Their mutual fund fees(including hidden costs) are likely much higher than similar index fund at Vanguard or an ETF would be. That likely adds at least another 1% in expenses each year for a total that might be 2% or more a year.

My SIL had a small IRA managed by a brokerage firm. The broker had bought mutual funds with expense fees >1% and high front-end loads (gee, I wonder why?). I had her transfer the funds to an online discount broker, sold all of them, and re-invested in various Vanguard index ETFs. The result was a 6.5% gain in value versus a 3.1% gain on a tracking portfolio of the old funds. I think the expense fees and other hidden costs account for the gain differential between the two portfolios. Makes me think the manager expertise wasn't worth it.

I suggest the OP check out this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Investment-Answer-Protect-Financial-eb...

It gives the basics of investing and various asset allocations. You end up creating a buy and forget portfolio, maybe re-allocating once a year.