> What financial advisor is going to be able to make a living telling people to buy and hold a target date retirement fund from Vanguard/Fidelity/Schwab?
The kind you pay for by the hour and for whom it would be a criminal violation of fiduciary duty sell you an expensive whole life insurance that they get a commission for.
It would be the opposite of financial advice to pay someone to walk you through that flow chart and click a few buttons to invest it in the lowest cost index funds. I also don't recommend people hire a plumber to fix their toilet. Just youtube it. Do a few simple searches online, and you will find that you don't need to pay an "advisor", as much of their role has been obviated.
First, that most people don't need a financial advisor doesn't mean nobody does.
Second, your "few simple searches online" or "youtube it" could just as well land a financially naive person in the clutches of the worst kind of exploitative financial predator, or some disaster prophet telling them to put everything in physical gold, or some hype train telling them bitcoin will make them rich.
It takes a certain amount of knowledge to recognize good advice, especially when it's boring.
For the vast majority of people, paying someone $100/hour to tell them to buy and hold a target date retirement fund from Vanguard/Fidelity/Schwab is a much better option than the likely alternatives (going to a commission-based "free" advisor, or taking advice from random people in the internet).
The kind you pay for by the hour and for whom it would be a criminal violation of fiduciary duty sell you an expensive whole life insurance that they get a commission for.