InvestSMART offers a range of products and resources to help investors to reduce their total costs of investing. These include a popular free online Portfolio Manager; low fee investment products independent research from an experienced investment team; and Compare Your Fund, an online resource that allows investors to compare the fees and performance of managed funds and superannuation funds.

Paying just 1% more in fees could slash your investment by 26% - InvestSMARTresearch. New research from digital wealth provider InvestSMART is putting the spotlight on the devastating effect high fees and costs can have on investor nest eggs.

Data modelling in InvestSMART’s new paper, How fees can destroy your wealth, shows someone who had invested $100,000 in Australian shares over the 30 years to June 2018 at a fee of 0.5% would have $1,207,807 at the end of the period, while a fee of 1.5% would have netted them just $896,5081 – almost 26% less.

From financial advice fees to platform and fund manager fees, the total costs involved in investing are having a significant impact on investment outcomes.

Commenting on the findings InvestSMART CEO Ron Hodge said in most cases, fees rather than returns make the biggest difference to investors’ quality of life in later years.“What we found is that many investors are paying for outperformance and getting the opposite. Our research shows that on average fund managers are underperforming by the amount of their fees,” he said.“We want to help investors to understand the depth and the extent of the fees they are paying and the impact it has on their savings over time, because a small number can make a big difference.”