It's one thing to charge dead people.
But what about the fact that 99℅ of people don't really need financial advice?
Just don't buy crap on a credit card. Pay highest interest debt first. Bang, that's all that most people need.
Financial advisers and tax agents just charge fees for telling people about tax dodges etc. Get rid of the tax code and all the special exceptions and deductions. Get rid of these con artists.
As far as I've been aware there's been a LOT of change in the Financial Advisor area - the last time I used one was in the 'bad old days' where the one we chose (who happened to have been my 'best' childhood friend) only put you on products that paid them commissions and also charged a fee on top of this. The commissions were often 'lifetime' in nature, so as long as we stayed with BT - he'd get the commission. The guy actually told me his 'dream' was to generate enough off these so he didn't even have to get out of bed in the morning.
At the time I worked in the corporate travel manager area - and the trend in these was to return ALL commissions back to the client and then charge a service fee for the actual work done. He was VERY against this but reluctantly agreed - but then I found out he was keeping a bunch of extra commissions hidden from us - as I wrote to the financial product providers asking them to disclose any commissions paid (what they apparently were legally obliged to do).
He chucked an absolute tantrum - saying this was completely not the industry norm - and said he was launching 'new' offer for us and other clients. Wanted 2% of our net assets under management each year as a service fee! I said cya and never looked back.
He was always very money hungry - and working in this area made it worse. I believe the rules have been changed a lot and fee for service is now common practice (as I told him it would be). I think they still have a place if you're either completely clueless or need a complex financial structure….but for most folks a few hours reading and the prevelance of excellent ETFs have made financial advisors less necessary.
Other caveat is if you're at special point in your life e.g retirement etc - but I'd only use them as a one off consultation or similar, not an ongoing service.