A
typical actively managed high net worth individual will underperform
a passive index investor by from 2% to 5% a year (William Bernstein,
The Four Pillars of Investing). When this is done really
well, clients can be completely unaware of the poor
performance they are getting.
The
stock market was up 2,485% from 1982-2001. Were you?
Wall
Street Magic:
Making Your Money Disappear
Sadly,
the high net worth individual is often treated as little more
than a cow hooked up to Wall Street's milking machine.
Here
is a graph showing the growth of $1,000 invested in the S&P
500 in 1982:

Here
are your same returns with a draconian 5% per year removed due
to fees, commissions, spreads, churning, inappropriate investment
selection, soft dollar arrangements, etc.:

Stages
of Investing