I'm the co-administrator for our company's 401k plan. I deal with the "average" investor on a day to day basis. Trust me...suggesting that investing in index funds is their best option is an understatement IMO. Just trying to get the average investor not to sabotage their investments by making horribly timed emotional decisions is very difficult. They have almost no chance of outperforming the indexes by attempting to pick the best value funds. Even if they did stumble upon one of the few funds that outperforms for a long period of time chances are they'd bail the first year the fund underperforms and chase the past performance of another "hot" fund.