In my blogging interviews I've talked to more financial advisors than I ever would have sought out for myself.
This board is the wrong population to draw conclusions about people's ability to manage their money.
As Walt34 mentioned a while back, the Dollar Stretcher forums are a better demographic. Many of those people are still trying to get out of debt, let alone save for retirement. A few of them are chronically underemployed and seriously worried about their food security. A few are so frugal that they make Amy Dacyczyn blush with envy. They don't have any money to save because they're not earning it or spending it.
Other personal-finance blogs are filled with commenters who are "seeing the light" on materialism and out-of-control spending. They're in their 20s and learning budgeting for the first time, or in their 30s and facing their first bout of unemployment, or in their 40s and going through an expensive divorce.
They're all great customers for financial advisors. They don't need help investing-- they need help paying off their debt and learning how to save before they're even ready to pick out a 401(k) asset allocation.
Even if they're building assets they still don't have a handle on asset allocation. They've confused words like "reliable" and "guaranteed" with equity index investments or hot mutual funds. "Low cost" is a 1% expense ratio. They're convinced that fund managers have to guide them through the chaos of Wall Street, or that the stock market is rigged. They want someplace safe where they can have their hands held.
Even the "good" advisors like USAA's Scott Halliwell say that people are too busy (or too overwhelmed) or not interested or not confident in their own abilities. Scott never hears from guys like us. He hears from people who want to know what an IRA is and why they need one. They don't know where to start, and they won't go there even if someone shows them the way. They just want someone they can trust, and USAA scores big-time from that corporate quality. "Convenience" and "consolidation" just make it that much easier. They have to be internally motivated before they'll seek knowledge, let alone teach themselves about these topics.
I think there are two significant events that make people see the light:
1. They retire and realize that a quarter of their portfolio withdrawals are being paid to their advisor as a 1% fee, or
2. Groups like Ameriprise come up with such outrageous charges & fees that even their own customers get suspicious.
(as a side note, I am surprised that so many people on this forum buy tax software or even pay someone to do their taxes for them, given how uncomplicated it can be for many returns, and given the self-sufficiency and fairly high level of familiarity with numbers the forum members have)
It's not the math skills or the independence-- it's the tax code.
When you're using paper, how do you know you're not missing something? At least TurboTax asks the questions, even if I curse them as I'm trying to find the answers.
K-1s, tax credits for college expenses, excluding interests on education savings bonds, amortizing the new carpet in the rental property, amortizing points on a mortgage refinance, recaptures, AMT, energy-efficiency improvements, foreign tax credit on investment gains, carrying forward cap losses and passive deductions, self-employment taxes, volunteer mileage deductions, charitable deductions, book royalties... I'd hate to be pushing pencil to paper to track this maze.