how often do you meet w/someone to go over your portfolio?

[megacorp-firee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords I always agree to review our ER portfolio with Fidelity over the phone (they don't have a local investor center). The fresh meat reps usually learn a lot from me about how military pensions & healthcare work, along with Bernstein's advice on asset allocation and where to find low-cost ETFs. I see it as a calling to educate their staff whenever they give me the opportunity. Now that I think about it, though, I haven't had any of those calls in the last couple years...

maybe they stopped when you asked for the 1% of your portfolio as your fee ...

[FinanceDude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords I always agree to review our ER portfolio with Fidelity over the phone (they don't have a local investor center). The fresh meat reps usually learn a lot from me about how military pensions & healthcare work, along with Bernstein's advice on asset allocation and where to find low-cost ETFs. I see it as a calling to educate their staff whenever they give me the opportunity. Now that I think about it, though, I haven't had any of those calls in the last couple years...

While you are providing a valuable service, does it not seem sad that they don't know anything? What kind of "advice" are they providing to folks that don't know what you do??

[Bestwifeever]

"My financial planner has my money earning more than 20% a year and he's totally free."

A retired friend sent me the above information since he knows we can do an in-service withdrawal of 401K to roll some or all of it over to an IRA in the near future. I am sort of intrigued to call the friend's FP to find out the true story (I assume he sells commission products only, and we really won't call the FP because surely there would be a hard sell), but would it even be possible to safely earn that much?

Would a Vanguard or Fidelity advisor be better than nothing? There are so many products out there (vs. the 12 or so in the company 401k plan).

[donheff]

I used a fee advisor to review my financial plan a year or so before I retired. After I found this board, I stopped paying for advice - now I stop by here to read what you folks are saying to help me second guess my plans

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bestwifeever "My financial planner has my money earning more than 20% a year and he's totally free." A retired friend sent me the above information since he knows we can do an in-service withdrawal of 401K to roll some or all of it over to an IRA in the near future. I am sort of intrigued to call the friend's FP to find out the true story (I assume he sells commission products only, and we really won't call the FP because surely there would be a hard sell), but would it even be possible to safely earn that much?

Anything is possible in the short term, but in the long term I would be skeptical. If he can earn more than 20% in the long term, why is he still working at all? I would take what your friend says with a grain of salt, smile, thank him, and continue as you otherwise would.

[Bestwifeever]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Want2retire Anything is possible in the short term, but in the long term I would be skeptical. If he can earn more than 20% in the long term, why is he still working at all? I would take what your friend says with a grain of salt, smile, thank him, and continue as you otherwise would.

Thanks, W2R--that's exactly what we've done in the past--and already did this time. I guess good for our friend if it's working out for him, but no reason to change our course.

[FinanceDude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bestwifeever "My financial planner has my money earning more than 20% a year and he's totally free." A retired friend sent me the above information since he knows we can do an in-service withdrawal of 401K to roll some or all of it over to an IRA in the near future. I am sort of intrigued to call the friend's FP to find out the true story (I assume he sells commission products only, and we really won't call the FP because surely there would be a hard sell), but would it even be possible to safely earn that much? Would a Vanguard or Fidelity advisor be better than nothing? There are so many products out there (vs. the 12 or so in the company 401k plan).

"Free" in the planner's language means either C shares, where there's no up-front charge, or an annuity, where the commissions are buried in a prospectus 200 pages thick.............

Sounds like an exaggeration on your friend's part. Granted, he could have made 20% if he was tilted heavily into international equities the past few years, but it smells a little funny.

You will ALWAYS have more choices and control in a self-directed IRA. Vanguard and Fidelity are fine companies, but their "advisors" are quite limited in what they can tell you. If it's a large enough transfer, you might be able to get a Vanguard CFP to look over things.

I think you should do some self-education before you go any further.......best of luck.........