Guides › Is an Advisor Worth It
Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: it depends on which job you are buying, and that is answerable. Start with the price: in our benchmark of published adviser fee schedules, the weighted median annual cost is $2,000 to $2,500 at $250,000, $3,750 to $5,000 at $500,000, $8,750 to $10,000 at $1 million and $16,000 to $19,375 at $2 million. Now the test: can you name a decision, this year, worth more than that number? For four common situations the answer is a clear yes. For the rest it is usually no, and the honest alternative is to buy advice by the hour instead of by the percent.
Where the fee is recovered outright
Withdrawal sequencing in retirement. Drawing from the wrong account in the wrong years costs lifetime tax that dwarfs any plausible fee — the withdrawal-order calculator. A one-time claiming or conversion decision. Social Security timing and the low-bracket conversion window are single choices with permanent consequences — claiming-age calculator. A concentrated or illiquid position: employer stock, a business, an inherited property. Behaviour in a bad market. The unglamorous one, and the one with the best evidence behind it: an adviser who stops you selling into a decline has earned several years of fees in a week. Note what is not on this list: security selection.
Where it usually is not worth it
A single 401(k) in a target-date fund, no taxable account of consequence, a decade or more from retirement, and a demonstrated ability to leave it alone. Paying 1% a year on that is buying an answer to a question you do not have. The same goes for the years between decisions: even people who genuinely needed help in 2024 may not need an ongoing percentage in 2026. That is an argument for buying advice episodically — hourly, by the project, or advice-only — rather than an argument for going it alone.
The comparison people actually get wrong
It is not adviser versus no adviser. It is which pricing model. Percentage-of-assets billing charges more every year the market rises, whether or not the work changes; flat and hourly arrangements do not. The break-even calculator shows exactly where the lines cross for your balance, the decision aid narrows the model, and whether 1% specifically is worth it takes the most common version of the question head on. If you already pay a fee and want to know whether it is high, that is a different page with a real answer: am I paying too much in advisor fees.
Your situation, specifically
At $100,000 · already retired · versus doing it yourself · Vanguard Personal Advisor versus an independent adviser. By balance: the service-tier ladder. And the dollar-free necessity test: the complexity checklist.
The question is never worth it in general. It is worth it for what.
Name the decision you want made, then ask two or three advisers what they would do about it and what they charge. The matching service below introduces you to advisers who pay to meet you.
Before you start, what actually happens. The form is run by Kapitalwise, our advisor-matching partner. It asks about nine questions — age, investable assets, location — then your name, email and phone number, and verifies the phone by text.
Kapitalwise sends your details to advisers who pay for the introduction, so expect calls and texts. Clear Money Guide is paid when you submit the form, whether or not you ever hire anyone. Nothing loads and nothing reaches Kapitalwise until you press the button.
Compare fees, scope, conflicts, credentials and fiduciary duty before you hire anyone.
The Kapitalwise form opens here — you stay on this page.
If the answer is yes. Work out which service tier fits your balance at the ladder by net worth, then check whoever you meet with the twenty-minute vet. If the answer is no, or not this one: switching advisors is administration, not a confrontation.
Before you decide it is worth it, price it. If you already pay an adviser, the fastest way to know whether the fee is fair is to compare it to what firms actually disclose at your balance: check your own fee against this data.