I have thought for a while that most of the financial advisers are just middlemen on the stock market, getting a small amount of my money by trading for me. If I just buy index funds I'll do fine. My financial adviser who charges me at 0.75% management fee didn't protect me from huge losses in 2008 and 2009. I don't necessarily blame her, but she was not really different than buying an index fund or a managed year retirement fund.