A fee-only advisor is simply an advisor who never receives commissions for any type of product sales. Typically, when an advisor receives a commission for a product sale, he/she is incentivized to sale the product that is paying the highest commission, which reduces the incentive to provide advice that is in your best interest. This therefore clouds the good judgment of the advisor, making him/her less objective.
We believe we should strive for providing the best advice that we can to our clients, always looking out for their best interests. This means being as objective as possible, at all times. This model serves us well, because it serves you well.
The competing models are those of fee-based advisors and commissioned advisors. As you can infer from the name, commission-based advisors take their income from selling products. Typically, annuities and life insurance are sold with large commissions going to the advisor who sells them. Fee-based advisors, on the other hand, mostly provide advice for fees, but sometimes are willing to sell products for a commission.
We have chosen not to take this route, so as to remove the conflicts of interest, as well as the appearance of conflicts of interest.