I don't have the evidence either way. But I'm not calling DIY's low life scum as FA's are described by some DIY's here, am I?. Those that do disdain FA's ought to back it up with more than an instance here & there to generalize. When I start saying DIY's are wrong & hurting themselves, I'll have hard data. The only thing I'm speaking to is the generalized bashing of FA's here.
I had decided to back out of this thread, since a couple posters seemed to think I was being over the top or something. But for two reasons (I'll skip the second for now), I'll rejoin.
First reason, I detected a straw-man in that quote above, and I just
hate straw-men! So I took the time to re-read this
entire thread (admit to some skimming, but mostly the pro-FA posts). And I didn't see a single comment calling out FA's as 'low life scum' or any such thing (even allowing for some 'poetic license'). So if you are looking for people to back up their statements with data, how about you go first -
where is the 'bashing' and name calling?
Here's the closest I found:
#82 --
I'll spend time showing people I care about that their FA is fleecing them, my mom being the primary example. While that isn't the case for all FAs, it is true for many.
OK, 'fleecing' them (but that wasn't an assumption, it was to be shown after taking some time) - and an immediate caveat that it doesn't apply to all.
#118
At some point there has to be recognition that in general the FA is not one to be trusted, and certainly does not have the client's interest foremost in mind.
Well, I'm not sure that is 'bashing' even? In any financial transaction, I think it's good advice to not 'trust' the other person, but to have safeguards in place. And the caveat again "in general" - he expressed an opinion that the FA does not have the client's interest foremost in mind. That's pretty true in any business transaction (look out for #1) , so I don't see that as shocking.
And the very next two posts countered that as an over-generalization.
then post #122 did agree.
But to put that in perspective, in post #28, gerntz himself did say:
I mean every advisor I think is trying to extract as much as possible for their business model, DFA access or not. It's their livelihood. Not at all sinister.
Not so very different, no?
My sense, when I re-read this thread, was that people mostly said that if there was something you really need help with, pay by the hour rather than a % of AUM. That's a long way from bashing and name-calling, in my book. It strikes me as just reasoned analysis of the situation. A pretty positive thing for a financial discussion forum, IMO.
-ERD50