Is Your Financial Adviser or Bank RM Worth the Fees? How to Check in 20 Minutes

Want the daily routine? Get the free 15-Minute Swing Trader’s Checklist. Get it free →

Last updated: 16 October 2026 · By Spencer Li, CFTe

---

Your adviser or bank relationship manager (RM) is worth the fees if the advice changes what you do for the better by more than it costs you each year. Most people never check, because the cost is spread across several layers and no single statement adds them up.

The check takes about 20 minutes. Add up every layer of cost as a yearly percentage. Find out how your adviser is paid. Then ask yourself what the advice has actually changed. If the answer to the last one is “not much”, you are paying for a product shelf, and you can probably buy from that shelf more cheaply yourself.

What does an adviser actually cost you?

More than the number on the first page, usually. A typical managed setup has 3 layers, and each one is a yearly percentage of what you hold.

MoneySense, the national financial education site, gives the ranges for unit trusts sold through distributors. The fund’s total expense ratio (TER) “is usually between 1.0% and 2.5% of the fund’s NAV”. If the fund sits on a platform, that can add “0 – 0.3% per annum”. Some setups add an advisory or wrap fee on top. For comparison, MoneySense says ETFs tracking the same index charge “from as low as 0.03% to over 0.5%”.

The middle layer is the one most people miss. MoneySense explains that “20% – 60% of the management fees are paid by the fund manager to the distributor”, and that this is “also known as a trailer fee.” So part of the yearly fee inside your fund may be what pays the person who recommended it.

All of this is disclosed somewhere, and it is all legitimate. The trouble is that it is spread across 3 different documents, the fund factsheet, the platform terms and the adviser’s fee agreement, and very few people sit down with all 3 at once and add them up.

How much does a 1.5% gap cost over 20 years?

A lot more than 1.5%. Here is a hypothetical case. Say you put SGD 100,000 into a portfolio, leave it for 20 years, and it grows at 6% a year before costs.

The same money, the same markets, and SGD 76,029 less at the end. That is about three quarters of the original sum. The 6% figure is only an assumption, but the gap grows the same way at any return, because the fee is taken every year from a bigger pot.

[INFOGRAPHIC: two lines from SGD 100,000 over 20 years, one at 0.25% a year and one at 1.75%, with the SGD 76,029 gap shaded]

MoneySense puts the principle in one line: “For your fund to grow in value, the returns must be greater than the fees and charges incurred.” The longer the horizon, the more the fee matters.

How is your adviser paid, and why does it matter?

Because it tells you which products they can sell and what pulls on their advice. The titles don’t help much here. MoneySense says people may call themselves “financial adviser, financial planner, financial consultant, insurance agent, or relationship manager”, and that “None of these titles are regulated”.

What is regulated is the person. Each representative has a “unique representative number issued by MAS”, and you can look them up on the MAS Register of Representatives. That tells you whether they are allowed to advise on what they are selling you.

Then there is the shelf. MoneySense is clear that “A tied agent of one insurer can only offer that insurer’s products.” An independent adviser, by contrast, takes no commercial benefits from product providers. But MoneySense adds a fair warning: “Independence does not mean the advice is better”. It only means one source of pressure is gone.

What are the 5 questions to ask your adviser?

MoneySense suggests most of these, and I have added the one about the total.

1. “What is my total yearly cost, as a single percentage, across every layer?”
2. “Are you restricted to recommending products from specific providers?”
3. “Do you have any commercial arrangements with the product providers you recommend?”
4. “What is the basis of this recommendation?” MoneySense tells consumers to “Ask for the basis of the recommendation in writing.”
5. “What can I buy that does the same job more cheaply, and why is this better?”

A good adviser will answer all 5 without discomfort. If one of them gets a vague answer, that is information too. And as MoneySense puts it: “If a recommendation does not feel right, you are not obligated to accept it.”

When is an adviser worth paying for?

When the advice does something you would never manage alone. That can be real.

A good adviser can stop you selling everything in a crash, which may be worth more than any fee. They can spot an insurance gap that would hurt your family, or help with estate planning, which is a legal job as much as an investing one. And some people simply won’t build or keep a plan alone. For them, a paid plan they follow can beat a free plan they abandon.

What is harder to justify is paying 2% a year for a portfolio of funds that mostly tracks the market. One thread title on the Bogleheads forum says it bluntly: “Lost a decade of growth due to a fiduciary financial advisor”. That is one person’s story, but the arithmetic in the table above is the same for everyone.

That alone is no reason to fire your adviser. Personally, I would split the question in 2. One part is whether the advice is worth paying for, and the other is whether the product shelf is worth paying for, because those are 2 different things with 2 different prices. You can keep the first and drop the second, by paying for a plan and then buying low-cost index funds yourself.

What if you want to go DIY instead?

Then start with the structure, and pick the products last. The DIY guide to building your investment portfolio walks through the whole build, and robo-adviser or DIY covers the middle path. If an adviser sold you an investment-linked policy, when surrendering an ILP makes sense goes through the numbers to ask for.

If you trade as well as invest, the free 15-Minute Swing Trader’s Checklist is at the end of this post.

Can you name your total yearly cost, as one number, right now? If you can’t, that is the first thing to find out.

FAQ

How much does a financial adviser cost in Singapore?

It depends on the setup. MoneySense says unit trust TERs are usually 1.0% to 2.5% a year, platforms can add up to 0.3%, and some setups add an advisory fee on top. Add every layer to get your real yearly cost.

What is a trailer fee?

It is a share of the fund’s management fee that the fund manager pays to the distributor who sold you the fund. MoneySense says it is typically 20% to 60% of the management fee.

How do I check if my financial adviser is licensed?

Look up their representative number on the MAS Register of Representatives. MoneySense notes that titles like “financial planner” or “relationship manager” are not regulated, but the representative number is.

Is an independent financial adviser better?

Not automatically. MoneySense says “Independence does not mean the advice is better”. It means the adviser does not take commercial benefits from product providers.

Go deeper

The free 15-Minute Swing Trader’s Checklist has the daily routine, the questions to ask before every trade, and the five rules that keep you in the game. Enter your email and we’ll send it over:

We use your email address to send you the checklist, then emails about trading and our courses. Unsubscribe any time. Privacy policy.

---

About the author. Spencer Li is the founder of Synapse Trading and a Certified Financial Technician (CFTe). His trade log is public: every trade since April 2024, dated, losses left in.

Educational content only, not personalised financial advice. Trading carries risk, including loss of capital. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Synapse Trading is not licensed or regulated by MAS.

Want the daily routine? Enter your email for the free 15-Minute Swing Trader's Checklist.

Free 5-page PDF, then occasional trading emails. Education only, not financial advice. Unsubscribe anytime. Kit stores your email in the US: see our privacy policy.

Want to learn the full method? The Trading Mastery Program teaches the 4 strategies I have traded since 2011. It suits beginners and experienced traders.

Rather follow the trades as they happen? Daily Trading Signals is our Telegram channel: my trade ideas with entry, stop and exit, and every trade is public.

Educational content only, not personalised financial advice. Trading carries risk, including loss of capital. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Synapse Trading is not licensed or regulated by MAS.