Clear Money Guide
What this guide covers
A quick view of the questions and evidence developed below.
Guides › Is an Advisor Worth It
Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: usually not as an ongoing percentage, and the arithmetic is simple enough to do in your head. At a 1% rate, $100,000 costs $1,000 a year — that is arithmetic on a stated rate, not a measured median: the lowest balance our benchmark of published adviser fee schedules measures is $250,000, so no benchmark figure is claimed here. The question is what the $1,000 buys, and the honest answer is that the investing part is now nearly free. A single target-date or broad-market index fund handles allocation and rebalancing for a small fraction of a percent, automatically, forever.
What the target-date fund already does for you
It sets an allocation appropriate to your horizon, rebalances it without being asked, and shifts it more conservative as the date approaches. That is most of what a portfolio needs at $100,000, and it is the majority of what an ongoing percentage fee is actually delivering at this balance. Paying $1,000 a year on top of it is paying for judgment; the sensible test is therefore whether you have a judgment problem or an investing problem. Most people at $100,000 have neither, yet — they have a savings-rate problem, which no adviser can fix and no fee improves.
Compare your next step
Just comparing fees? Keep reading the fee guide.Optional next step
Want help weighing your own fee?
Ask an adviser to price your own situation against the numbers on this page.
- No fee to request a match
- No obligation to hire
Expect questions about your situation, your name, email and phone, and phone verification by text. A match is not guaranteed.
The form is run by Kapitalwise, our advisor-matching partner. 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. This is free to you and there is no obligation to hire anyone.
Opens here. Nothing loads and nothing reaches Kapitalwise until you press the button.
How our partner relationships workCompare an adviser match before you decide
Ask about the full fee, what it covers and how the adviser is paid. A match is an introduction, not a recommendation from Clear Money Guide.
- Free matching service
- No obligation to hire
The matching service is run by WiserAdvisor, an independent advisor-matching company. It opens on their site, asks for your ZIP code and a few questions, and matches you with 2 to 3 vetted advisors. It is free to you. WiserAdvisor states the service is built for portfolios of $250,000 and above. By submitting, you consent to emails, phone calls and text messages from WiserAdvisor and up to three advisors, so expect to be contacted. Advisers pay for the introduction. Clear Money Guide is paid when you complete the form, whether or not you ever hire anyone. There is no obligation to hire anyone.
Continue to WiserAdvisorOpens on WiserAdvisor’s site in a new tab.
Source: WiserAdvisor’s service descriptionWhat $1,000 could buy instead
Three or four hours of a planner’s time, aimed at the specific questions you have: hourly rates and how many hours your situation needs. A one-off financial plan you implement yourself: project pricing and what planning services cost. An advice-only engagement, where nobody manages the money at all: advice-only versus fee-only. Or nothing at all, invested. On a 30-year horizon, $1,000 a year not spent is a meaningful sum, and that is the real comparison — not fee versus zero, but fee versus the same money compounding.
When DIY genuinely loses at this balance
Four cases, and they are about complexity rather than size. Equity compensation you do not fully understand — restricted stock, options, an employee purchase plan. A concentrated position in your own employer. A live transition: a divorce, a disability, a business starting or ending, a move between states with different tax treatment. A demonstrated behaviour problem — if you sold in the last decline, the fee is buying insurance against yourself and that is a legitimate purchase. In every one of these, a project engagement usually serves better than an ongoing percentage, because the need is a decision rather than a subscription.
The related question about access
This page is about whether it is worth it. Whether you can even get it is a separate problem at this balance, and the answer is measured: most percentage-of-assets firms will not take $100,000. Above this, the arithmetic changes: the break-even math by situation and is $250,000 enough.