Gnomon, I am confused have you ever compared Vanguards best long term fund to other long term funds both load and no load with the same investment objective. There are many both load and no load which have in fact out performed Vanguard and have done so with less volatility both long term or short. My son and I handle in excess of $275 million for clients, we use commission or fee, whichever makes more sense for the client. Our velocity is .52 which means we earn $1,430,000 gross commission or fee whichever you want to call it. If I worked for fee only at 1% as you suggest, I would earn $2,750,000. If a client buys a bond, say a tax fee municipal which he intends to hold for many years is he better off paying an upfront sales chg. built into the price such as paying par (100) for a bond the firm bought at (99) 1% markup or (98) 2% markup and hold it without further cost for 5,10,20 years or would you rather buy it for (98) and then get charged 1% for every year that you own it. I always believe that most FA's who are successful do care about their clients and as a result build their business through referrals from happy clients. In my case I have many clients with 4 generations in the same family, all of which started 30 yrs. ago. As to conflict of interest don't all business have this conflict. I don't remember the plumber, car dealer, Lowes, HD, Apple, or Ford or your utility company telling you the markup they are charging. Believe me ALL the brokerage firms would love it if all brokers worked for a fee rather than a transaction or commission. I am approaching 65 this year and hope we can continue to earn ou fee or commission by guiding our clients who become friends in the years ahead to help them reach their life goals. Have a good day and I wish all success in their investment choices.