Recently, I have taken a keen interest in gardening, particularly in growing my own fruit and vegies. As I plant and nurture my seedlings and my young fruit trees, I notice that it is not one or two insects, but many I need to contend with to ensure that they do not destroy my crop before I can harvest it.

So it is with an investment portfolio. The investor works hard and begins to ‘sow’ into investments so that he/she can reap a better financial harvest in the future.

Unfortunately, there are also a few pests (ie fees) in your investment portfolio that will eat away at your future financial harvest. Most investors are not aware that there are more than one or two pests, but as many as seven pests that are effectively plundering your allocated pension, super and/or personal investment funds.

As you have requested a copy of our handbook , ‘“What am I paying my financial advisor for?” you are obviously interested in knowing how you can save thousands or even ten’s of thousands of dollars in fees every year. I congratulate you on this because most investors find it all too difficult and bury their head in the sand on this issue.

Over the last decade the benchmark return for a balanced fund has been ‘4.51% per annum. When you deduct the fees you are incurring from this return you are left with an even lower result. I believe over the next decade that investment markets will continue to underperform and therefore believe it is imperative that investors learn and understand what they are paying in fees and respond by reducing them.

By restructuring your allocated pension, super or personal investments and reducing your fees, I believe you can ‘improve your investment returns by 1.00% to 2.50% per annum and thereby save thousand’s, even ten’s of thousand’ of dollars.

In the handbook, ‘What am I paying my financial advisor for?’ (Part 1) I talk about upfront & regular entry fees, management fees, trailing commissions and platform fees. In the handbook ‘‘What am I paying my financial advisor for?’ (Part 2) The seven fees you need to know about, I focus the discussion on the last three fees: the buy/sell margin, the cash rip-off and the loss of wealth by stealth.

These topics are rarely discussed by planners but are realities that are causing you to lose thousands, even ten’s of thousands of your wealth every year.