Do they add enough value to cover their fee? We dive into to unpacking the qualitative and quantitative components of potential value for investors from fee-only advisors. We also compare fee-only advice with other forms of advice and discuss why investment advice alone isn’t enough to justify 1% per year.
Meet with Marcus & Pat: https://outlook.office365.com/book/MarcusCalendaratGreenspringAdvisors@Greenspringos33.onmicrosoft.com
Sign Up for Email Updates: https://greenspringadvisors.com/greenstream-podcast/
Chapters:
00:00 Do Advisors Add Value Beyond Their Fee?
03:48 Investor Motivations for Hiring an Advisor1,2 – only 7-12% of investors cite returns as the primary reason they are hiring an advisor
09:41 Quantifying Advisor Value3,4 – the challenges of estimating value that is dependent on actions someone would take otherwise and incorporating nonfinancial factors
12:39 Asset Allocation and Rebalancing5,6,7 – are you taking the right type of risk (diversified) or enough risk?
25:17 Product Selection8,9 – do you know what fees you are paying and if you don’t, it’s probably more than necessary
32:08 Asset Location – matching the tax-efficiency of different investments with the appropriate type of account
40:43 Behavioral Coaching – helping investors understand when they shouldn’t take action and if they should take action, what is it?
50:04 Generating Income in Retirement8 – and avoiding ‘Boomer Candy’ products that prey on the desire for income
53:34 The Importance of Insurance – learning to detect the difference between insurance that protects and insurance that invests, which is typically inefficient
57:11 Tax Planning and Projections – good investment advisors should fill the gap left by tax preparers focused on tax compliance
01:02:16 Commissioned Advice – knowledgeable about the products they sell but incentivized to sell you more than you need
01:07:12 Fee-Only Advice – point in time advice is good but proactive advice unlocks more opportunities to add value
01:13:53 Different People Value Different Things At Different Times – the value of an advisor changes over time
Sources:
1 Why Do Investors Keep Their Advisor Around (Morningstar, 2024): https://www.morningstar.com/financial-advisors/why-do-investors-keep-their-financial-advisors-around
2 Dimensional Investor Study (2021): https://my.dimensional.com/2021-global-investor-study-key-takeaways
3 Vanguard’s Advisor Alpha (2022): https://corporate.vanguard.com/content/dam/corp/articles/pdf/putting_value_on_your_value_quantifying_vanguard_advisors_alpha.pdf
4 Russell’s Value of An Advisor (2025): https://russellinvestments.com/content/dam/ri/files/ca/en/individual-investor/insights/value-of-advisor.pdf
5 Money Doctors (Gennaioli, Shleifer, and Vishny, 2012): https://ssrn.com/abstract=2133429
6 The Three Ways To Beat The Market (Greenspring, 2025): https://youtu.be/XeGNGWNbF-8
7 What Can We Learn From Elite Institutions (Greenspring, 2025): https://youtu.be/2wXKgVGUmyo
8 Generating Retirement Income and the Allure of ‘Boomer Candy’ (Greenspring, 2025): https://youtu.be/Ms8uRmOC6EE
9 The Truth About Annuities (Greenspring, 2025): https://youtu.be/2gGq4lX2yP4
Follow on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/greenstream/id1795467982
Follow on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/26NYX6WD7godcJAYVE0Yk8
