How YFD Makes Money: Fees, Commissions and Advertising

YourFinanceDoc (YFD) currently earns income in three main ways: consultation or financial planning fees paid by clients, commissions that may arise when a client chooses to implement an eligible product through YFD, and Google AdSense advertising revenue on the website.

Clients don’t have to buy products through YFD. After paying for advice, you can implement it yourself, or have your own agent, friend or family member help you.

Why does this page exist?

Income for financial services can come from different sources: the client receiving advice, the companies providing products, or the website’s advertising platform.

Earning income doesn’t automatically mean the advice is compromised. What actually needs to be made clear is: who is paying, why they’re paying, and whether that income could influence the advice you see.

This page sets out YFD’s income sources, how commissions are disclosed, and how advice is formed, all in one place — so you can make an informed decision before paying, accepting advice, or implementing any product.

YFD’s income sources at a glance

If new income sources are added in future

The above are YFD’s currently confirmed income sources, and do not include any arrangement that hasn’t launched yet.

If YFD later launches sponsorships, affiliate partnerships, paid collaborations, courses, subscriptions, paid tools, or other substantive new income models, this page will be updated and the relevant commercial relationship will be clearly disclosed. Until then, none of these are current confirmed income sources.

1. Consultation & financial planning fees: paying for analysis and guidance

When a client needs personalised comparison, analysis, planning or advice, YFD charges the client directly.

Current publicly listed services include:

• 1-on-1 consultation: RM149/hour
• Single-module financial planning: RM851
• Comprehensive financial planning: from RM3,240

All prices above already include 8% SST.

Which service actually applies depends on the scope of the question and the work involved. Before starting, the applicable service, scope and fee should be confirmed.

Clients aren’t paying for a product application form — they’re paying for the professional work behind it: understanding the situation, organising information, comparing options, analysing trade-offs, building a plan, and explaining why a particular direction may or may not be suitable.

The value of this work shouldn’t depend on whether the client ends up buying a product through YFD. Even if a client takes the advice and chooses to implement it themselves, the analysis and guidance already completed remain part of the service.

2. Product implementation commission: advice and implementation are two different things

Consultation fees and product commissions are separate.

Clients don’t need to buy insurance, unit trusts, Private Retirement Schemes (PRS) or other products through YFD. You can implement it yourself, or have your own agent, friend or family member handle it.

If a client voluntarily chooses to implement an eligible product through YFD, YFD may receive a commission from the relevant product provider. Whether there’s a commission, who pays it, and the actual implementation arrangement depend on the product, the provider, licensing scope and available arrangements.

YFD is not tied to a single insurance or fund company. Clients can consider products from different providers, but the actual range that can be compared or implemented still depends on product availability, YFD’s licensing scope, and the relevant implementation arrangements. This does not mean YFD has access to every product from every company on the market.

Three common situations

Situation 1: Pay for advice, then implement elsewhere

The client pays a consultation or planning fee, receives personal analysis and advice, and then decides to buy it themselves or implement it through their existing agent.

In this situation, YFD collects only the consultation or planning fee; the client has no obligation to hand the product over to YFD.

Situation 2: Pay for advice, then choose to implement through YFD

The client first pays for personal analysis and advice, and after understanding the options and trade-offs, voluntarily decides to implement an eligible product through YFD.

In this situation, the consultation or planning fee pays for the advisory work; YFD may also receive a commission from the relevant product provider because of the subsequent implementation. The two types of income are different in nature and do not replace each other.

Situation 3: The client has already chosen a product and only needs implementation help

If a client has already chosen the company and product themselves, and only asks YFD to help implement it — without requesting personal comparison, analysis or a recommendation — YFD may receive a product implementation commission, and will not separately charge a consultation fee for advice that wasn’t provided.

But if the client wants YFD to assess whether the product is suitable, compare other options, or give personal advice, that is already professional advisory work, and the applicable consultation or planning fee will be calculated separately.

3. Google AdSense: an ad appearing doesn’t mean YFD endorses it

Some of YFD’s pages may display ads automatically selected by Google AdSense, and YFD may earn revenue from these ad placements. This income helps support the production, updating and maintenance of free educational content.

However, an ad appearing next to an article does not mean:

• YFD recommends or endorses that advertiser
• The advertiser sponsored that article
• The advertiser reviewed, edited or influenced the article
• YFD has a commercial relationship with that specific advertiser

Advertising content and editorial content should be clearly separated. An advertiser cannot control YFD’s article conclusions simply because their ad appears on the website.

How does YFD disclose commissions and business relationships?

YFD follows these practices to keep commissions and business relationships transparent, and to make its approach to advice visible and open to scrutiny:

• Understand the client’s situation, goals, constraints and existing arrangements first, rather than deciding what product to sell first.
• Personal analysis and guidance are paid for through the consultation or planning fee, so the value of the advice doesn’t rest entirely on closing a sale.
• Clients can choose whether to implement through YFD, and won’t lose the advice they’ve already paid for just because they choose to buy elsewhere.
• Explain any commission or significant business relationship that may arise, where relevant.
• Don’t treat a product’s commission as a reason to recommend it.
• Google advertisers cannot control an article’s judgement or conclusions.
• Any future sponsored content, or content influenced by a business relationship, must be clearly labelled.

These practices can’t guarantee zero risk, but they make it easier for you to understand commission arrangements, ask questions, compare options, and keep control over how you implement.

What does “neutral” mean — and what doesn’t it mean?

For YFD, “neutral” is not a formal regulatory title, nor is it a promise of “zero income” or “never having a conflict of interest.”

It’s a set of actual practices: starting from the client’s situation and explaining the benefits, limitations and trade-offs of different options; not pre-selecting a particular product; not requiring clients to implement through YFD; and disclosing commissions and business relationships where relevant.

So neutral doesn’t mean not earning money — it means you should clearly know who is paying, why they’re paying, and whether that income has influenced the advice you’re seeing.

YFD is a business that needs to keep operating. Fees, commissions or advertising income don’t need to be hidden — what matters is that the income sources are transparent, clients retain their freedom to choose, and the reasoning behind the advice can hold up to scrutiny.

What can you ask before you decide?

Whether you’re a reader or a client, you can:

• Ask how YFD earns from a particular service or implementation arrangement
• Ask whether implementing a particular product may generate a commission
• Choose whether or not to implement the advice through YFD
• Ask for an explanation of fees, commissions or business relationships before proceeding
• Choose not to implement through YFD, without losing the advice you’ve already paid for

If anything is unclear, please ask before paying or implementing. Understanding things clearly before deciding is simply part of making a financial decision.

Closing thoughts

Trust shouldn’t be built on a claim like “we don’t make money” — it should be built on clear disclosure, advice that can be explained, and choices that genuinely belong to the client.

You can also look at Services & Pricing, About YFD / About 鑫哥 and How to Verify Licences. If you still have questions about fees or income arrangements, you can raise them through Contact / Consultation before deciding — no purchase commitment is required first.

This page is maintained by YourFinanceDoc founder 鑫哥. If there are material changes to income sources, fee structures or disclosure policy, this page will be updated as soon as possible.