With retirement accounts tumbling and millions of homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages, a realization is dawning on many Americans: The banks, brokerage firms, insurance companies and other players in the financial-services industry have failed them.

Thirty years ago, a typical consumer had a fixed-rate mortgage, a life-insurance policy, a bank account and an employer-paid pension plan. Nowadays, that same consumer may have a payment option adjustable-rate mortgage, a 401(k) retirement-savings plan, a home-equity line of credit and perhaps even a health-savings account instead of traditional employer-sponsored health insurance writes Eleanor Laise in the Wall Street Journal.

In the process, risks previously borne by big banks and employers have been placed squarely on the shoulders of consumers. Individuals increasingly bear the risk of interest-rate fluctuations, rising health-care costs, stock-market gyrations and outliving their retirement savings.

Adam Gamradt, 31 years old, of Bloomington, Minn., believes the market slide has created a great opportunity to buy stocks, but he contributes only enough to his employer’s retirement-savings plan to get the full company match. That’s because he is dismayed by the plan’s pricey investment options and lack of information on total plan costs.

“If I’m going to buy a BMW for anybody, it should be me,” says Mr. Gamradt, an information-technology worker. “I wouldn’t exactly say the financial-services industry is at war with your average American consumer, but it’s d- close.”

The financial-services industry sold this personal-responsibility revolution by claiming that complex offerings like adjustable-rate mortgages and health-savings accounts would empower consumers to manage their ever-expanding portfolio of risks.

The new products created billions of dollars in fees that have powered Wall Street’s growth — even in recent years as the stock market stagnated. The financial sector’s share of total U.S. corporate profits jumped to 35% in 2007, up from 10% in the early 1980s, according to investment research firm BCA Research.

Now, of course, many of the products cooked up by Wall Street are exploding — and dragging down the financial-services industry with them. Whether the industry will return to record profit levels again is a question mark. If the public veers away from such products, the financial sector could shrink drastically.

Read more here: Some Consumers Say Wall Street Failed Them