Imagine being whacked with an annual fee for a service you didn't get. You would want to know about it, right? Apparently we've voted not to.

The annual fees we pay to financial planners are so big they rival electricity bills. Many of us might not even remember the last time we saw a financial planner. But if we once did, and if that planner put us into a superannuation fund or investment product, it is likely the planner is continuing to get an ongoing "kickback" or "trailing commission" - year in, year out for as long as we stay with the product.

The annual fees we pay to financial planners are so big they rival electricity bills.

Worth typically 0.5 per cent of the funds under management, it gets bigger over time as our contact with the planner recedes into the past. It adds up to $500 on a fund with $100,000 under management, $1000 per year when the fund grows to $200,000 under management, and $2000 per year when it grows to $400,000.

It shouldn't be confused with the separate and larger annual fee for actually managing the money - that goes to the financial institution itself. The trailing commission is a hangover from the days when financial planners were called insurance salesmen. It was their commission for selling and keeping you in a product. (A separate, larger commission was paid to them upfront - taken directly from your funds before they were placed under management.)