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additional services could be tax prep, trustee fees, the fee may include other accounts not being charged at all (Charitable trust), they may have foreign accounts with additional paperwork, there may be concierge services for the family including some legal representation included in the fee. There may be direct ownership of real estate management fees included as asset fees. The client may have chosen a day trading type service. Every firm offers a different variety of services. The flat fee versus paying individually per hour or per trade as a commission isn't an easy answer. A local journalist declared that any financial professional charging a commission was a suspect for over charging - horrible thought process IMO. Paying $500 to buy $40,000 of Exxon Mobil to own the next 40 years isn't a bad choice if they are providing you services. Paying .5% per year to own a 20 year bond? It's also easy to declare that anyone can do it on their own. The same could be said about tax preparation. We all know that's not the reality.

Personal expenses - no deduction. If there would be a deduction for those costs, then I would think the recipients would have to pick up those funds as taxable income. And even then, you might bump into the assignment of income issues (or some such thing). No site - just years and years of making an effort to try to make this stuff make sense. And further, all of these costs are for the living - therefore, they have nothing to do with the estate. There is no decedent's estate based upon your statement of facts. No one has, as of your posting, died. The three brothers need to be commended for stepping up. But I think that is where it stays. If they do get "reimbursed" I would leave it for what it is - a gift in an effort to say "thanks". You asked for opinions - those are mine.

I think it's a ridiculously high fee. (And I can almost guarantee you she is paying more than 1.35% when you add in the hidden costs) But she might think he's worth it. After all, he drives a nice car, wears expensive suits, has a flashy office. Those things cost money, you know. I suggest you print this off and give it to her. http://johncbogle.com/speeches/JCB_AZ_Republic_3-00.pdf If she can understand plain English, it will help her make the right decision.

I agree with Ron and will go one step further. Deductible medical travel/transportation includes those expenses for the patient, and someone accompanying, for the patient to get medical care or treatment. In your case, the mom isn't traveling anywhere. Also, specifically excluded from deductible medical travel expenses are those that are merely for the general improvement of one's health, so even if the travel we are discussing was the mom's travel, the travel to interview and hire specific caregivers (vs say, choosing an agency from recommendations or others' feedback) would more likely be related to generally improving mom's situation as opposed to receiving specific medical care or treatment. The travel for sons to get to mom is personal commuting, nothing more. If mom wants to help the sons through her estate beyond their inheritance and reward one or more of them over other siblings or beneficiaries, she can bump up their share of the inheritance or increase the executor fee they might receive. Of course, any executor fee would be taxable income to the recipient.

Maybe. The legal fees would have to fall within the scope of those that would be deductible on Sch A as a miscellaneous deduction subject to the 2% of AGI haircut.

Depends on the level of service being offered. I work as a financial advisor, and some advisors charge more because they do more than just manage money. Don't be so quick to jump to conclusions based on the fee itself

It depends on the results he's getting. I'd rather pay 2% for "great results within the market" than 1% for average results.

Sage advice: "Do not treat long term investments with short term thinking." Not following this caused the 2007-2008 stock market crash. Wise investors held their course. We held the course, made no changes to this very day in our investment strategies, and have reaped great earnings.

Well, that's definitely more than six years, so good for her. I think they say that the stock market has historically gained about10% a year, on average. Of course, we all know what that means: not much to an individual. Maybe nobody got 10%.

Her money manager is a family friend of her son, which doesn't necessarily mean much. But, her statements show publically-traded stocks that do show typical selling prices for the ones I know or notice. And, it's a tight-knit Jewish community, so I'm not going to try to butt in when I don't suspect anything and know her son watches over her account. She's been making great money for 25-50 years and more. It's her only income. Raised a son, bought a home in Fairfield County, donates to musical charities, travels, lives a good life, pays her taxes, covers her increasing medical expenses in her old age, etc. Her son was paying per trade at a discount brokerage, but moved over to his friend and pays percentage of his assets now.

I would add that almost everyone has had big gains since March 9, 2009. Energy funds have gone down for about a year, but about everything else has done very well for the past six years. We have been in the third longest bull market in history. Yes, we heard the record scratch sound in August, but a pineapple could have successfully managed funds during the past six years. http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/25/investing/stocks-market-in-5-simple-charts/ http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/06/investing/stocks-market-3rd-longest-us-bull-market/