<prompt> Human: All amounts are USD, were American. My dads broker has us in a bunch of individual stocks, and then in a bunch of mutual funds. I dont know much but Ive read that the expense ratios are important, so I checked and they average to 1.25 ER. Prior to meeting with the broker, I investigated our largest mutual fund investment, Franklin Income Fund Class C, FCISX. Our broker has us in this for 100k. I used Vanguards compare function to see what theyd recommend against FCISX, and that gave me VSCGX and VWIAX, both of which have much smaller expense ratios than FCISX and outperformed it in the last 10 years; and the two Vanguard funds seem to have a similar investment strategy.At the meeting, I asked the broker if he could explain to me why were in a fund like FCISX rather than these similar funds, with their much lower expense ratios. He first said that expense ratios are important, but performance is more important. I then raised the point that these funds have outperformed FCISX in the last ten years. He said then, well okay but they probably dont have as high earnings as FCISX. And after we got home I checked and this was true; FCISX boasts like 1.3 or 1.5 times the earnings of either Vanguard fund.I guess one question would be: can someone explain why this matters? All our earnings are currently reinvested anyway. Why are earnings important?But all this business with FCISX and Vanguard is really just a way of getting at a bigger question: are we foolish to let this Raymond James corp. broker decide where my moms money will go? Are there good reasons to prefer the kinds of things he has us in to ostensibly similar cheap Vanguard funds? I am painfully aware that I am just some guy who has done a few hours worth of internet research, and the broker is a professional who does this for a living; even though his reasoning doesnt make sense to me, I dont for a minute trust that I can do his job as well as he can. But I also think he gets paid out of our expense ratios. Help please!  <response>: Your broker is just giving you the standard broker-babble. He is fleecing you and your family.You should end your familys relationship with this clown as soon as possible. If you want professional financial advice which is probably a good idea because of the inheritance issues, you should work with a fee-only, fiduciary financial advisor who makes decisions that are in your best interests instead of theirs. You can start your search for such an advisor at NAPFA.org.Are there good reasons to prefer the kinds of things he has us in to ostensibly similar cheap Vanguard funds?Only if youre a broker. 