I know this wasn’t your direct question and I’ve got no idea if your advisor was any good, but it sounds like you were comparing apples and oranges (a diversified portfolio vs the sp500) and the issue was probably more that you weren’t on the same page with risk appetite or allocations. A fiduciary is likely going to advise you against an all sp500 portfolio, and if all you want is to buy an sp500 etf or mutual fund, then paying an advisor to manage it seems silly. My dad lives across the country and I set him up with a fiduciary through NAPFA and he still occasionally grumbles when the advisor adds friction to some of the (frankly bad) investment decisions he makes like chasing weed or gold stocks. He’s the perfect example of someone who should be hands off and has a negative expected value making financial decisions. But enough of what you didn’t ask for. 😂

One of the challenges with helping people with financial advise is not projecting your own goals or tolerances, you need to know the full picture and their behavior. Do they have debt? Are they saving for a house? College? Will they chase meme stocks? Panic sell in a down turn?

And if it goes badly — like a recession popping up right after you help them, you can end up the target of frustrations and strain a relationship.

So I try to give general guidance if it’s sought, and push people to a fiduciary if they really want to get their house in order. I’m happy to provide them self help resources if they want to get into it (bogleheads wikis, a random walk down wallstreet, etc). This puts them in the driver’s seat instead of you.