Funny. They want to continue to be able to give you advice that is in their interest, but not yours, so that they can give it to you cheap. Unless you have a lot of money, the person that calls himself/herself your financial adviser is in fact a salesperson, with motives that don't equate with making you the most money possible. Your financial adviser is making a commission for selling things to you. I'm currently transferring our IRA from a managing firm to a self-managed account. We were paying just over 2% of the principle per year to have it managed, regardless of how well they do on our behalf. That's a bad deal. 2% doesn't sound like much, but if you make about a 6% return each year, it equates to about 50% of your total earnings over the life of the investment.