Financial Planner Fees
HI Terry, enjoy your columns and listening to you on the radio. Is $10,000/yr a normal fee to manage my investments. That is the rough quote I am getting from two individuals (fiduciary) to manage my investments in an IRA about 1,000,000.
Terry Says
That’s about a 1% fee. It doesn’t seem like much when the market is gaining 17% a year — as it did last year and the two years previous. But then you didn’t need either a financial planner OR investment advisor to get that performance. All you had to do was be in the S&P 500 stock index fund!
Are those truly financial planners (CFPs) or are they brokers? If they are comprehensive financial planners –helping you structure retirement income and plan for taxes, insurance, estate, etc — then 1% is reasonable. Even if they are just “advisors” on investments, you are paying 1% for asset allocation and hand-holding. You’ll have to decide if that’s a reasonable number in this era of lower returns. Just make sure they are not charging commissions on your purchases and sales, in addition to this overall fee.
