Anybody use Personal Capital to advise them?

[petestan]

I was wondering if anyone uses Personal Capital to advise them or heard anything good or bad about them. I use their free tracking services and got a call to set up a phone discussion. I decided to hear their pitch and they use tactical weighting and tax loss harvesting and invest primarily in individual securities.

I am 90% in mutual funds and they would gradually sell them off. For this, I would get 2 dedicated advisers and would be charged .079 percent of assets which would cost me anywhere from $8,000-$12,000/year depending how much I would put in.

At this point I am taking care of my own investments, but was just looking for feedback, both pro and con.

Thanks

 

[Lawrencewendall]

I've been using their free service/website for over a year with no complaints. I like that it can see into my TSP when listing AA and I can compare different retirement scenarios. I don't need a FA so I ignore the popups.

 

[Another Reader]

Lets see their results compared to a simple three fund portfolio. Or compare their returns on their proposed portfolio to your current portfolio.

The percentage seems low.

I like the tracking software but will pass on the overly complex and unproven investment approach.

 

[USGrant1962]

I listened to their pitch. My AA was already pretty close to the free model you can see on their website under allocation.Their "tactical asset allocation" is simply equal weighting of the S&P sectors, instead of the market-weighting you get with most index funds. When I asked them why that was better, considering that the 11 S&P sectors are a subjective division of the market? They couldn't really answer, just pointed me to a chart like the Callan periodic table of returns.

After that I researched equal weighting some more and was not convinced. Nor was I convinced that owning 90-120 individual stocks was superior to owning many more through mutual funds.

I never really intended to use them as an FA, but always like to hear different views.

[EDIT] - and they keep a pretty big dose of gold/precious which, of course, has zero expected real return.

 

[petestan]

Thanks for the input.

 

[ncbill]

Happy to use their free tools, but for FA advice I'll go over to bogleheads instead.

 

[TEO]

I talked to their sales guy a few times but I was having trouble with the site and they were not fixing it so I told him to call me back once it was fixed. They never did.

Just for reference... I have been using PC since 2014 and loved it until May of 2017. I had problems here and there and sometimes it took a while, but they always fixed them. Then during one such fix, the result was a complete loss of data in my Ameritrade accounts. Each account now has a constant value from 2014 to 2017 and so all of my net worth history is gone. It has been 8 months and they still say they are working on it. I still push them, but I have zero hope that they can recover it. I miss looking at that net worth plot.

T.J.

 

[Lake161]

I am using an advisor with Personal Capital. I had two reasons at the time I started up.

1. We were going to be living in a relatively remote part of Central America, with irregular internet access, so I wanted to be able to do everything via simple emails.
2. My husband is financially illiterate and would never be able to figure it out if I were incapacitated. This way he just calls our advisor and everything is handled.

We are now back in the U.S. so number 1 no longer applies, but I’ve been satisfied with their services. Yes, I know I’m paying excess fees, but it does free up my time to focus on other things.

If anyone does want to try out their services, here’s a referral code that gives us both 3 months free advisory fees. https://goo.gl/HAjLXa

 

[BeachOrCity]

I do and I am satisfied. But I only use them for a small portion of my portfolio.

 

[exnavynuke]

I talked with one. I decided that their methods did not appeal to me in the slightest after reading their brochure they sent and I sure as heck wasn't going to pay for it to be used with my money. Sitting back and letting my basic 3-fund portfolio work for me is cheaper and, imo, more likely to have a better overall return for the same risk level.

 

[Ready]

I am 90% in mutual funds and they would gradually sell them off. For this, I would get 2 dedicated advisers and would be charged .079 percent of assets which would cost me anywhere from $8,000-$12,000/year depending how much I would put in.

Thanks

If the mutual funds are in a tax deferred account this might be an option, but if you are holding these funds in a taxable account this sounds like it could get very expensive for you, especially if you've been holding the funds for a number of years and would have a lot of capital gains.

I would ask them for evidence that their approach to holding individual stocks has outperformed a simple index fund approach and see what they can offer you. They would need to demonstrate that they can achieve higher yield, even after factoring in their fees, without additional risk.