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.
What $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.
At $100,000 the investing is nearly free. The judgment is what costs money.
If you want to price the full-service alternative before deciding, the matching service below introduces you to advisers who pay to meet you — it accepts every asset level.
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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.
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