What Is Advice-Only™? A Structural Fiduciary Definition

Advice-Only™ is a fiduciary planning structure defined by what the advisor is structurally prohibited from doing—not by how the advisor charges. It separates advice from asset management, product sales, commissions, referral incentives, and implementation economics so recommendations stand on their own. The planning engagement is economically complete at the moment advice is delivered, and the advisor remains neutral regardless of what the client buys, where assets are held, or whether implementation occurs.

Advice-Only™ does not mean “advice for do-it-yourself investors.” It means advice that is structurally protected from implementation bias, regardless of who ultimately executes the plan.

This protection is governed by two safeguards: the Fee Structure Firewall™ (which prohibits compensation pathways tied to products, asset management, or referrals) and the Engagement Completion Boundary (which defines when the advice engagement ends so implementation occurs outside the planning economics).

What Advice-Only™ Means as a Structural Fiduciary Model

Advice-Only™ is often mistaken for a pricing label (hourly, flat fee, subscription). Those are fee mechanics. Advice-Only™ is defined by the engagement’s incentive architecture—not by the payment model. Advice-Only™ governs engagement boundaries, economic prohibitions, and post-advice constraints designed to neutralize incentive pathways entirely.

Under a true Advice-Only™ engagement, advice must remain objective even when:

Implementation happens elsewhere
Assets remain where they are
No products are purchased
No referral obligations influence the recommendation

What Advice-Only™ Is Not

Many advisory models remove one conflict (such as commissions) while leaving others intact (such as asset retention, platform dependency, or referral economics). Advice-Only™ addresses conflicts at the system level, not the pricing level.

Advice-Only™ is not:

Fee-only — because fee-only describes a compensation source. It does not by itself prohibit asset management, asset-retention incentives, or either implementation economics or referral outcomes.
Flat-fee — because flat-fee pricing can exist inside conflicted advisory structures and does not, by itself, remove incentive pathways.
Hourly — because hourly billing links compensation to time spent rather than to decisiveness, completeness, or economic neutrality of advice.
Advice without management — because implementation choice is not the defining feature. Structural separation from incentives is mandatory; self-implementation is optional. Implementation choice is an outcome, not the governing principle.

Definition Check: What Qualifies as Advice-Only™

This checklist exists solely to clarify the definition. Full application and enforcement of these principles is governed by the Advice-Only™ Standards of Practice.

A practical way to evaluate whether a model is truly Advice-Only™ is to ask:

Could the advisor profit more if the client moved assets, bought a product, or implemented a specific recommendation?
Are referral incentives (cash or non-cash) absent or structurally constrained?
Is the engagement economically complete even if implementation never occurs?

If the answer is “yes” to the first question—or “no” to the second and third—then the engagement may be advice-based, but it is not structurally Advice-Only™.

Why the Definition Matters

When “advice-only” is treated as a generic pricing label, it can be diluted. When treated as a structure, it becomes testable through the Capability Lens: evaluating what a system is naturally good at producing based on its design.

Advice-Only™ exists to remove avoidable doubt—by designing objectivity into the engagement itself.

This page defines the term. The methodology, standards, and philosophical rationale are documented separately.

Methodology Origin

Advice-Only™ is a framework developed by Quincy Hall, CFP®. It was first introduced in 2019 and later formalized in Advice Only: A Retirement Planning Methodology & Handbook. The purpose of the definition is structural: to separate financial advice from implementation incentives so recommendations remain objective and testable.