Inside look at capturing fees from your money

[LOL!]

NYTimes has an inside look at JPMorgan Chase rep training and selling to get YOUR money:
Selling the Home Brand: A Look Inside an Elite JPMorgan Unit - NYTimes.com

I post this here so that folks who come by and ask "Should I use Fisher Investments?" Or "Why not go to my bank for investing advice?" can get a link to read.

Sometimes it takes an article like this to open up someone's eyes.

Buyer Beware. Or just Everyone Beware.

 

[MichaelB]

Interesting article. The recorded conversations was a surprise. An employee recording workplace conversations?

This will make for an interesting future reference, but my experience with family members in similar situations is they will distrust our motives for discrediting the financial management and strengthen the bond with the advisor.

 

[Lsbcal]

...(snip)...
Buyer Beware. Or just Everyone Beware.

Or maybe we should all just be aware of what a good equity fund's record should look like and also its ER.

My feeling is that people should know to look for an ER less then 0.5% for an active fund and less then 0.2% for an index fund. Even if you cannot assemble a portfolio without help you should know a few simple basics.

 

[urn2bfree]

Or maybe we should all just be aware of what a good equity fund's record should look like and also its ER.

My feeling is that people should know to look for an ER less then 0.5% for an active fund and less then 0.2% for an index fund. Even if you cannot assemble a portfolio without help you should know a few simple basics.

I don't think that you can find an international,index with expense ratios less than 0.2%.

 

[photoguy]

Vanguard's VEA / MSCI international is at 0.12% for ETF/admiral. I think fidelity spartan international is also in the same ballpark.

 

[Lsbcal]

I don't think that you can find an international,index with expense ratios less than 0.2%.

My holding here is VEU (or VFWAX in a fund) at 0.15%. It's a broad based international etf.

My original comment wasn't meant to be too focused on ER's though. Just to know a few rules of thumb. A slightly higher ER may be justified in some cases I think.

 

[H2ODude]

I will never understand how someone who has the wits to accumulate assets would fall into these traps. We've been with Fidelity for +/-25 years and grew into their "private client" group years ago. I've never been called about anyone selling me anything...just he way I want it. Call me maybe every 3-6 months to see if I need anything. About a year ago I asked for a proposal for them to manage, it just didn't seem worth the cost. Majority of our funds are index.

This is not rocket science or brain surgery. Read a few books, visit boards like this and Bogleheads, get comfortable with how investing is a long term game with ups and downs for ALL asset classes (possibly excepting cash other than effects of inflation), and place most of your funds in low cost MFs.

I've worked with people who like to mention "their money manager" or the need to get with them. Knowing their circumstance, I'd guess they have no more than 10-20% of our assets, and I rarely share any indication of ours. If they need to spend ~1% of their net worth a year to be able to talk about their money manager...go for it. I'll pass. What gets me is that these are reasonably intelligent folks...why not learn a smidgeon of finance and economics to make a dramatic improvement in your retirement plans?