Start with your instinct
Would you pay $5,000 every year for advice?
Imagine a $500,000 portfolio and a 1% annual fee. Keep your first reaction in mind; the goal is not to move it in either direction.
A useful correction
More money does not automatically mean more need for advice.
Which household might benefit most? There is no single answer until you know what decisions are connected and how difficult they are to reverse.
$180k invested
Variable income, young children, employer stock, and an aging parent.
$2.4m invested
A pension covers spending and the remaining portfolio is diversified and simple.
$850k invested
A business sale, estate documents, and a multi-state tax question are approaching.
Your decisions
Which decisions are relevant now?
Select only decisions you expect to face in roughly the next five years. We made judgment calls about these categories — you can see them and disagree.
Did you know? "Financial advisor" isn't a licensed title in the U.S. — anyone can use it. Credentials like CFP® (Certified Financial Planner) are the ones that require passing an exam and meeting real experience and ethics requirements. Source: CFP Board.
Your financial life
What else connects to those decisions?
One choice can affect another. Select only what meaningfully applies to you.
Connected areas — built from your answers, not a control
Select a decision or connection to build this summary. Nothing is inferred yet.
Your role
How much do you want to handle yourself?
Use your best judgment. There is no perfect answer.
Did you know? Morningstar's long-running "Mind the Gap" research has repeatedly found that the average investor earns less than the funds they're invested in — not because the funds underperform, but because of when investors buy and sell. Source: Morningstar, "Mind the Gap".
Define the service
What would you actually be paying for?
Select only work you expect someone else to perform. Portfolio management alone cannot create an ongoing-advice result.
Your result
Your next step
Ready to see your result?
It uses only the choices above. It does not cover your whole financial life, the cost of a service, or whether a particular professional is right for you.
Compare the cost
What would professional help cost—and what would it have to accomplish?
Change any number and see the result immediately. Financial benefit starts at zero—we will not assume that paid help saves or earns money.
Did you know? You can look up any financial advisor's disciplinary history for free — before paying them anything — at FINRA BrokerCheck or the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site. Source: FINRA / SEC.
Enter only an amount you can explain. Time saved and peace of mind are not automatically given a dollar value.
Not sure what to put here? See where advice value usually comes from
Research from asset managers and advisory groups — including Vanguard's "Advisor's Alpha" and Russell Investments' "Value of an Advisor" — breaks advice value into a few specific pieces: keeping a portfolio rebalanced, placing investments in the right account type for taxes, choosing a risk level you can actually stick with, and — the piece these studies usually credit most — behavioral coaching, meaning help not panic-selling in a downturn or chasing performance.
Treat those studies with real caution: they're published by firms with an obvious interest in the answer being "advice pays for itself," and they typically compare against a poorly-behaved do-it-yourself investor, not a disciplined low-cost index-fund holder who already captures much of that value for free. There is no single "typical" number this guide will give you — if none of these pieces apply to your situation, $0 is a reasonable, honest answer.
First-year fee
$5,000
Direct fees · 20 years
$163,593
Difference in what you'd end up with
$271,975
When benefit catches up with cost
Blue: cost · Green: valueThe cost still hasn't been paid back by the benefit after 20 years under these assumptions.
This does not guess whether paid help improves investment returns. It compares only the cost and benefit amounts entered here.
Percentage fees use the balance at the start of each year in this example. Fixed, hourly, monthly, and one-time fees are deducted at year end. A real agreement may charge at different times, including quarterly.
Short answers
The questions behind the guide
Do I need a financial advisor?
There is no universal answer. Professional help may become more useful when decisions are consequential, difficult to reverse, or connected across taxes, retirement, investments, insurance, estate planning, or a business. A simple financial life and strong ability and desire to manage it can make DIY reasonable.
How much money should you have before hiring a financial advisor?
There is no universal portfolio threshold. The amount involved affects the stakes, but the number of connected decisions, how hard they are to undo, the help you need, and its cost can matter as much as wealth.
Is a 1% financial advisor fee expensive?
A 1% annual fee is $1,000 on $100,000, $5,000 on $500,000, and $10,000 on $1 million under a simple annual-balance illustration. Whether it is worthwhile depends on the billing method, services, alternatives, and value to you.
Can I hire a financial advisor only once?
Depending on availability and scope, professional help may be hourly, project-based, a one-time plan, periodic planning, subscription-based, asset-based, or ongoing. Confirm the actual services, credentials, conflicts, and fee agreement.
Methodology
How the guide works
The guide looks at how difficult your decisions are, what could happen if they go wrong, how hard they are to undo, how they connect, and how much you want to handle yourself. It does not use wealth as a shortcut. Every result includes reasons and limits.
Read SwitchWize methodologyPrivacy
Local, coarse, and optional
This guide doesn't ask for a name, login, account connection, exact balance, employer, or location. Answers stay in memory and reset when the page closes. We may measure whether the guide loaded and which broad result appeared, but not your selections, amounts, or slider values.
Primary sources
Verify fees, services, and professional background
Educational decision support only. This guide compares the factors and assumptions you choose. It does not evaluate your complete circumstances, and it does not tell you what to do. If you consider professional help, verify the person, scope, fees, and conflicts directly.