In the future, investors will be even more likely to receive advice that's objective--or at least of higher quality, many financial planners say.

And if you are one of the increasing number of Americans with a net worth of $1 million or more, you may soon have access to the kind of personalized, comprehensive and far-reaching advice and services once reserved for families with $100 million.

"The good news is that financial planning is going to grow," said Ross Levin, a leading certified financial planner in Minneapolis. "More people will be able to be served at a variety of pricing structures, and they'll have more choice."

What's driving the trend is the convergence of three factors:

* Increasing interest in financial planning as stock wealth grows and responsibility for retirement planning falls back to the individual

* The expanding power of the personal computer and the Internet.

* The huge profits reaped by firms that specialize in giving financial advice, which have inspired accounting firms, banks, brokerages, mutual fund companies and others to launch planning arms.

"Most financial planners will tell you they're making more money than they ever dreamed," said Mark Hurley, chief executive of Undiscovered Managers, a Dallas-based mutual fund company that released a report about the future of the advice industry.

The report is controversial among planners because it predicts that today's fragmented financial planning market, populated by hundreds of sole proprietorships and small firms, soon will be dominated by 40 or 50 large companies.

"Business is so good. That makes it so attractive that by definition it's going to change," Hurley said.

The competition has already led many financial planners and investment managers to reduce their fees for large accounts. Annual charges, once routinely 1.5% to 2% of assets, have dropped to an average of 1% or less, said Harold Evensky, president of the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards and a longtime financial advisor. Several major brokerage firms are competing by combining similar management fee arrangements with cheap Internet trades.

For an initial fee plus the percentage, a typical high-end, comprehensive financial planner will review a client's entire financial situation, including budget and credit, insurance, taxes, estate plans and investments.

The fiercest competition is for what Hurley calls the "semi-affluent investor": the 3 million-plus households with net worths of $1 million to $10 million.

To survive, financial planning firms will have to offer these desirable customers more services for less money, Evensky said. Providers will need to more closely resemble the "family office" firms that serve the very wealthy, some planners say, offering all-inclusive services from tax preparation to assistance with salary negotiations.

"In the future the client will pay 80 basis points [0.8%], and we will have to do their estate planning and their tax preparation," Evensky said. "We can outsource it like we do now, but [clients] will be getting those services as part of their fee."

Other planners say the changes won't be as radical, or the cost cuts as deep, as the Undiscovered Managers report predicts.

Tim Kochis, a fee-only certified financial planner in San Francisco, said demand for the specialty seems to be growing even as more competitors enter the market, so fees are not likely to fall drastically. Like many planners, Kochis contends that personal relationships with clients will prevent mass defection over fees.

Kochis does believe that financial planners probably will have to become more comprehensive to survive. Kochis' firm, Kochis Fitz, helps clients with mortgage negotiations and career coaching in addition to providing asset management and financial planning. But he also knows that some clients will continue to pick tax, estate and investment advisors separately.