Patent ID: 7356497

Claim:
A method for establishing a flat fee brokerage account for a client, said account maintained by a financial services firm and having an established flat fee effective for a predetermined period of time, said client receiving advice from a responsible financial advisor, said method comprising the steps of: determining a relationship of the flat fee brokerage account to other accounts of the client; determining a profile of the client; determining eligibility of the client from predetermined conditions for the flat fee brokerage account; establishing a recommended flat fee for the flat fee brokerage account based on the profile of the client, wherein the financial services firm establishes the recommended flat fee; communicating to the responsible financial advisor the recommended flat fee for the client; receiving from the responsible financial advisor a determination of a final flat fee set by the responsible financial advisor based on negotiations between the responsible financial advisor and the client and the responsible financial advisor's projection of the client's future trading activity; providing financial services to the client; processing charges incurred by the flat fee brokerage account; compensating the responsible financial advisor for the services provided; and reducing the compensation of the financial advisor by a predetermined dollar amount based on the level of trading activity in the flat fee brokerage account, if the level of trading activity falls below the responsible financial advisor's projected trading activity.