Investment banking business if far more profitable than managing accounts for investors. Accounting firms make more from consulting than from auditing. Advisors make more from moving money from here to there than just holding it. No one is making more money for getting it right and often they make far more for getting it wrong.

Agency theory says that there is a cost to a principal for having an agent work for them because the goals of the principal and the agent are not totally aligned. In other words, the agent acts in their own best interest and that isn’t 100% in the best interest of the principal.

Is there anyway to align the goals of investors and those agents that they use during the investing process?