Do-it-yourself investing is becoming an increasingly popular option for people. The rise of technology and access to online services that allow you to invest on your own has been widely embraced. Many financial advisors have helped to accelerate this trend by alienating investors - putting their own compensation and market efforts ahead of client outcomes.
More specifically, selling high-cost products and claiming to provide services (security selection and market timing) they cannot possibly hope to perform successfully (but that investors want to believe is possible). What's more, investors are becoming increasingly aware of their investment costs, and avoiding the fees that an advisor charges is the easiest way to do this.
But would investors be so inclined to go the do-it-yourself route if they knew how to find a good financial advisor and learned that this approach could possibly save them many multiples of the fees they pay? I'm not…