Adviser Fee Impact Calculator NZ 2026/27
Financial advice is priced in a way that makes it hard to judge. A fee quoted as one percent sounds modest against a portfolio, and the amount deducted each year rarely feels large enough to interrogate, but the arithmetic over decades produces numbers that surprise most people who run them for the first time. This page does that arithmetic honestly and then does the harder second half, which is asking what the fee has to deliver in order to be worth paying. Both halves matter. Showing only the cost would be misleading, because it implies that a fee is a loss rather than a price, and the same calculation applied to insurance or an accountant would look equally alarming while telling you nothing useful. So alongside the cost you will find the break-even, which is simply the fee itself restated as a performance requirement, and a comparison against something advisers genuinely do prevent. An investor who sells during a serious market fall and returns after the recovery has begun does themselves damage that dwarfs several years of fees in a single decision, and avoiding that outcome is a more reliable source of adviser value than picking better investments. None of this settles the question for you, because the largest parts of what an adviser provides cannot be expressed as a return figure at all. It does mean you can weigh a specific number against a specific benefit rather than a vague sense that fees are either fine or outrageous.
Cost is the difference in final balance between paying the advice fee and not paying it, so it captures compounding rather than just the sum of the fees.
Fees paid are accumulated year by year on the declining balance, which is why they are smaller than a simple fee multiplied by years would suggest.
Growth lost is the total cost less the fees paid. It is the part that never appears on a statement, and it is usually the larger of the two.
Break-even is the fee itself. An adviser adding exactly their fee each year, net of their own costs, leaves you level, which follows directly from the arithmetic rather than from any assumption.
The avoided panic sale models selling at the bottom of a fall, holding cash through the rebound, and buying back afterwards. The immediate loss is then compounded forward at the no-adviser net return for the remaining period.
Excluded: tax, which applies to both paths; contributions and withdrawals; and any adjustment for advisers who negotiate lower fund fees, which would reduce the net cost.
A single fixed return is used throughout, so real variability is not modelled.
Not financial advice. Last verified: August 2026.
The cost by holding period
| After | With the advice fee | Without it | Cost | Share of the balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 years | $330,629.72 | $346,560.79 | $15,931.07 | 4.60% |
| 10 years | $437,264.05 | $480,417.53 | $43,153.48 | 8.98% |
| 15 years | $578,289.96 | $665,975.52 | $87,685.56 | 13.17% |
| 20 years | $764,799.38 | $923,204.01 | $158,404.63 | 17.16% |
| 25 years | $1,011,461.62 | $1,279,785.25 | $268,323.63 | 20.97% |
| 30 years | $1,337,677.09 | $1,774,093.56 | $436,416.47 | 24.60% |
The share rises with time rather than staying fixed, because the fee is charged on a balance that would otherwise have been compounding.
What different fee levels cost
| Advice fee | Final balance | Cost over the period | Share of the balance | Must add each year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.25% | $1,206,924.78 | $72,860.47 | 5.69% | 0.25% |
| 0.50% | $1,138,055.59 | $141,729.66 | 11.07% | 0.50% |
| 0.75% | $1,072,967.68 | $206,817.57 | 16.16% | 0.75% |
| 1.00% | $1,011,461.62 | $268,323.63 | 20.97% | 1.00% |
| 1.50% | $898,447.33 | $381,337.92 | 29.80% | 1.50% |
The break-even column is the same figure as the fee. That is not a coincidence, it is what a fee means expressed as a requirement.
What one avoided mistake is worth
| Scenario | Value after the episode | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| Held through the fall and the rebound | $210,000.00 | the baseline |
| Sold at the bottom, returned after the rebound | $179,112.50 | -$30,887.50 |
| Carried forward to year 25 | $148,119.41 | 1.13x the total fees |
One panic sale avoided over the whole relationship roughly pays for it. This is the strongest argument for advice, and it applies only if you would actually have sold.
Percentage fee against a fixed fee
| Portfolio | At 1.00% | A $3,000 fixed fee | Fixed fee as a percentage | Cheaper option |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $100,000.00 | $1,000.00 | $3,000.00 | 3.00% | Percentage |
| $250,000.00 | $2,500.00 | $3,000.00 | 1.20% | Percentage |
| $500,000.00 | $5,000.00 | $3,000.00 | 0.60% | Fixed |
| $1,000,000.00 | $10,000.00 | $3,000.00 | 0.30% | Fixed |
The work involved does not scale with the balance, so percentage pricing costs a large portfolio considerably more for broadly the same service.
Most Of The Cost Is Invisible
The number that shows on your statements is not the number that matters.
Over 25 years on the worked example you pay $131,182.46 in advice fees. The actual cost is $268,323.63. The difference, $137,141.17, is the growth those fees would have produced had they stayed invested.
More than half the cost of advice never appears on any document you receive. That is not a criticism of how fees are disclosed, it is simply how compounding works, and it applies identically to fund fees and to tax.
Worked Example: 1% On $250,000
Without the advice fee: $250,000.00 growing at 6.75% net of the fund fee reaches $1,279,785.25 after 25 years.
With it: the same portfolio at 5.75% reaches $1,011,461.62.
The gap: $268,323.63, which is 20.97% of the fee-free balance.
A one percent fee costs roughly a fifth of the outcome over a working lifetime. That is the figure worth having in mind, not the one percent.
The Break-Even Is Just The Fee
The requirement is unusually simple to state. An adviser charging 1.00% must add 1.00% a year, after their own costs, for you to finish level.
What makes this interesting is where that value can come from. Consistently beating the market by one percent a year is a demanding standard that most professional managers do not meet.
But the value does not have to come from returns. It can come from a better ownership structure, a correct PIR, capturing employer and government contributions in full, saving more consistently, or not doing something expensive during a bad year. Several of those are far more achievable than outperformance, and our PIR overpayment recovery calculator and fund fee drag calculator show how large a couple of them can be.
The Case On The Other Side
The strongest argument for advice is not outperformance, it is behaviour, and it is worth taking seriously because the numbers are large.
An investor holding $250,000.00 who sells at the bottom of a 30.00% fall and buys back after a 20.00% rebound ends the episode with $179,112.50 instead of $210,000.00. That is $30,887.50 lost in one decision, and carried forward it becomes $148,119.41 by year 25.
A single avoided sale is worth 1.13 times the entire 25 years of fees on this example. If you know you would have sold, the fee has probably paid for itself. If you know you would not have, that argument does not apply to you, and it is worth being honest about which describes you.
How The Fee Is Charged Matters Too
Percentage pricing and fixed pricing diverge sharply as portfolios grow, because the work does not grow with them.
At $100,000.00 a 1.00% fee is $1,000.00 and a $3,000.00 fixed fee is 3.00%, so percentage pricing wins comfortably. At $1,000,000.00 the percentage fee is $10,000.00 while the fixed fee is 0.30%, and the ordering reverses.
Reviewing an arrangement as a portfolio grows is reasonable rather than ungrateful, since a fee agreed at one balance can become a different proposition at another. Our fixed fee vs percentage fee calculator works out where the crossover sits for your own numbers.
What The Arithmetic Cannot Tell You
This page prices one side of a two-sided question, and it should be read that way.
Estate planning, trust structures, insurance, tax, and the value of a considered second opinion when a decision is difficult are all real and none of them are return figures. Someone who inherits a complex estate or runs a business will often get more from advice than any fee comparison suggests.
What the calculator does give you is a precise figure for the cost, which is the harder half to estimate intuitively. Knowing that a fee costs a fifth of the eventual outcome makes it a decision rather than a default, and that is the useful outcome regardless of which way you go.
Related NZ Investment Fee Calculators
- Fund Fee Drag Calculator: the same arithmetic for fund management fees.
- Fixed Fee vs Percentage Fee Calculator: where the two pricing models cross over.
- PIR Overpayment Recovery Calculator: one place advice can add real value.
- Investment Time Horizon Risk Calculator: how likely the bad year is.
- Platform Switching Cost Calculator: what changing arrangement costs.