Thinking of hiring a financial advisor?  Don’t know what to expect?  Here’s one man’s experience.

After years of managing my family’s investments via the big on-line brokerage houses, I decided to turn it over to a financial advisor.  Not because I was worried about my performance vs the market, but because I was convinced a pro could do it better.  I was already following Modern Portfolio Theory principles, which the world will tell you is the best strategy for the large majority of investors (and is the strategy followed by robo-advisors), but wanted to hire a professional.  An excellent financial advisor was recommended to me by a very good and very smart friend.  “He’s exceptional.”, he said.  Good enough for me.  I called him that same day.

Gordon the financial advisor met with me in my home to go over his business.  I noticed I was sold on 2 products in this first meeting that are probably very common with advisors – life insurance and mutual funds.  The life insurance was fine – I new I was under-insured anyway because I had just gotten married.  The mutual funds (and their higher expense ratios) required a little more convincing, but ultimately I agreed.

Since then, my portfolio’s performance has been fine, but the fees leave me questioning the value of the service.

Market goes nuts but fees are within our control, now more than ever.

This is not a project aimed at smearing good financial advisors.