Paying advisor/AUM fees for advice people suspect is worthless

Pain point

People hand money to advisors or are trapped in 1% AUM 401(k) plans, then realize the fee drag (one commenter computed ~$8,300 opportunity cost; another ~$6,000/yr in plan fees) dwarfs any value received.

Signal

Very strong — recurs across 3 independent threads. "Advisor vs index fund" post ~465 upvotes with top comments at 1018 and 287 ("vast majority do not need a financial advisor"); 401(k) fee post ~61 with a 116-score "you're stuck" comment; windfall post ~331 with "Do not let anyone manage it for you" at 598.

Opportunity

A "Fee X-Ray" tool: connect/upload brokerage + 401(k) statements, auto-detect AUM fees, expense ratios, and loads, and project 10/20/30-yr dollar cost vs. a 3-fund benchmark, ending in a one-click "here's your exit script / rollover checklist." Monetize via flat-fee ($200–500) one-time fiduciary review or lead-gen to flat-fee planners. *Feasibility: medium — fee parsing is the hard part; an MVP with manual statement upload + LLM extraction is quick.*

Evidence

• Advisor vs S&P
• 1% 401k fee
• I have 90k