No: Hightower Advisors is paid through advisory fees, but its affiliated broker-dealer, Hightower Securities, earns commissions, mutual fund distribution fees, insurance and annuity pay and placement fees on alternative investments, and many Hightower advisors can share in that pay. Its Form CRS says that when you buy insurance or brokerage through those advisors, “you would pay a commission” and “your financial advisor could receive a portion.” Hightower doesn’t publish a fee schedule; each advisor practice negotiates its fee.
So the advisory fee is usually the main charge, but a strict fee-only test looks at everything. Here’s what the main filing says.
How Hightower’s network works
Hightower Advisors, LLC (CRD 145323) is one SEC-registered investment adviser. Its brochure, dated August 19, 2026, says it delivers advice “through its network (the ‘Advisor Practices’),” each with “its own advisory focus and strategies,” and that “certain Advisor Practices use branding and marketing specific to their practice.” Its Form ADV Part 1, filed October 13, 2026, lists 132 offices besides its Chicago headquarters, and its SEC record shows more than 150 other business names. It isn’t an umbrella filing for separate advisers: those practices sit inside this one registration, so this brochure and Form CRS apply to them.
Hightower is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hightower Holding, LLC, whose parent is majority owned by funds managed by Thomas H. Lee Partners. Hightower Holding also owns separately registered advisers, including NEPC, Madison Avenue Financial Solutions and Kanawha Capital Management, which file their own documents.
How Hightower is paid
In Item 5E of Form ADV, Hightower checks a percentage of assets, hourly charges, fixed fees and “other,” which it describes as “retainer or service fees or some combination of” the numbered options on the form, a list in which commissions is one of the options. It doesn’t check the commissions box itself. In Item 6A it reports no other businesses of its own.
But Item 5B reports that, of 953 employees doing advisory work, 598 are registered representatives of a broker-dealer and 338 are licensed insurance agents. The Form CRS, dated March 2026, says certain advisors are “licensed to sell insurance” and “registered to offer you brokerage services with Hightower Securities, LLC.”
How advisors are paid: the Form CRS says pay “generally varies based on the revenue HTA earns” from their clients and “will typically increase as revenue earned from their client accounts increases.” The brochure says advisors joining Hightower typically receive equity and other benefits sized “in relation to the amount of revenue expected to transfer.”
What else the filings disclose
In Item 7A of Form ADV, Hightower reports related companies that are a broker-dealer, other investment advisers, a trust company, an accounting firm, an insurance company or agency, and sponsors of private funds. The brochure describes them:
- Hightower Securities. A FINRA-member broker-dealer and “licensed general insurance broker and agency.” It sells whole life, term, health and long-term care insurance and variable and fixed annuities. The brochure says it “receives fees for client investments” in certain mutual funds, acts as placement agent for alternative investments, and is paid on 529 plans and margin. Advisors registered there “receive compensation from these activities as well.” See insurance agent vs financial advisor.
- Tax, trust and business services. GMS Surgent, an affiliate trading as Hightower Tax Solutions, prepares taxes. Two service companies offer tax preparation, bookkeeping and business consulting, invoiced separately. Hightower Trust Company, NA and Hightower Trust Company of Illinois provide trust services. The brochure says affiliates’ fees are “predominantly separate from and in addition to” Hightower’s.
- Affiliated funds and managers. Hightower and Madison Avenue Financial Solutions advise or sub-advise private funds and ETFs, so some client money pays two levels of fees to the group. For some it waives or reduces a fee; for BlueArc funds it says it doesn’t generally waive its co-advisory fee.
- Revenue sharing and referrals. Hightower “occasionally has revenue-sharing arrangements” with managers and funds. It earns a referral fee from Goldman Sachs on securities-based loans, a share of the interest capped at 0.50% of average loan balances, and “a fixed percentage” of transaction revenue when it introduces a business owner to a firm in its banking network. It pays Schwab, Fidelity and lead generation services for referrals.
- Custodian support. Some practices receive ongoing payments or services from a custodian, and some of these deals are “contingent upon maintaining a minimum amount of assets” there.
The CFP Board allows a planner to call their pay fee-only only when neither they nor their firm receives sales-related compensation, and related parties receive none “in connection with any Professional Services” for the client. Commissions, fund distribution fees and referral pay are all sales-related compensation. Hightower doesn’t describe itself as fee-only in these documents.
The Form CRS answers “Yes” to legal or disciplinary history, which can include individual advisors. The brochure says “the firm and its management personnel have no reportable disciplinary events.” Look up the adviser on IAPD, Hightower Securities on BrokerCheck, and your own advisor on both.
What Hightower costs
Neither the brochure nor the wrap fee brochure publishes a rate. The brochure says fees “are generally negotiable” and can be charged as:
- a flat percentage of assets, or a tiered percentage that drops at set asset levels
- hourly charges or flat fees
- retainer or service fees
- some combination of these
Hightower “typically does not impose a minimum account size,” though “some of our financial advisor practices do.” Fees may be billed in advance or in arrears, monthly or quarterly. In the wrap program the fee also covers some trading and custody costs and “typically” runs higher. Fund expenses and any affiliated or outside manager’s fee are extra. The brochure adds that Hightower’s fees “may for some Hightower clients be higher than that charged by other advisers.”
Because rates differ by practice, ask for the schedule in writing and turn it into dollars. As a yardstick only: a 1% fee would be $5,000 a year on $500,000 and $10,000 on $1 million. Fee-only firms that publish a percentage fee charge a median 1% of assets. Planners who charge a flat fee for ongoing planning charge a median $4,500 a year (middle half $2,400 to $7,200), whatever your balance, and a one-time plan has a median of $2,000. See what an advisor costs on $1 million and whether advisor fees are negotiable.
Who Hightower may suit
Hightower may suit people who want a particular advisor team along with access to trust, tax, lending and alternative investments through one group. Its Form CRS says each practice has its own “advisory focus and strategy,” so services and fees can differ from one Hightower office to the next. Our guide to independent RIAs vs wirehouses explains the model.
It may suit someone who already knows and trusts a specific Hightower practice and will ask how that practice charges. Someone who wants a published price, or advice from someone who can’t earn commissions, may want to compare a flat-fee or hourly planner first. Our page on Mariner covers another large firm with an affiliated broker-dealer.
How to check it yourself
- Read the Form CRS. It’s two pages on fees, conflicts and staff pay, linked from the SEC record. See what a Form CRS tells you.
- Look up your advisor. On BrokerCheck, registration with Hightower Securities means they can earn commissions. Their Form ADV Part 2B explains their practice’s link to Hightower.
- Read brochure Items 5, 10 and 14 for fees, affiliates and other compensation.
- Ask in writing for the practice’s fee schedule, what you’ll pay in dollars each year, and whether anyone is paid on insurance, funds, loans or referrals.
Our guide to telling whether an advisor is fee-only walks through each check, an RIA vs a broker-dealer explains the two roles, and questions to ask a financial advisor covers the rest.
Compare similar firms
Other large advisory firms we’ve checked against the fee-only definition: Fisher Investments, Creative Planning, Edelman Financial Engines, Mariner Wealth Advisors, CAPTRUST, Wealth Enhancement Group, Mercer Advisors. See all 50 firms.