Is 401(k) advice worth the annual cost?
I hear this objection almost every business day.
Let’s get it out of the way early in the article.
“Is your 401(k) advice actually worth it?”
After 26 years of guiding individual 401(k) investors.
I’ve developed a simple but powerful framework to answer that question.
It’s not abstract. It’s not emotional. It’s math.
To calculate the value of personalized 401(k) advice:
- The annual investment advice fees paid
- The realization of improved investment performance
- Results in the net value of the advice
If you paid $2,000 annually for 401(k) investment advice.
And your 401(k) mutual funds outperformed the market averages.
Then the value of that advice likely exceeded its cost.
That’s not validation.
Because nothing in 401(k) investing guarantees outperformance.
But here’s the key:
Advice is only worth paying if it delivers more than it costs.
That’s the fiduciary standard I hold myself to.
And it’s the standard every individual 401(k) investor deserves.
The question is:
Are you getting 401(k) investment advice that earns its keep?
P.S. You don’t know the value of 401(k) advice until you do the real math.
