Let me guess - you think financial advisors aren't worth their fees, and their jobs are entirely obviated by index funds with sensible portfolio allocations. Is that about the sum of it?

Everyone who agrees with you already nodded to themselves in agreement and scrolled on. No one who doesn't already agree with your just-so statement was persuaded to consider a different perspective. You came into a conversation about the professional merits of education and used a passing comment about financial advisors to inject your ideology.

So what'd we achieve? What's this all been for?

Problem is, like used car salesmen, lawyers and mechanics, they are a useful, if not nessarry people in many cases, but are also in a unique position to fuck you. A good one is worth their weight and then some. The extremes make for most public perception, and here we are.

Wow! Not sure where all these assumptions came from, but let's try to get back to the simple point of the original post. Financial advisers, at their best, inject common sense and steady judgment into the lives of some highly successful people who might make reckless money decisions otherwise. That's impossible without commanding the respect of your clients.

Consider a guy I know that we'll call Jack. He's rich and headstrong. On his own, he'd be buying jets and chasing hot tips in the stock market. A financial adviser helped Jack keep his money decisions sane enough that after the inevitable divorce, there was still enough money for Jack's kids to be able to go to college.

Focusing only on portfolio modeling (with or without index funds) misses the essence of the job. Getting the person-to-person stuff right is huge. College helps make that happen.

1 point by aswanson 2 minutes ago | parent | edit | delete [-] | on: Mike Judge, the Bard of Suck

Shut up. You went to a 4th rate school and are a 4th rate intellect doing backend web dev because you are 4th rate. Accept your lot in life, swallow it, and move on. You are inferior, and you know it. You are a genetic failure. Good night.

Yeah, cause there's no need of advice of as to what to do with the product of a life's efforts. You're so fucking dumb it defies imagination.

High school doesn't teach you how to bullshit!