See Our Full Pricing: Every Dollar, Explained
Less than 5% of financial advisory firms in Manitoba publish their fees. We've published ours since day one — because if the math justifies the engagement, the price shouldn't be a secret. Here's what everything costs and — more importantly — what it typically saves.
Our Fee Schedule
Every service we offer has a published price and a documented median outcome. The fees below are current as of Q1 2026. Business audit fees scale with complexity, but you'll always receive a firm, binding quote in your Engagement Letter before any work begins. We've operated this way since March 2022 — no hourly billing, no scope surprises, no invoices that don't match the quote.
| Service | Fee | Median Identified Savings |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Banking Audit | $450 | $1,860/year |
| Business Banking Audit | From $1,200 | $5,400/year |
| Fee Benchmarking & Negotiation | $800 | $2,200/year |
| Credit Facility Review | From $1,500 | Varies — avg. 0.72% rate reduction |
| Merchant Processing Optimization | $900 | $1,400/year |
| New Canadian Banking Setup | $350 | $600/year + credit score improvement |
| Annual Review (Personal) | $300/year | $780/year |
| Annual Review (Business) | $750/year | $2,450/year |
| Banking Due Diligence (Acquisition) | From $2,500 | Risk mitigation — no savings projection |
| Multi-Institutional Mapping | $600 | Varies by complexity |
Business audit fees scale with complexity — number of accounts, credit facilities, and merchant processing agreements. A three-account startup audit at a single institution is priced differently than a 14-account, three-institution audit with merchant processing and a commercial mortgage. We provide a firm quote in writing before engagement. No hourly billing. No surprises. If the scope changes mid-engagement, we discuss it with you before any fee adjustment — and you approve it in writing or we stay within the original scope.
Why Flat-Fee Advisory Saves You More Than Hourly Billing
The Old Way
Financial advisors charge 1–2% of assets under management — and their scope doesn't include your banking products. Accountants bill $150–$400/hour — and they're looking at your tax return, not your chequing account fee schedule. Neither is examining your banking layer: the accounts, the monthly service charges, the merchant processing contracts, the credit facility covenants, the overdraft fees you've been paying on predictable cash flow dips. That's a blind spot in your financial picture, and across our 112 active clients, it averages $1,860/year for personal clients and $5,400/year for businesses.
Our Way
We charge a flat fee per engagement. You know the cost before you start — it's in writing, in your Engagement Letter, before we touch a single statement. We don't manage your investments or file your taxes. We work exclusively in the banking layer — the products, fees, rates, and contractual terms that flow through your accounts every single day. Our team of six has a combined 40+ years of banking operations experience. Median payback on our advisory fee: 47 days. That means by day 48, you're in the black — and you stay there for the rest of the year.
What Banks Charge (And What They Should)
We maintain a proprietary database of current pricing at 14 Canadian financial institutions — Big Five banks, national credit unions, and Manitoba-based credit unions including Assiniboine Credit Union and Cambrian Credit Union. Derek Flett, our Senior Banking Analyst, updates this database weekly, tracking posted rates vs. effective rates, fee schedule changes, and Truth in Savings Act disclosure requirements. This is the same database we benchmark every client engagement against. Here's what the data shows:
Business Chequing
$15–$135/month depending on institution and transaction volume. The range is that wide because banks price for inertia — the assumption that you won't compare. A 200-transaction-per-month account can cost $19 at one Manitoba credit union and $97 at a Big Five bank — for identical functionality: the same number of transactions, the same e-Transfer capabilities, the same online banking features. The difference is pure margin. Our business banking audits catch this gap in 82% of first-time engagements.
Operating Lines of Credit
Prime + 0.50% to Prime + 3.50% (posted), with negotiated rates typically 50–150 basis points lower. The gap between posted and negotiated is where most businesses leave money — and it widens the longer you've been at the same institution without reviewing. Our analysis of 85 operating lines across Manitoba showed businesses banking at the same institution for 10+ years paid an average of 0.94% more than those who reviewed every three years. That gap is where we work. See our credit facility advisory for the full approach.
Merchant Processing
1.75%–3.20% effective rate depending on volume and pricing model (interchange-plus, flat-rate, or tiered). The advertised rate typically understates your real cost by 0.3–0.7% once you factor in batch fees, PCI non-compliance charges, monthly minimums, and statement fees. We calculate effective processing rates — actual fees divided by actual volume — because that's the only number that tells the truth. For our restaurant group client Forks & Fables, this calculation revealed a 0.53% gap between their advertised and effective rates across three locations.
Premium Personal Chequing
$10.95–$32.95/month. Our data from 64 personal banking audits shows the median client uses 3.2 of 22 bundled features. That's paying premium for a handful of benefits — travel insurance that duplicates your credit card coverage, a safety deposit box discount you don't use, unlimited transactions when you average 14 per month. Most of those benefits are available cheaper elsewhere, or you already have them through another product and don't realize it.
These ranges exist because banks price for inertia. The client who shops pays less. Period. Our job is to do that shopping for you — across all 14 institutions — and show you the results in a written comparison with specific dollar figures.
What's Included in Every Engagement Fee
Our fees aren't just for a report. They cover the full advisory lifecycle — from the initial discovery call through implementation support. Here's exactly what you get for every dollar:
Initial Discovery Call
A 30-minute call to understand your banking setup, concerns, and goals. This call is included in the engagement fee — not billed separately. If we determine during the call that a full audit isn't likely to justify the fee, we'll tell you and you owe nothing.
12-Month Data Analysis
We gather and analyze a full year of statements, product agreements, fee schedules, and contractual obligations. This is the most time-intensive phase — typically 8–12 hours of analyst work for a personal audit and 15–30 hours for a business audit — and it's included in the flat fee.
Proprietary Benchmarking
Every product and fee you hold is cross-referenced against our weekly-updated database of real pricing at 14 Manitoba financial institutions. Not advertised rates — effective rates that account for negotiated discounts, bundled pricing, and volume tiers. This database represents over three years of continuous data collection by Derek Flett.
Written Report & Recommendations
A comprehensive written document with findings, specific recommendations, and dollar-for-dollar savings projections. Every assumption is stated in plain language. Every calculation is shown. Personal reports typically run 8–12 pages; business reports run 15–25 pages depending on complexity.
Implementation Support
We don't hand you a report and disappear. We prepare switch documents, draft letters to institutions, and — when needed — attend branch meetings with you. In 2025, we accompanied clients to 43 branch meetings across eleven institutions. This support is included in the engagement fee, whether you're at our Winnipeg office or connecting virtually from Brandon or Thompson.
Post-Delivery Follow-Up
After delivering the report, we schedule a walkthrough call to review findings and answer questions. If you run into issues during implementation — a branch pushback on a rate match, a confusing product comparison — you can reach your assigned advisor directly. This follow-up period runs 60 days from report delivery, included in the engagement fee.
Written Deliverables You Keep Forever
Every engagement produces a written document. We don't do verbal-only advice — ever. You keep everything, and you can share it with anyone — your accountant, your business partner, your spouse, your next advisor if you ever leave us. The deliverables are yours. Here's what's in the package:
- Credit score monitoring reports — current standing, the specific factors affecting your score (utilization ratios, payment history, account age, inquiry frequency), and a prioritized action list to improve it. For New Canadian banking clients, this includes a step-by-step credit-building strategy tailored to your immigration timeline.
- Interest rate schedules — your current rates vs. recommended rates at competing institutions, with the dollar difference calculated at your actual balance levels over 1, 3, and 5-year horizons. This document alone gives you leverage in any rate discussion with your bank — it's the competitive analysis that does the negotiating for you.
- Financial health assessments — a one-page snapshot of your banking efficiency, flagging areas where costs exceed benchmarks across our database of 14 institutions. Written in language you can share with a spouse, financial planner, or accountant without needing us in the room to explain it.
- Fee schedules — yours vs. market benchmark, line by line, so you can see exactly where you stand relative to 14 institutions. This includes every monthly charge, per-transaction fee, annual fee, and bundled service cost — mapped against what you'd pay for identical functionality elsewhere.
- Escrow account analyses — where applicable, reviewing escrow balances and disbursement timing against TRID integrated mortgage disclosure standards. We verify that escrow accounts aren't holding excess funds without earning interest — a common issue we flag in approximately 20% of mortgage-holding client reviews.
- Full workpapers — retained by you. Every assumption stated, every calculation shown, every data source cited. The math should be checkable, not just impressive. If you want to verify our numbers against your own statements, the workpapers make that straightforward.
The Numbers Behind Our Pricing
Our fees aren't arbitrary. They're calibrated to a simple principle: the advisory should cost a fraction of what it finds. Across 2025, the median personal client paid $450 and received a report identifying $1,860 in annual recoverable savings. The median business client paid $1,200 and received a report identifying $5,400. Since founding in 2022, we've identified a cumulative $4.2M in unnecessary banking fees across all client engagements — verified through our annual internal audit.
That's a 4:1 return for personal clients. A 4.5:1 return for business clients. We publish these medians each year so prospective clients can make an informed decision — not a hopeful one. If the numbers ever flip, we'll publish that too. That's the same transparency commitment that 73% of our new clients cite as their reason for reaching out.
We also track payback period because it matters. If your advisory fee recoups itself in 47 days, the remaining 318 days of the year are pure savings. That's not a marketing claim — it's arithmetic derived from 112 active engagements across Manitoba, from Winnipeg to Thompson. The 97% retention rate on annual reviews tells us clients see the value after year one and choose to keep the monitoring in place — because banking changes yearly, fee schedules shift, and the account that was right in January may be wrong by December.
About 15% of initial consultations end with us telling the prospective client they're already in good shape. We don't manufacture findings to justify a fee. If the math doesn't work, we say so — and you owe nothing for that 30-minute call. For the other 85%, the numbers speak for themselves.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Pricing
Curious What Your Banking Actually Costs?
Most of our clients can't name their total monthly banking cost before we start. That's not unusual — banks aren't built for clarity. They're built for revenue. A 30-minute call with Rajan, Megan, or Derek will tell you whether a full audit is worth your time. No charge for the call. No obligation. If the numbers don't justify the fee, we'll say so — about 15% of initial calls end that way, and we mean it every time.
Or call us directly at (431) 348-5867 — Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM.