC IAPD).
This is a registration confirmation only, not a fiduciary-standard verdict (a registered investment adviser can still be a dual registrant with a broker-dealer, which changes which standard applies in each capacity). For the fiduciary-standard question itself, see the fiduciary-status page for Wintrust Wealth Management.
What it costs to leave
Great Lakes Advisors, LLC’s Form ADV Part 2A states “Accounts initiated or terminated during a billing period are charged a prorated fee.” Great Lakes Advisors, LLC names exactly one custodian in its brochure: LPL Financial LLC. LPL Financial LLC’s own published fee schedule states “Outgoing Account Transfer, for processing full account transfer of all assets and positions to another financial institution (excludes retirement accounts): $125, Per account.”
The full steps are on our how to leave Wintrust Wealth Management page; the general mechanics of switching financial advisors and a dated termination letter apply regardless of firm.
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- Form ADV Part 2A (September 3, 2026): https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=1057263
- SEC IAPD firm summary (CRD #110757, checked September 28, 2026): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/110757
Methodology. This page was built September 28, 2026, drawing directly on Wintrust Wealth Management’s own current fee brochure, cited in Sources below, and a fresh SEC IAPD registration check run the same day. As of September 28, 2026, this site publishes a fiduciary-status page and a minimum-investment page for Wintrust Wealth Management; where the exit-fee facts above are cited, they were independently verified against the same primary source. Any fact we could not independently confirm 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 Wintrust Wealth Management’s own Form ADV Part 2A and Form CRS. We have not used Wintrust Wealth Management as a client. Wintrust Wealth Management did not pay for, review, or influence this content. See our Editorial Policy, Corrections, Affiliate Disclosure, and Disclaimer.
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