Personal Capital anyone?

[wanaberetiree]

I am using Personal Capital as an aggregation for my investments and they call me to sell some services.

Finally I agreed to talk with an adviser next Friday.
The guy who called said that they now do estate planing and also help with taxes, which I believe is useful.

Wonder if people have actually have any experiences wit Personal Capital?

 

[NgineER]

just as an aggregator-no advice experience

 

[njhowie]

https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/investing/personal-capital-review/

 

[nash031]

I've used it for probably five years as an aggregator and budget tracker. It's helped us narrow down our expenses with more fidelity, and day-to-day investment updates if I want them. I still largely rely on my semi-annual spreadsheets to track investments for action, but PC is fun to look at.

I ignore their phone calls and emails otherwise. My "assigned" advisor has changed twice in that time period, so take that FWIW. My guess is those PC guys are breaking in to the industry and need the client contacts.

 

[bloom2708]

~4 years as a customer of the software only.

I talked to my initial rep, but told him I am a DIYer. I don't know how much they can help with estate planning. You know you better than anyone you could talk with on the phone. The fees are creeping up on robo. I would stick with the software only. If they start charging for it, I will probably move on. Although I do like the features of the PC software. Works great.

 

[Another Reader]

My "adviser" has six years of investing experience.

I have almost 46 years of investing experience.

Whose advice am I going to take?

ETA: He's up to seven years now and his expanded bio says he used to work for Fisher Investments. Enough said...

 

[OldShooter]

Estate planning? Be careful of that one.

First, it can be very state-specific and some guy with 50 state law crib sheets cannot possibly produce high quality results except in very simple situations. Our estate attorney had to make a significant rewrite of our stuff this year because of small state law changes.

Second, is a top-flight attorney going to be found working for a shop like Personal Capital? I doubt it. But there is an attorney surplus, so PC may be where some of the overflow has ended up.

DW retired as an SVP in Investments and Trusts for a major bank. She would routinely come home with horror stories about screwed up documents and, of course, too late to fix. This even happened with local attorneys who supposedly were specialists. Caveat emptor.

 

[smoghat]

I LOVE it. I’m addicted. I know I shouldn’t but I check every day. ^ then

I have learned what numbers they call from and ignore them.

 

[CoolRich59]

I just use the software to track.

Once I started getting calls, I changed the phone number in my profile to that for the local IRS office. Haven’t heard from them since.

 

[pb4uski]

^^^^ I love it! Great idea.

 

[wanaberetiree]

I LOVE it. I’m addicted. I know I shouldn’t but I check every day. ^ then

I have learned what numbers they call from and ignore them.

what do you find so useful in it ?

 

[CalmSeasQuest]

I've been using Mint for the past 5 years (no phone calls ) and enjoy the insight into spending and savings. I started to setup a personal capital account, but never completed it and now get the calls.

Anyone using Mint? Does PC (software only - no need for advisor) provide any significant advantage that would warrant setting up all the account data and dealing with the calls?

 

[Markola]

I’m pretty hooked, too, with just the free software, because it shows the whole portfolio in one place. I also like the Retirement Planner function, which uses Monte Carlo modeling and has a nice clean graphic instead of FIREcalc-type planners’ spreadsheets. It uses all your built in data aggregation to let you play with endless scenarios, like whether to pay off a house, what buying a car now will affect (or not) long term, when to retire, what various SS start scenarios do, etc., etc, etc.

PC is smart to provide free access to some of their software, because it serves them as a terrific prospect qualification system. I guess some people go for their fund management services, despite the high fees. Then again, some people go for Edward Jones. I see they are enhancing their Retirement Planner but only for paid clients. Sorry Suckas!

 

[charais]

I only use the software and won't talk to them because I read somewhere that the owner is very anti crypto currencies. I think cryptos are just another arrow in the quiver....may work out, may not. But I'm not selling them because they don't like them.

 

[Lawrencewendall]

I've been using it for almost 2 years now and love it. I ignore their calls (just did the IRS number thing). 2 things I like is that it can see into TSP and show me allocation, Fido can't. The retirement planner is the cat's meow. I created at least a dozen scenarios and compare against each other. How I'm set RE at various ages, what it looks like taking SS at various ages and how will my DW be if I kick the bucket at various ages. It allowed me to find my sweet spot for FIRE.

 

[AginMS]

When I first signed up I inadvertently punched in a wrong number. Didn’t mean to but because of that mistake I’ve never gotten a phone call.

I told my Dad about PC, but when he signed up for the app (on his phone) he had to provide the correct number so it could text him back and he could click on the link they sent to verify it was him. He was not pleased when they started calling. So then we looked at his profile and were able to edit his phone number to something different.

 

[Qprkid]

[emoji106][emoji106]

 

[Qprkid]

I've used it for probably five years as an aggregator and budget tracker. It's helped us narrow down our expenses with more fidelity, and day-to-day investment updates if I want them. I still largely rely on my semi-annual spreadsheets to track investments for action, but PC is fun to look at.

I ignore their phone calls and emails otherwise. My "assigned" advisor has changed twice in that time period, so take that FWIW. My guess is those PC guys are breaking in to the industry and need the client contacts.

[emoji106][emoji106]

 

[BeachOrCity]

I use an FA there. I just have a small portion of my portfolio with them. From my experience with them over close to 4-5 years they are good as financial advisors but not so good I would pay their fee on my whole portfolio.