A one per cent fee sounds small. Over thirty years, it can eat a third of your final portfolio. Time turns small fees into large losses.
Where you start, what you add, and the gross return assumption.
Two fee levels to compare, e.g. a costly active fund against a cheap index.
Final-portfolio gap between the high-fee and low-fee paths.
Over 30 years at % gross, a £1,261,688% fee leaves versus at £1,487,063%, of compounded wealth lost, 15% of the final balance.
Illustrative figures only. Real-world fee structures bundle platform, fund TER, transaction costs, and advisor fees in different ways. For your specific situation, consult a qualified adviser.
Worth surfaces the fees you actually pay across every wrapper and provider, and shows what they compound to. Then the trade-offs that are worth it, and the ones quietly eating returns. Join the waitlist.
For a self-managed index portfolio: under 0.30 per cent all-in is excellent (platform plus fund TER). 0.30 to 0.50 per cent is reasonable. 0.50 to 0.80 per cent is on the high side. Above one per cent needs justification. If you have an advisor, expect to pay an additional 0.50 to 1.00 per cent for their service. Fair if they earn it via tax planning, behavioural coaching, and complex situations. Expensive if they are just rebalancing the portfolio annually.
Because fees compound. Every year a fee comes out, the portfolio is smaller, so next year's gain on that money is smaller too. Over thirty years, the compounding gap dwarfs the headline fee number. The longer the horizon, the worse it gets.
Yes. Transaction costs, bid-ask spreads, fund-of-fund layering, advisor platform mark-ups, exit penalties. The published ongoing charges figure is often less than the true all-in cost. When choosing, ask for the all-in number including transaction costs and any platform tier-up at higher balances.
Sometimes. The value is in tax planning, complex household coordination, behaviour during volatile markets, and complex financial events (divorce, inheritance, sale of a business). Pure rebalancing of a passive portfolio is not usually worth advisor-level fees. The honest test: would you make a different decision without their input, and is that decision worth the fee?