Can I take a tax deduction for the fee I pay to my financial advisor who manage my retirement account/investment?

At the heart of each economic calamity that we have faced the past 25 years is a consumer lacking competent financial guidance. Think about it. From partnership tax scams to the IPO/Internet craze to the mortgage crisis to excessive debt, these broad-based calamities simply represent the vast accumulation of undeniably bad individual financial decisions.

No one disputes the benefits of financial planning as a guidepost to future economic prosperity . For the individual. What is missing from public policy and tax regulations is a recognition that we similarly benefit collectively should financial planning become as common individually as an annual physical or personal tax advice.

Currently, the ability to deduct a financial-planning fee from one's taxes is questionable. To do so, one would lump it into the item "Investment fees and expenses" buried under the sub-category of "Other Expenses", which itself is under the deduction type "Miscellaneous Expenses" captured within Schedule A! And, the sum of all these Miscellaneous Expenses is subject to the 2% Limit on Adjusted Gross Income.

In other words, only the excess above the 2% AGI Limit is deductible. Consider that for the tax year 2007, the total amount of Miscellaneous Expense deductions for all individual tax returns was $23.96 billion, and of this amount, $21.11 billion (88.11%) was for gambling losses. Instead of directing people to protect their future financial security with a full financial planning tax deduction, we are reducing federal tax revenues by allowing deductions for risky financial practices at the extreme!

With the wide array of specific deductions available, only a financial planning tax deduction offers such a great boost to one's personal financial security. Making the public-policy decision to explicitly and fully allow the deductibility of a financial-planning fee from taxes brings much needed visibility -- and endorsement -- to the necessity of greater financial security individually and nationally.