A fee is charged on your whole balance every year, and every dollar it removes stops compounding for you — so small percentage differences grow into large dollar differences. On an illustrative $100,000 at a hypothetical smooth 6% for 30 years, paying 2% instead of 1% ends roughly $107,854 behind (illustration, not a projection). Our own fee is 1.5%–2.0% — above a robo-advisor's — and this page shows what it buys so you can judge the trade with the arithmetic in front of you.
Why a small percentage becomes big money
Investment fees are quoted in numbers that sound like rounding errors — 0.25%, 1%, 2% per year. The trap is that a fee is charged on the whole balance, every year, forever, and every dollar it removes also removes all the growth that dollar would have earned afterward. Fees compound by exactly the same arithmetic that makes your returns compound — just pointed the other way. The SEC's investor education office has published bulletins making this same point, because percentage framing reliably hides it — and cost is also the main reason the index-versus-active evidence runs the way it does.
The arithmetic, worked in the open
Assumptions, clearly labeled: a one-time $100,000 investment, a hypothetical 6% annual gross return every year for 30 years, no additions or withdrawals, and the only variable being the annual fee, deducted from the return each year. Real markets do not return a smooth 6% — this is an illustration built to isolate the fee effect, not a projection of any investment, and not a guarantee of anything. With that said:
| Annual fee | Net assumed return | Value after 30 years | Given up to fees vs the 0% row |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.00% (theoretical) | 6.00% | $574,349 | — |
| 0.25% | 5.75% | $535,071 | $39,278 |
| 1.00% | 5.00% | $432,194 | $142,155 |
| 1.50% | 4.50% | $374,532 | $199,817 |
| 2.00% | 4.00% | $324,340 | $250,009 |
Read one comparison out loud: on these illustrative assumptions, a 1 percentage point difference — 1.00% versus 2.00% — ends up as a difference of roughly $107,854 after 30 years, on a $100,000 start. Not because anyone stole anything, but because the removed dollars stopped compounding. The percentages differ by "one"; the outcomes differ by a house down payment. Our fee analyzer runs this arithmetic with your own numbers and shows its assumptions on screen.
Fees stack — count all the layers
| Layer | What it is | Where it hides |
|---|---|---|
| Fund expense ratios | The annual cost of each fund you own | Prospectus; never itemized on your statement |
| Advisory fee | What an advisor or robo-advisor charges on assets | Form ADV Part 2A for any registered adviser |
| Plan administration | Recordkeeping fees inside a 401(k) | The plan's annual fee disclosure |
| Frictions | Trading spreads, sales loads, 12b-1 fees, account charges | Fund documents and fee schedules |
The number that compounds against you is the total of the stack — a modest advisory fee atop expensive funds can cost more than the reverse. The comparison worth making across any two options is all-in cost against all-in service.
Our own fee, held up to this page's light
Honesty requires running our own numbers through the same arithmetic. Aduna Capital charges 1.5%–2.0% of assets per year, published on our fees page and in our Form ADV. That is above what a typical robo-advisor charges for automated portfolio management, and far above the cost of a do-it-yourself index portfolio — and as the table above shows, the difference is real money over decades. We will not pretend otherwise, and if low-cost automated management is all you need, a robo or a DIY portfolio is the rational choice and we'll say so on a call.
What the fee buys, so you can judge the trade: a dedicated bilingual advisor rather than a support queue; actual financial planning — goals, taxes, family obligations — not just portfolio software; options strategies where they fit; a $0 minimum, because we built the firm for households the industry ignores; and a fiduciary who answers the phone in the years that test the plan — when the rebalancing feels impossible and selling everything feels wise. Whether that's worth the fee is genuinely your call, and the whole point of this page is that you make it with the arithmetic in front of you — ours included.
Sources
- Investor.gov (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) — the SEC's investor education site — plain-English explainers on funds, fees and risk
- SEC.gov — Office of Investor Education and Advocacy — investor bulletins, including those on ETFs, options and fee disclosure
- S&P Dow Jones Indices — SPIVA Scorecards — the long-running scorecard comparing actively managed funds against their benchmarks
Sources reviewed August 2026. Rules, figures and scorecards change; the linked originals are always the authority.
Common questions
Where do I find what I'm actually paying now?
Three places: the expense ratio of each fund you own (in the prospectus or any quote page), your advisor's Form ADV Part 2A fee schedule if you use one (free at adviserinfo.sec.gov), and — for a 401(k) — the plan's annual fee disclosure. Add the layers; the total is the number that compounds. Our fee analyzer does the projection arithmetic.
Is a higher fee ever worth paying?
It can be — when it buys something that changes your outcome: planning you'd never do alone, tax decisions done right, or an advisor who keeps you invested through a crash you'd otherwise have sold into. What's never worth paying for is a high fee attached to nothing but a fund lineup. Demand to know exactly what sits behind the percentage — including from us.
Why does Aduna Capital charge more than a robo-advisor?
Because we do different work: a named bilingual advisor, real planning around family obligations and taxes, options strategies where suitable, and a $0 minimum that most human-advice firms won't touch. If automated rebalancing is all you need, the robo is cheaper and we'll tell you so. Our full schedule is on the fees page.
Do these illustrations mean I'd have exactly these amounts?
No. The table assumes a smooth hypothetical 6% return that no real market delivers, and it exists only to isolate how fees compound. Actual results depend on actual returns, timing, taxes and behavior — the illustration is a flashlight, not a forecast.
Want your all-in cost on one page?
Bring your statements. We'll add up every layer you're paying now and compare it honestly with ours — including the case for not hiring us.