I just inherited some money and have invested it through a brokerage firm working with my credit union?

I give you a lot of credit for noticing the fees and being concerned that they are high. Nobody makes a big deal of the fees they charge and most people assume 1-2% isn't a lot.

Then when they realize if they pay 2% every year, after 20 years that adds up to 40%!

Here's how your fees are sapping your account. 1% to the advisor regardless of results. That's 1% every year.

Then 0.88% is probably the Expense Ratio of your investments. Again, taken from you every year.

And the 4.75% is a "load" (sales charge) that you pay because your advisor is putting you in a load fund instead of a no-load, which your advisor could do, but it doesn't make as much money for your advisor.

I have to say that you are paying way more than you need to, although what you're paying is not unusual. Most people feel investing is complicated and only the experts can be successful - but that's simply not true. Advisors WANT you to think you can't do it yourself. But you can.

Read the book "The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing". Go to the wiki at bogleheads.org and look for "three fund portfolio" as an example of how simple it can be. You can manage your own investments and be just as successful as the people who charge you all that money. It's not hard and it's not magic and you don't have to be a wizard.

Low fees make a huge difference in the long run. Take charge of your own investments now and save yourself thousands of dollars. After you read the book, and understand the concept of load and no-load funds, tell your advisor you only want no-load, low-cost index funds in your account. Don't be surprised if your advisor refuses and tries to convince you that you don't know what you're talking about, because doing that would put a serious dent in your advisor's income. That should be all the push you need to stop using a high-paid advisor and control your own investments.

You are new to all this.

You have an adviser you like.

Your fees are reasonable, but you could do a little better.

like pepsi broke down the fees correctly:

1% advisory fee.

0.88% fund expense ratio

4.75% front end load mutual fund fee.

You could use an advisor from Edward Jones (www.edwardjones.com) and knock off the 1% advisory fee. They will meet with you face to face, and they are experts at both helping you understand things and helping you stay the course. The other fees would remain essentially the same.

The 4.75% front end load fee will be reduced as your account grows. More money in that family of funds results in lower load fees.

Since you are new to all this and don't understand much, it is advisable to use an adviser to help you invest (just not the one that's charging you 1%). If you are inclined to study a bit and pick up some investing knowledge on your own, you may later want to begin to make your own investment decisions without an adviser. This would leave you with very, very low fees (like less than 0.5%). But that time can wait.

Edit 1) ONE MORE THING. Not that you asked. But if you have a sizable inheritance you SHOULD be paying off your debt first.... including your house.

I personally like index funds like the Index 500 at vanguard.com . The fees are something like 0.12%, and there is NO CHARGE to add or take money out. And the returns have been better than most managed mutual funds, especially those that have to court business from a bank or credit union.

That said, I also have a managed account elsewhere, and pay something like 2.5% on that, with no charge to add or remove money. But I have a long historical view of this place, and understand their philosophy as to how they make trading decisions. I wouldn't just put my money anywhere, even at a place with a good track record, without understanding how they operate.

What you might do is divide your money between, say, vanguard and your present place. Then see, over a period of perhaps 2-3 years, which does better. Maybe open a new Roth at Vanguard, or roll over some of your other one.

A total of 1.88% is not the lowest fee available, but it is FAR from being the highest, either! If you are HAPPY and comfortable with your Advisor, I wouldn't worry about it all, so long as your total annual returns are consistently higher than if you just put your money all in a broad market ETF like SPY or DIA...

A 1.88% difference in what you put in over the next twenty-five years at $5,500 a year amounts to the difference between ending up with $135,586 and $164,743 (8% return versus 9.88% return)