Fee-only is a better way to go but you still have to be careful. The trouble is that people don't know anything about investing and don't know the proper questions to ask.
A few years ago I thought I needed a financial advisor but I also did a bit of research and I ended up doing my own investing. It's not hard. I'm convinced at this point that the 'financial advice' business is, with very few exceptions, a scam. And how does someone find one of those rare exceptions? Never pay a 'percent of assets' (wrap) fee. That's an ongoing (and unearned) fee that eats up your nestegg. Only pay an hourly or one time fee. Know your fund fees (expense ratio). A couple of my girlfriends and I are trying to set up a website to warn people about using 'financial advice'. www.saveyournestegg.com Please, please be careful with your nest egg!! Make sure that you do not use a 'financial advisor' that is really a broker (product salesman). Fee only is better but DIY is best. "the BCT study found that the raw returns of equally weighted mutual funds (net of all expenses) for 1996 to 2002 were 6.626% for the investors working on their
own and were 2.924% for funds provided by advisors. In other words, the public working on its own did more than 100% better than financial advisors when it came to selecting equity mutual funds. After factoring in inflation and taxes, clients of financial advisors lost money and lost purchasing power." http://trendfollowing.com/whitepaper/The Study of the Decade.pdf Thanks for your time! :) | 
