Quote:
Originally Posted by Dond1959
The cost of an advisor is around 1% of the account value per year. So on a $1 million portfolio that is $10,000 per year and $100,000 for 10 years. You can buy index funds for .08% to 0.12% per year or $800 to $1200 per year ($8,000 to $12,000 over 10 years). You can easily construct a simple 3 or 4 index fund portfolio based on your risk tolerance (many tools to determine your risk tolerance online or use a Fidelity tool). Studies have shown that index funds consistently out perform active management over the long term.
Investing is not rocket science, it is about determining your risk tolerance and picking index funds to match that risk tolerance. I would encourage anyone to go to Bogleheads.org to learn about investing. Don’t allow an advisor to over complicate investing. Pick your funds and stay with them and don’t worry about the short term, long term you will be okay if you stick with it.
Finally, I am a big believer in Fidelity. Their support is top notch and their online platform is very easy to use. Vanguard has a very user unfriendly online platform and trying to get support on a telephone is painstakingly long. I moved from Vanguard to Fidelity a few years ago and I am very happy with my choice.
I tried to make this a simple comment for the OP to understand what they are giving up in return by using an advisor. A compromise is using a “robo” advisor that determines your risk tolerance and tells you what to invest in based on all your factors. The one at Fidelity is called Fidelity Go. Vanguard also has a robo advisor. If you still don’t want to be in control you could use this type of investment vehicle. Fidelity Go charges 0.35% per year. Which is about 1/3 of what an advisor would charge.
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I posted earlier about my using a fee-for-service, fiduciary advisor service. I met with Brian twice for over an hour in-person. The initial meeting cost me over $600; he needed time to review everything. Following that meeting, I could have made the adjustments he proposed on my own. Rinse-and-repeat these meetings annually. If someone spends less than $1,000/year for course corrections on a $1M portfolio, then THAT is money well-spent AND it makes me sleep better at night.