What Does Your Advisor Actually Cost You?
Same $750,000. Two Advisors. $443,000 Apart.
Nobody can promise you a return. But there's one guaranteed way to lose money in investing, and that's fees. They come out every year, up market or down.
So the real question isn't whether you pay fees. It's whether you're getting your money's worth.
Before you can answer that, you need to know what you're actually paying. Most people only know half.
You pay two fees, not one
When you hire an advisor, there are two costs.
The first is the advisory fee. It's on the fee schedule, it's on your invoice and it's the one everybody compares.
The second is what the investments themselves cost. If your portfolio holds mutual funds or ETFs, each one charges an expense ratio. It comes out of the fund's return before it ever reaches you. It's not a line item on your statement. You never get a bill. Most people never look it up.
Not every portfolio carries this cost. One built from individual stocks or bonds has no fund inside it, so there's no expense ratio to pay. I build portfolios both ways depending on the client. A good fund earns its place. Its cost still counts, and you should know what it is.
Add the two together, even if one of them is zero, and you get your all-in cost. That's the number that matters.
What the all-in number looks like
Say you have $750,000 and you're interviewing two advisors.
Advisor A
Advisory fee: 1.25%
Expense ratios: 0.75%
All-in cost: 2.00%
Longevity Wealth Advisory
Advisory fee: 0.95%
Expense ratios: 0% to 0.15% for my core models, depending on the strategy
All-in cost: 0.95% to 1.10%
My 0.95% is what my tiered schedule works out to on $750,000. Every dollar above $500,000 is charged less than 1.00%, and the fee steps down again at $1 million and at $3 million and from $3 million to $5 million. The full schedule is in my Form ADV [link].
In year one that's $15,000 with Advisor A and $8,250 with me. Same account. $6,750 apart before anything compounds.
Now stretch it out. The math is simple. Start with $750,000. Grow it at a hypothetical 8% a year. Take out each advisor's all-in cost every year. Repeat for 20 years. For my side I'll use 1.10%, the top of the range.
Advisor A | LWA | |
Return before costs | 8.0% | 8.0% |
All-in cost | 2.0% | 1.1% |
What you keep | 6.0% | 6.9% |
After 20 years | $2,405,000 | $2,848,000 |
The gap is about $443,000. Here's where it comes from:
Source of the gap | |
Advisory fee (1.25% vs 0.95%) | $156,000 |
Expense ratios (0.75% vs 0.15%) | $287,000 |
Total | $443,000 |
And because my advisory fee tiers down as your assets grow, the math gets even more dramatic for larger accounts. If we run this same 20-year example starting with $2,000,000, my blended advisory fee drops to 0.81% and moves down from there. The final gap between the two portfolios expands to over $1.3 million after 20 years, all else being equal.
The advisory fee is the one you would have compared. The expense ratios are the one most people never look at, and they did almost twice the damage.
Nobody made a bad investment. Nobody picked the wrong fund (well, sometimes). The only difference is what it cost to own the portfolio.
One caution. This is a math illustration, not a forecast. I picked 8% to show how compounding works, not because I expect it. Real returns bounce around and some years are negative. Advisor A is made up, and fees vary a lot from firm to firm. Full disclosure at the bottom.
So are the fees worth it?
It all comes down to what those fees actually buy you.
Take expense ratios. You can buy a fund that owns the entire U.S. stock market for pennies on the dollar. A specialized fund can easily cost ten times that. If your portfolio genuinely needs that specific exposure, you're paying for a purpose. If not, you're just throwing money away.
Advisory fees are no different. Imagine two advisors are 0.30% apart on a $750,000 portfolio—a difference of $2,250 a year. If the more expensive advisor is actively running Roth conversion analyses, talking to your CPA at year-end, managing your capital gains, and reviewing your estate plan, that $2,250 is a steal. But if they just invest your money and put you on autopilot? It's a rip-off. (And frankly, paying a "cheap" advisor to just shove you into an index fund and ignore you until your annual review isn't a good deal either).
Bottom line: Every fee you pay should buy something you can name. Here is what you get with me.
What the fee buys here
One fee, priced to be competitive for what's included: investment management and ongoing financial planning together, no commissions, no separate planning charge. Here's what that looks like in my practice:
Investing beyond your borders. Portfolios built to own the world, not just the US, with the cost of every piece on the table.
Planning for a long life. The plan assumes you could live to 95, because plenty of people do. That changes how much you can spend, which account you draw from first, when to start Social Security and how to cover healthcare before Medicare.
Taxes every year, not just in April. Which accounts hold which investments. Whether a Roth conversion makes sense this year, next year or never. Harvesting losses when the market hands them to you. I don't prepare tax returns or give formal tax advice, so I work alongside your CPA rather than replacing them.
The rest of the picture. Cash flow. Insurance coverage review (I don't sell insurance, so there's nothing to push). An estate plan check-up alongside your attorney. Employee benefits. College funding.
Three questions to ask your current advisor
You don't need a spreadsheet to figure out where you stand. Just ask them:
What's my all-in cost, advisory fee plus expense ratios or any model strategist fees, as a percentage and in dollars?
What planning work is included, and what did we actually do last year?
Do you receive any compensation from the products in my account?
For what it's worth, my answer to number three is none. I'm fee-only. No commissions, no product payments, nothing from anyone but the clients I work for.
If their answers are clear and the fee buys real, measurable work, stay put—a higher fee with real value behind it beats a lower one with nothing. But if they dodge the question, hesitate, or just give you a shrug, you already know everything you need to know.
Want your all-in number?
I offer a free introductory call. Virtual, about 30 minutes, no obligation.
I'll gather some pertinent info and recent statements. You'll leave with:
An understanding of what you are paying now
An honest second opinion on your portfolio and what I would do differently, if anything
Actionable takeaways to help you make smarter decisions moving forward.
Disclosures
Longevity Wealth Advisory LLC ("LWA") is a registered investment adviser in the State of Wisconsin. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. This post is educational, not personalized investment, tax or legal advice.
The example is hypothetical and for illustration only. It assumes a constant 8% annual return before costs for 20 years and subtracts each advisor's all-in cost each year. The 8% is an assumption, not a forecast, and does not reflect the actual or expected performance of any LWA account or strategy. Actual returns vary, include losing years and may be lower than shown. The example excludes taxes, trading costs and deposits or withdrawals. "Advisor A" is hypothetical. Advisory fees and expense ratios vary widely.
LWA's fee is a blended, tiered schedule described in our Form ADV Part 2A [link]. 0.95% is the effective rate on a $750,000 account and is held constant in the illustration; under the schedule it would decline as assets grow. Because of our $375 minimum quarterly fee, accounts under roughly $150,000 pay an effective rate above 1.00%. Fees are negotiable. Lower fees for comparable services may be available from other sources.
Expense ratio figures reflect LWA's core fund models as of August 2026, come from each fund's most recent prospectus and are subject to change. Actual fund costs depend on the strategy and holdings selected; strategies using alternative or actively managed funds cost more than the range shown. International, smaller-company and specialized funds carry additional risks, including greater volatility, less liquidity and currency risk. No fund or investment approach is guaranteed to outperform a broad market index. Mentions of other products or services are general commentary, not endorsements.
Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results. LWA does not prepare tax returns or provide formal tax or legal advice. Consult a qualified professional before acting on anything here.
