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It all started with a couple of 401(k) accounts that my husband and I had accrued from previous jobs. They had each been rolled over to various custodian companies, but we knew that they weren’t growing the way they could be, and that we were almost certainly being charged outsized fees every month they sat there.

The answer was obvious. We knew we needed to move these to a different brokerage, somewhere we could manage them (and avoid those pesky fees). We’re both in our mid-30s — prime snowball years for our retirement accounts — so letting a decade’s worth of retirement contributions just sit instead of compounding was… dumb.

And we’re not dumb people! We’re both smart, responsible adults. We know all this. We know moving these retirement accounts is a high priority in the grand scheme of things.

Even so, we also have two-year-old twins, as well as a house to maintain and full-time jobs. We’re also trying hard to make time for soft priorities, like staying active every day, putting down roots in our community, and keeping up with our friends and family. At the end of most days, the things I cross off my to-do list are the most immediate ones, like getting the boys to stay in their beds after we close the door and making sure the dishes get done so we have clean plates for tomorrow. (Unfortunately, they’re often the things I’ll have to repeat over and over again.)

And so, the 401(k) accounts continued to languish, accruing dust instead of gains.

So when my husband mentioned he had scheduled a meeting with a money manager that works with a number of lawyers at his firm, I smiled at our good luck.

No, just kidding. I rolled my eyes at how ridiculous that was. We’re both very knowledgeable about the economy and stock market. We can easily manage our own assets and retirement plans. We don’t need to pay a percentage of our returns to a guy to do it for us. Plus, we don’t have that many assets to manage yet. It’s not like our financial situation was that complicated. Meeting with a money manager felt like aiming a bazooka at an ant hill.

So we had our initial meeting and talked about our spending and savings, our goals and concerns, etc. When it came to discussing our retirement planning, I mentioned the 401(k) situation and that I planned to move them to a different brokerage and roll them over into IRAs. “It’s high up on my list, and it’s something I know how to handle.” I assured him. Our guy nodded understandingly and agreed. “With your background, you’re certainly capable of taking care of that. You’d probably even do better than I would!”

But when we had our follow-up meeting a month later to review his suggestions for maximizing our retirement savings, I still hadn’t done anything about moving my old 401(k). Neither had my husband.

And that’s when it clicked for me. As soon as our call ended, I turned to my husband. “I think we should let this guy manage our finances. And I think we should let them move those 401(k) accounts in house to manage."

Here’s why…

1. Our money will always be a higher priority for our money manager than it is for me.

I know how ridiculous that sounds — it’s our money, not his — but it’s the truth. Humans are notoriously bad at prioritizing the long term, even when it usually has the biggest impact. At this moment of my life, my priorities are the short-term things that need to happen every day for us to survive, like making sure everyone is eating, sleeping, and not taking other people’s Hot Wheels cars.

But for our money manager, one of his day-to-day priorities (doing his job) is directly tied to carrying out our long-term priorities (being financially secure). His literal job is to prioritize our long-term goals and make sure everything is on track in the short term to accomplish them. He makes sure all the minor housekeeping chores are taken care of. His eye is on the ball every day. My long term is his short term because it’s his day job.

Case in point, within two weeks of our follow-up meeting, we had sent over all the necessary paperwork they needed to bring our accounts in house, where he will manage them. And now I can cross that very important to-do item off my list.

2. Even though we’re a small client, we have the weight of a massive firm behind us.

When it comes to managing your wealth, it turns out size matters. My husband and I aren’t millionaires — not even close — but now that we’re working with a money manager, we’re suddenly benefiting from incredible resources we’d never have access to as individuals.

That’s because the company our asset manager works for has a substantial amount of combined assets under management, which they use to negotiate discounted institutional pricing that they pass on to their clients, even the small ones. Big firms also aren’t restricted to just publicly traded securities. Their size means they can tap into private market investments, providing diverse investment opportunities that help maximize returns.

By leveraging their size, asset management firms can help you get more value from your investments, making your money work harder for you.

3. Our money manager has a high-level view of our entire financial picture.

We all know it’s important to diversify our investment portfolios to make sure all our eggs aren’t in a single basket. It’s a crucial part of risk management, which is why it’s one of the first things you learn as an investor.

But many of us only diversify within a single asset group. Maybe your personal portfolio is balanced, but is your 401(k) investing in the same stocks? Are you contributing too much to only one kind of taxable asset (for example, maxing out your IRA) when you could be contributing to multiple types (opening an additional Roth vehicle). Are there other income streams you could benefit from in the off chance that you’re suddenly laid off, or is your job your only resource?

These are all questions our money manager is thinking about. In fact, I didn’t even consider these as pieces to the same puzzle. I thought about retirement accounts. Emergency savings. My personal investment portfolio. The savings plans for the boys. Our normal income. All separate from the others.

Our money manager thinks about “our money.”

4. Our money manager is solving problems I didn’t know existed.

As you can tell, there was a lot more that I needed to be thinking about beyond simply moving and rolling over a few 401(k) accounts. But I had no idea. And I have been researching and writing about money and investing for more than a decade!

Here’s a great example: We just significantly increased the amount of life insurance we have, even though we’re only in our 30s.

Previously, each of us only had the basic amount offered as a benefit by our employers. That’s actually more than either of us really thought we needed. We’re in our 30s and in pretty good health. It kind of seemed like a waste of money to already start paying into something that would theoretically go unused for decades. (Fingers crossed.)

But after meeting with a money manager and discussing our goals, he recommended we increase our insurance to a level where we’d be able to stay in our house should one of us suddenly die. Again, this was not something I had put a lot of thought into at this point.

And that’s the point. I shouldn’t be worrying about my or my husband’s death (and the financial complications that follow) on a daily basis. I don’t want to have to spend my free time combing through dense financial regulations to see if it will have some kind of impact on some kind of asset we own. I don’t want to wake up in a sweat in the middle of the night 15 years from now exclaiming, “The 401(k) accounts! I never moved them!”

We may be in our 30s now with just a few uncomplicated assets worth thinking about, but that won’t always be the case. And with a money manager keeping an eye on our future, I feel very reassured that when it’s time to send the boys to college, or retire, or any one of the long-term goals we have for ourselves, we’ll have the financial security to do so.

And for me, that is well worth a small percentage.