<prompt> Human: I spoke with a financial adviser earlier in the week. This adviser was an old friend, and I wanted to hear what he could offer. I spoke with him with regards to setting up additional retirement accounts outside of my work 401k, IRA, stock program and personal rollover IRA with Vanguard. The portfolio seemed interesting with a mix of all types of funds with relatively low expense ratios. He proceded to tell me there will be a 1.25 fee on the account. At the time of the presentation, this seemed reasonable. I than ran the numbers with adviser fee and was blown away at how much the fee ate away at my profits. According to Hellomoney, over 45 of returns will be lost to fees. I cannot believe an adviser would actually recommend a product with so much fees. Do people who use financial advisers not know about alternatives? A simple Vanguard retirement date fund would cost a fraction of what an adviser would charge.Assistant: Most people that are knowledgeable and need a financial adviser use a fee based one. This helps keep both parties interests aligned.People who are not knowledgeable accept the 1.25 fee because they assume that the professionals will easily make that money up with their superior stock picking ability. Most people dont realize that the target date funds and index funds out perform most professionally managed portfolios. Good luck and nice job using your head and not blindly following the professionalsHuman: That 1.25 fee turns into over 45 in lost profits over 30 years. That is an insane fee to pay. Looking back on the experience, I feel very deceived.  <response>: 1.25 isnt out of line with what Ive seen. Im not saying its worth it, but it is within the range of typical. I really like uStellabluebells comment For some people the option is to pay an advisor or dont invest at all. For them the fees are worth it. 