AdvicePay also automates invoicing and recurring payments. “If you are working with 50 to 100 clients on an ongoing basis, you need something that is more efficient and automated,” Moore says. “Our system allows clients to set up subscription payments, whether it’s monthly or quarterly, so that they pay the advisor automatically. They don’t have to write a check or payment invoice; it just happens automatically, which is a lot more convenient for the advisor and the client instead of it being a manual process.”
“If the platform facilitates fee invoices, that’s a plus,” says Haugh, the compliance expert. “Many—but not all—state regulators require that invoices be sent concurrently with the fee debiting, showing the methodology of how the fee is calculated, when the fee is debited, etc. So if you have a platform that can facilitate that, it would be helpful to the advisor.”
“The pain for me is that I just don’t like billing my clients,” says Joe Matelich, a financial advisor at Physician Advising LLC in Grand Junction, Colo., and an early adopter of AdvicePay. “I would rather spend my time doing financial planning and investment management than making sure the money shows up in my checking account each month.”
“When you are billing your client, the less they have to worry about it, the better off you are,” adds Yves-Marc Courtines, principal at Boundless Advice LLC in Manhattan Beach, Calif. “I want clients to know they are paying a fee for the service I provide, but they don’t necessarily need to know the mechanics of it.”
In addition to being an AdvicePay user since its launch, Courtines is also an investor in the company and sits on its board, along with Moore and Kitces. “Having an effective payments processor that understands our business is tremendous,” he says. “Half of my clients I would not have been able to take on if I could only do AUM billing. Now I’m accessing new clients, without the pressure to build assets under management.”
Of course, financial planners can still accept paper checks. “But what happens when you have 100 clients or 1,000 or 10,000?” Moore asks. “You have to have a scalable process that works. We are trying to solve the efficiency issues advisors have had with getting paid, to do so efficiently and be able to scale their practice.”