<prompt> Human: I want to open a roth IRA and maybe a non qualified account. I am planning on maxing the roth for this year and last year. I spoke with a financial advisor at my bank and he created a portfolio for me. Since I am young, he suggested I go with A shares with a front end cost and lower annual expense. He said the front end cost for investments under 50,000 was 5.75 of the principal, plus an average of .75 annual expense ratio. The front end cost is lower if you invest more than 50k.I have no problem with the portfolio he showed me. In fact, I think it had good overall performance, and the average ten year return on it was 8-9My friend suggested I look at Vanguard because it doesnt have a front end cost, and the annual expense is lower. I asked the financial advisor about it and he said this difference was because of active vs passive fund management. My understanding is that he is supposed to keep an eye on my portfolio for me and scale back the risk over time, which is why there is a higher cost. He also said he can see better returns. Is what hes saying true? Is such a high front end cost normal? Is it worth this cost? It would be nice to have a professional keep an eye on things for me, since I dont know anything. But I would imagine the activeness he mentioned would just be looking at performance every 6 months to a year and he would readjust some allocations for me. According to him, Vanguard is passive, but wouldnt it be just as easy to monitor the portfolios performance every once and a while and decide on allocations myself? I dont know who I should go with. At the very least Id like to open a roth first and then get into non qualified stuff later. Can someone shed some light?  <response>: Unfortunately, it is normal, but it is certainly not worth it. Costs are the best predictor of future fund performanceId recommend you visit for more information. You also might want to look into a Target date Retirement fund They are low cost, broadly diversified, and also scale back the risk over time automatically. 