For more than a century, the U.S. wealth management industry has clung to a compensation model — commissions and dealer markups — that is fundamentally misaligned with client interests. In the world of real assets, where investors already face higher risk, greater opacity and reduced liquidity, this model doesn’t merely fall short. It actively works against the investor’s ability to achieve market returns. As more advisers migrate toward fee-based, fiduciary-standard business models, it’s time to confront the obvious: Charging commissions and dealer markups instead of asset-based advisory fees rewards distribution rather than stewardship, and cost loads investments precisely where clients can least afford it.
Allow me to propose a simple test. Does the adviser prosper only when the client prospers? Under an asset-based advisory fee model, incentives are elegantly symmetrical: if client portfolios rise, adviser income rises, if client portfolios fall, advisers feel t
