‘I’m in my 30s and pay 1pc to my adviser to manage my pension and Isa. Am I wasting my money?’

Taking a look at your investments, your Isa fund, Quilter Investors Cirilium Moderate Blend Portfolio, is about two-thirds invested in the stock market, has 12.5pc in alternatives (like property and commodities) and 10.5pc in bonds.

There is also a hefty 11.3pc in cash, so you’re paying a fee to be out of the market. The building blocks of the portfolio are a mix of passive and actively managed funds.

The portfolio has returned 17.8pc since 2019. Meanwhile, global shares (as measured by the iShares Core MSCI World Ucits ETF), are up 43.7pc, according to data from FE Analytics.

I’m making a slightly unfair comparison, as owning just equities is riskier than a basket of stocks, bonds and alternatives, blended together to reduce volatility. The right comparison, I believe, would be a 60/40 fund of stocks and bonds.

Two alternatives on DIY investor platforms spring to mind: Vanguard LifeStrategy 60pc Equity and BlackRock MyMap 5 (which has 65pc invested in shares). These funds have risen 12.3pc and 19.9pc since the launch of the Quilter fund. They charge 0.22pc and 0.17pc in annual fees.

That’s just looking at the fund performance. Given that you are also paying a 1pc adviser fee, your returns will be lower. While returns on your Quilter fund have not been too shabby, you can see that there are alternatives out there that you can access yourself if you chose to do so.

Think about how long you are investing your Isa for and whether you need to draw on the cash in under five years, which is considered relatively short term in the investment world.

If you are investing for the longer term, then you can take more risk. If not, then think about whether you can afford for your portfolio to be exposed to asset classes which can be volatile and whether you have a cash buffer to use in case of emergencies.

Your Sipp is invested in another Quilter fund, Cirilium Dynamic Blend Portfolio. This is a portfolio targeting higher growth, with 85pc invested in shares and just 3.3pc in cash. It has risen 27.7pc since August 2019.

Now, financial advisers offer a very valuable service, but for investors at the start of their saving journey, the solution, in my view, is pretty simple: keep costs low, don’t be too conservative, maintain a diversified portfolio and stay invested, topping up your portfolio as much as you can.

If you were entering retirement, then managing your financial affairs can become more complicated and advisers can add a lot of value, particularly on tax.

You might very well be more than happy sticking entirely with something like the Vanguard LifeStrategy 60pc for a hands-off approach.

And while I think a multi-asset global diversified fund should still make up the lion’s share of your portfolio as a core holding, another reason for doing it yourself, if you’re interested in markets and global trends, is that you can have some fun with some riskier “satellite” positions, only making up a small percentage of your overall portfolio.

You are still young and can therefore afford to take some risks if you feel comfortable.

As one idea to explore, Goldman Sachs just upgraded its outlook for Chinese stocks, forecasting gains for the MSCI China and CSI 300 of 12pc and 15pc respectively in 2024 underpinned by an expectation of strong earnings growth. Check out Fidelity China Special Situations.

I admit that there’s an overwhelming amount of products, services, advisers and jargon out there in this industry so it can be hard to see the wood for the trees at times. But it doesn’t have to be daunting – there is a clear path via DIY investing to maintaining a sense of security, keeping fees low and hopefully achieving long-term returns.

Victoria is head of investment at Interactive Investor. Her columns should not be taken as advice or as a personal recommendation, but as a starting point for readers to undertake their own further research