without going into the billing business, one CPA of one of our clients is stating that the only way we can deduct advisory fees inside a retirement account is to have them direct billed or taken out of a brokerage account. Other accountants we work with just write it off on line 23 on Schedule A. We’ve had other accountants say we can NOT deduct. In reading IRS Pub 529, it appears it can be written off although it is vague. Is there any ruling on this? More importantly, if IRA advisory fees are deductible, HOW do advisors do this without getting into the direct billing business??? Also, FINRA only allows 3% max fee in advisory accounts so if someone has 1Mil in IRA and 100K in a brokerage…..how do we bill that scenario???

TX
David Mailloux