In fact, it’s almost certainly harder to find a genuinely useful financial planner than it is to “do it yourself.” For 99% of us the basics are plenty. How much more do you need to know than John Bogle will tell you for free? Still, if you want the graduate course, read David Swensen.

This really isn’t rocket science.

Wow, does it ever depend. This is the business I am transitioning toward, so I am also a bit biased with some real world experience. Advice varies with each person, couple, family, and situation that financially changes their lives and the wishes they have.

There is so much information out there, and so much misinformation as well.

Poor decisions about money can bite you, figuratively at least. Consider the hard working employee that one day after 30 years, has had enough work and decides to retire.

Knowing nothing about the rules of retirement accounts, and only overhearing years ago about the employer having a 401(k) did the employee save anything, then when saving – elected the money market option.

Upon retiring, elected the lump sum (and since the employee was only 57 years old was penalized appropriately).

The employee saved a little, was penalized to the max, and wound up taking a job clerking, stocking, and sacking groceries since Social Security and Medicare won’t kick in until later on. The spouse had to remain working to keep insurance on the two of them.

Since the rules are so draconian, whatever decision is made is set in stone with no opportunity for a reversal. There is nothing that can be done except be thankful Social Security is there for them in a few years.

Good investment advice can be had for a reasonable price, but it has to be sought out. It may cost some money – even a fairly hefty current fee in today’s dollars, but the cost of getting no advice can be much higher in future dollars.

Investing in money markets with 30 years until retirement is not prudent, and taking a lump sum at retirement before attaining at least 59.5 years of age shows a total abscence of education, advice, planning and judgement.

Do Only the “Rich” Get Good Investment Advice?

No, but anyone wanting to do invest appropriately for differing goals that has neither the will, nor the inclination to get educated, or the necessary mental fortitude to deal with market events would do well to invest in an advisor they trust so they don’t make crucial mistakes.

Good advice is out there, but you have to take more time than you do when picking a movie to watch to look for it.

2. Ricemutt’s right – there’s lots of stuff that becomes available once you cross certain thresholds. Among other things, you can’t get anywhere near VC funds without a seven-digit net worth, usually starting with a crooked number. Other funds have a “net worth disclosure” where you have to affirm that your non-house net worth is over a certain amount before you can invest. Higher-end financial types know about these, but the dude at Schwab or American Express probably doesn’t.

3. Rich people don’t need the “elementary education” stuff that ordinary people need (did you fund your 401K at least to the employer match?) basically by definition. So there is a market for investment education and a market for “wealth management”, and they are probably two different markets. The American Express guy probably can help with this, except when he’s trying to sell you overpriced annuities and such…

At that level, I have a really hard time believing that those people get _better_ investment advice. They may have more access to advice, period, because they sign up with a brokerage firm that solicits its services, because they have peers who invest, or because they have access to CNBC on cable TV. But that advice is not necessarily good.

If you truly get into the “rich” category of Americans, then I think there’s something else at play that might be getting mistaken for getting good advice.

At wealth levels beginning at $5-10M or so, all sorts of higher-echelon financial services open up that offer access to oftentimes superior investment classes such as institutional shares (with lower management fees) and private equity (e.g. private placement and private offering), to name a few. These are vehicles to which that those with less money seldom have access. In which case, sure, the rich get “better” advice