My toilet started leaking and the plumber said $500
Pish posh, you can get one for a hundred at home depot
But I don't know how to install it and they are heavy
Don't worry, everything is online, educate yourself
I hurt my back installing it and can't get out of bed.
Take 2 asprin and call me in the morning.
My back was better today and I got out of bed and the house was flooded
I guess you didn't get enough education
I don't see this as a useful comparison at all, and I'll explain why.
For the basics of personal investing, one could be educated in less than 15 minutes.
A few minutes of reviewing the results of studies that show that only ~ 20% of active managers manage to beat a broad index over a 5 year time period, and few of those are able to repeat it over the next 5 years. So there is no reason to believe the FA
you pick will be able to bring any investment selection value to you, and is more likely to lag the broad indexes after fees.
A few more minutes showing that stocks go up and down (volatility), but historically grow over time, and bonds are more steady, but won't provide the growth potential. A few minutes to show how an AA blend can balance the two, and that a pretty broad range of AA provide a similar success rate over a retirement lifetime - it's just not that sensitive to any magic number.
A few minutes to show how something like a Retirement Target fund can take care of all this for a very low ER, and a few minutes to show how an FAs fees/expenses can eat up 1/4 or more of your retirement income.
I'll compare that to the education you need to hire an FA after this next quote:
...
As far as FAs go, yes there are good ones and bad ones like in any field. I do think one of the keys to improving the overall impression/reputation is to require all FAs to accept the fiduciary responsibility.
And so... how do I find a 'good' FA? Seems to me, I need to know something before I can tell good from bad, right? I at least need to interview a few, and try to get a sense of it. That would take more than the 15 minutes I outlined above. I honestly think the effort of finding an FA is harder than DIY.
No sore back, not much to learn, very little effort. Let the computers of a low cost broad index fund or Target Retirement fund do the rebalancing for you.
Now plumbing - that's hard!
I won't go too far into this, but I wonder about the comment of getting PMs in support of FA's? What's that about? Do people feel that they are being 'bullied' over using an FA and are afraid to admit it in public? All I see is info being provided - costs, odds that the FA really has investing acumen, and options like an hourly review rather paying year in year out. Seems reasonable to me to discuss the pros/cons out in the open.
-ERD50