Is Investment Advice Too Expensive?

 After WWII, when the wealthier members of the Greatest Generation opened investment management accounts at a bank or trust, their annual expense was probably about 1.5% to 2% – half a percent as a management fee plus one percent or more in "full-service" brokerage commissions.

These days, investment management fees tend to be higher but, with luck, transaction costs are lower. Total annual running costs probably are about the same.

Could change be coming at last? Will relatively low-cost online services lead to a price war? As we suggested recently, not necessarily – at least not in the high-net-worth segment of the market. The sums multimillionaires pay for investment services don't seem so extravagant when you consider the cascade of fees they face when traveling.

This year, hotels will collect more than $2 billion from fees they tack on to their room rates. My favorite: a $25 fee for putting your own can of Coke to cool in the minibar.

By the time a high-net-worth investor returns home, he or she may see wealth management as a bargain.