“There should be no fees, and certainly no fixed fee as a percentage of portfolio size— this gives NO incentive for the investment professional to earn money for their client”
This is false.
If your having ncome depends on the growth of a portfolio, you have incentive to not lose money and promote growth.
It is demonstrably not false; the financial advisors I know (and I know quite a few) all adapt the same strategy— get leads to find wealthiest clients and hook in as many as possible to gain wealth— NOT grow portfolios. If you are telling me you honestly believe that financial advisors make money by building wealth and not by marketing and expanding client base I’ve got a bridge to sell you. When you have 50 clients like me with assets at or over $1M and you are getting 1%+; you get at least $500k per year if you never make them another penny. My personal advisor is managing a bit more than that, and she gets very disturbed when I bring this up— I would prefer an arrangement where she is incentivized and is forced to gain wealth by making money on every portfolio, instead of just by expanding client base and coasting. That would force her to do actual analysis, take risk, and be accountable for decisions instead of just parking money in different places. She is the best I have found, because she is like family and absolutely trust her to treat my money like her own, but I want someone who wants to get rich, not treat my money like their own.