Should I Grandfather My Long-Term Clients When I Raise Rates?

Q: I have several clients who have been with me for three or more years. I feel a strong pull to exempt them from my upcoming rate increase, at least for a while. Is this a good idea?

Grandfathering long-term clients is sometimes a genuine values decision and sometimes a way of managing the discomfort of asking them to pay the new rate. Distinguishing between the two requires honest self-examination.

The honest questions to sit with: Is the grandfathering a deliberate, pre-decided policy that reflects something real about how you value tenure — a policy you would apply across the board to any client who meets a specific threshold? Or is it emerging now because there are specific clients whose reactions you are worried about?

What grandfathering is and when it applies: grandfathering is a deliberate policy, not a reactive concession. When it is applied as a policy — “any client who has been with me for more than two years will have an additional quarter at the current rate before transitioning” — it is a genuine structural choice. When it is applied to specific clients because those clients feel risky to ask, it is exception-making in advance, and it tends to produce the same problems as exception-making during the holding period: a two-tier practice, a signal that the rate is negotiable, and a pattern that is difficult to resolve.

When grandfathering may be warranted:

You have a policy of recognizing tenure in your practice, and this policy applies consistently. The grandfathering has a clear time limit — it is a transitional measure with a defined end date, not an open-ended exception. You are making this decision from a position of genuine choice rather than from fear of a specific client’s reaction.

When grandfathering is likely anxiety rather than values:

You are thinking of grandfathering specific clients whose reactions you are worried about, not as a general policy. The grandfathering has no defined end date — it is “for now” with no clear plan for when they transition. You find yourself hoping the grandfathered clients will never ask about transitioning to the full rate.

The longer-term implications of discounting versus not: grandfathering creates a two-tier practice. In a two-tier practice, some clients are paying the rate and some are paying a reduced rate that the practitioner does not feel able to revisit. Over time, the reduced-rate tier tends to feel like a problem — not because the clients are a problem, but because the arrangement was never clearly bounded and does not resolve on its own.

What grandfathering decisions reveal about inner preparation: the impulse to grandfather specific clients is sometimes a signal that the rate increase has not been fully internalized. If the new rate feels entirely settled, asking long-term clients to pay it is usually not a significantly harder conversation than asking any other client. If it feels impossible to ask certain clients, the difficulty is worth examining — is it actually about those clients, or is it about the practitioner’s inner relationship to the rate?

A practical approach:

If you want to offer something to long-term clients, pre-decide a policy that applies consistently: “Clients who have been with me for more than [threshold] will have an additional [time period] at the current rate before transitioning to the new rate.” Give this a clear end date. Communicate it as a deliberate recognition of tenure, not as an open negotiation.

If you decide not to grandfather — to apply the new rate across the board from the same date — that is also a legitimate choice. Most long-term clients who are genuinely committed to the work accept a rate increase with the same orientation as any other client.

How grandfathering can become a sabotage pattern: the grandfathering-as-sabotage pattern looks like this: the practitioner exempts specific clients from the rate increase, those clients stay at the old rate indefinitely, and the practitioner’s practice becomes a mix of rates that feels progressively more difficult to manage. The pattern is usually rooted in anxiety about specific conversations rather than in a genuine policy about client tenure.

The Abundance GPS Skool community helps practitioners make clear, grounded decisions about rate increases — including the decisions about how to handle long-term relationships. Join us here.