Each layer in the business charges a fee, eating into investment returns. :
(Bloomberg View) --To borrow a joke from the movie “Shrek,” money management is like a parfait -- it has a lot of layers. There’s the person who recommends investments for you -- a financial adviser, a wealth manager, a pension-fund manager or a private banker. Then there are the managers of the funds they invest in, or which you invest in on their recommendation. Finally, there are brokers, dealers, exchanges and other intermediaries that handle the actual trading of the assets the fund managers buy.