Morningstar calls it Gamma (the value of better financial planning decisions); Vanguard calls it Adviser's Alpha.  Obviously a difficult value to quantify, Morningstar has estimated an adviser's value over time to be equal to an extra 1.59% investment return per year; Vanguard's CIO Tim Buckley stated it can be up to 3% per year (1.5% from smart allocation decisions, 0.6% from tax efficiency, 0.5% from reducing costs, 0.4% from rebalancing).

This concept is a good summary of some of my goals in working with my clients:

1.  Smart investing decisions: Staying on-track with asset allocation (smart rebalancing) and making good buying & selling decisions.  Many retail investors underperform institutions due to fear-based decision-making that leads to buying-high & selling-low.  One of my goals is to avoid chasing returns and making these kinds of mistakes.

2.  Tax-efficiency: Optimally allocating money between taxable and tax-deferred accounts, making opportunistic withdrawals to reduce capital gains, and choosing tax-efficient investment vehicles.

3.  Cutting costs by selecting low-cost investments and product types, as well as looking for other non-investment-related opportunities to reduce cash outflows.