For the past year or so my dad has been giving us money to invest, but he has us locked into his wealth manager. He seems to have done very well for my dad, but the fees seem a bit silly for what my husband and I use him for. Frankly I think the only reason he even took us on as clients is as a favor to my dad and because he is sort of "investing" in us after my parents pass on because I think our account is small (but very large for us) compared to his normal clientele and he's handling one small account not juggling a bunch of different things. My husband has a 401k and Roth on the side which he maxes contributions to.
We are now at the point where we have some of our own money to actually invest, but I am wondering if it wouldn't be smarter to open a roboadvising or self-directed account and do it ourselves without the fees. But then it does seem silly to have access to a whole wealth manager and not use him. But I don't know if we would stick with him long term after my parents pass on anyways. I calculated how much my dad has paid him in fees and it must be $150,000+ (over decades), and that's just what I know about. I think that makes sense for my parents as their finances are crazy complicated, and my dad swears he saved their asses in the 2000's and that the benefit of the fees for him is having someone who can predict markets and make moves before we (people who don't know anything about markets) would notice anything.
But I feel like it would be better for me to learn to DIY a little bit *now* so that when I have to take that over in the future I can really look at whether we want to continue with his group or not. I would still invest all the money my dad gives us with him, which would be a lot more than what my husband and I are doing. And when the times comes (hopefully a long time in the future) when we inherit from my parents, I can compare how the money we invested did vs the money that was invested with him.
Any thoughts? Is it silly to have access to a wealth manager and not use him?