Thread by @MichaelKitces

Wow, HUGE news. Schwab's Intelligent Advisory is launching a monthly subscription financial planning service. $30/month for access to Schwab CFP.

The growth of financial planning is about to accelerate, quickly! We're seeing the same uptick in broker-dealers at @AdvicePay, too!

Notably, new Schwab solution is still under Schwab Intelligent Advisory platform umbrella, and is dubbed Schwab Intelligent Portfolios Premium. It does offer a "comprehensive financial plan", and unlimited access to a CFP professional, but ostensibly is still investment-centric.

Nonetheless, Schwab's adoption in a direct-to-consumer channel mirrors what we're seeing at @XYPlanning (now at 875 advisors approaching 5-yr mark). And @AdvicePay has added 17,000 advisors under Enterprise contract in just the past MONTH to facilitate monthly subscription fees.

From the individual advisor's perspective, though, this further emphasizes why niches and specialization will be crucial, even/including in new fee-for-service models. Solo advisors cannot compete on price/scale w/ Schwab. MUST compete on differentiated value at higher fee level.

Still, having written "Will Monthly Retainers Be The Next Big Business Model In Financial Planning" just over 5 years ago - kitces.com/blog/will-mont… - it's amazing to see how quickly the financial advisor fee model is suddenly changing in just a few months now. Wow.

Perhaps time for @R_Alan_Moore and I to update our "The Monthly Retainer In Financial Planning" book!? :) amzn.to/2uGnlwF

At a minimum, though, hope this helps to advance what's been a muddled conversation w/ regulators who still don't understand fee-for-service financial advice models, and why they're MORE consumer-protected than traditional AUM (and commission) models. kitces.com/blog/regulatio…

In the meantime, welcome Schwab to the world of fee-for-service financial planning! :) pressroom.aboutschwab.com/press-release/…