financial advisors?

[target2019]

You'll want to walk in to Fidelity or Schwab, and see how things go. Take a summary of your assets, and find out what a company will do for you up front.

You can get hand-holding and advice for free, I'm sure.

We're riding the Schwab train now. But some accounts are still on the Vanguard bus.

From the other site's discussion, you may be looking for a robo-advisor.

I don't use an advisor robot or actual flesh-n-blood one. I do my own research, but I wouldn't hesitate to ask my local Schwab VP.

 

[F.I.R.E User]

Use to with EJ until I came here. I was getting robbed with front load and ER.

 

[indiajust]

I have dallied with the thought of occasional advice with schwab, but I am too involved with it myself to let go yet.

 

[imnontrad]

Find one that is a fee-only Certified Financial Planner with 10 years experience ( in retirement) AND will put in writing that they are a Fiduciary at all times.
Thanks to Zoom, they do not even have to live near you but if you are looking at tax planning also, one that is in your state might be best.
Start searching at garretplanningnetwork.com and xyplanningnetwork.com.

 

[jet757f]

I have been looking for a financial advisor on and off for the past couple of years. I couldn't get past the 1% fee that most of them want especially the way the market is right now. Also I did not know who I could trust there are so many of them . Also the ones that I did talk to seem to indicate that they just used a computer to setup the funds.

Now I am retiring this month and have decided to just go with Fidelity since this is who manages our company fund. I figure they are the safest and hopefully lowest fees. I have a meeting with them tomorrow so will se what happens.
I was also looking at Schwab but it seems like with them you have to transfer everything over to them .

 

[jet757f]

You'll want to walk in to Fidelity or Schwab, and see how things go. Take a summary of your assets, and find out what a company will do for you up front.

You can get hand-holding and advice for free, I'm sure.

We're riding the Schwab train now. But some accounts are still on the Vanguard bus.

From the other site's discussion, you may be looking for a robo-advisor.

I don't use an advisor robot or actual flesh-n-blood one. I do my own research, but I wouldn't hesitate to ask my local Schwab VP.

What made you go with Schwab?

 

[rrs26ja]

I use an advisor. I disagree with those who say only use a fee base and not a % of portfolio. with fee base there is no incentive to make you more money. I use a company called E3 Wealth. I have been with them for 3 years and I am very happy.

 

[Jerry1]

I use an advisor. I disagree with those who say only use a fee base and not a % of portfolio. with fee base there is no incentive to make you more money. I use a company called E3 Wealth. I have been with them for 3 years and I am very happy.

That’s kind of like that Fisher commercial - We do better when our clients do better. That’s true. However they do pretty good even when their clients don’t do better. If it was 1% of your portfolio growth, then that would be an incentive.

Curious, how did E3 do for you last year?

(Full disclosure , I’m with a FA that charges a % of AUM)

 

[RetiredAt49]

It’s my personal opinion that Financial Advisors are a complete waste of money. I have personal experience using them (both fee only and AUM “wealth managers”). Save your heard earned money, spend some time on Boglehead’s website, YouTube “Rob Berger’s financial freedom” channel, and/or research low cost index funds.

 

[rrs26ja]

Jerry1, Overall I was down 6.18% they take .62 % for their fee so lets say I was down 6.8%.


I believe the S&P was down 19.41% the DOW was down 8.8% and the NASDAQ was down 33.1%.



So I think they did pretty good for me.

 

[target2019]

What made you go with Schwab?

Things progressed in a certain way. Initially we were "all-Vanguard".

We opened a Schwab account (2014) to accept stock gifts from another Schwab account. That VP with local office really impressed me.

We inherited a number of funds, and transferred that very quickly to Schwab account. The service provided over phone to do that was surprising, given problem with other companies.

We needed a 2nd bank to supplement our local one. Schwab bank was already linked to our brokerage. The web interface for the accounts fits us.

I needed to consolidate two 401(k) accounts. These were the largest decisions I've made. During covid one transfer to rollover IRA happened very quickly. Again, I was able to speak directly to "the guy" in Florida who was receiving all the mail deposits. Crazy times, yes, but the deposit showed in an hour or so.

Next 401(k) transfer, I drove the check to local office. When I returned home in an hour the money was available for trading.

People have other experiences, I'm sure. I've used Fidelity also. I think most threads about this suggest Fidelity or Schwab.

 

[target2019]

Jerry1, Overall I was down 6.18% they take .62 % for their fee so lets say I was down 6.8%.

I believe the S&P was down 19.41% the DOW was down 8.8% and the NASDAQ was down 33.1%.

So I think they did pretty good for me.

Performance is dictated by asset allocation minus investment fee minus management fee.

Another important item is the risk you've agreed to. Last year whatever risk you took resulted in -6.8% performance. Now we wait for the next year, and the next, and so on.

 

[Jerry1]

Jerry1, Overall I was down 6.18% they take .62 % for their fee so lets say I was down 6.8%.


I believe the S&P was down 19.41% the DOW was down 8.8% and the NASDAQ was down 33.1%.



So I think they did pretty good for me.

Thanks. Did they do something last year to change your holdings or did they just have you in a conservative asset allocation to begin with and you just rode it out. I was down about 10% last year, but my FA did nothing. I did better than the S&P simply because of my asset allocation witch was primarily set by yours truly. I would give the guy more credit if he’d done something like gotten me into some energy stocks during the year.

 

[OldShooter]

... So I think they did pretty good for me.

There's plenty of research over the past half century showing that market behavior is close to completely random. The result of this is that there is always an annual distribution of investing results from poor to excellent. Something like 40% of stock pickers will have "beat the market." Next year it will be a different 40%. (The reason it is not 50% is cost drag on performance.)

The other major research result is that good results do not "persist." IOW the top performers over a given period are simply a part of the random pool for the next period and their results will be randomly distributed.

So, ... , sorry to say @rrs26ja, the very strong likelihood is that your advisors simply had a lucky year. Good luck for next year.

 

[Katiek]

When I got serious about retirement planning, I used a fee only (hourly) advisor to do a review and just give me a second opinion. I didn't really learn anything new, but it was comforting to confirm I wasn't overlooking something major. I've gone back to them for a subsequent review and to address some specific questions that I had.

 

[rmorris50]

It’s my personal opinion that Financial Advisors are a complete waste of money. I have personal experience using them (both fee only and AUM “wealth managers”). Save your heard earned money, spend some time on Boglehead’s website, YouTube “Rob Berger’s financial freedom” channel, and/or research low cost index funds.

Wealth management is just as much about human behavior as it is about optimizing returns / fees. So everyone’s experience and value using a financial advisor is going to be unique to them. I personally find it hard to believe we could have done orders of magnitude better on our own. Perhaps marginally better, perhaps not, I’ll never know. But I’ll take going from zero to $3m NW with our advisor over 15 years as a win.

I do think finding the right advisor that is a good fit is hard, just like finding a good personal trainer. And some people will be better just going it on their own.

 

[pdxgal]

Our advisor was useful to us a few years ago when we had a lot of moving financial parts and I was going through the retirement transition.

When my mom died I started using a FA to manage my modest inheritance because I had a lot on my plate at the time, a life transition period. Also, the FA buys munis for me because I don't (yet) have the time and knowledge to do myself. She runs her own company, is super smart and I value her input. Her AUM fee is "only" .8%. I do self-manage my 401k and IRAs, and in the not too distant future plan to stop using the FA. Although if she's like my PCP, lawyer, and dentist, she may retire first

 

[ncbill]

It's all about how much you have to pay.

I'm inheriting a small amount currently at a boutique investment firm that charges a 2% AUM fee plus trading fees.

Talked with the "investment advisor" (broker) about setting up my account there and he kept telling me about how much money he had made my deceased relative & how he hoped we could continue the relationship.

All I could think of was

"minus your 2% fee,

regardless of performance?

yeah, right!"

 

[athena53]

Yeah, I'll admit it.

I have a "sandbox" at Fidelity that's about 1/4 of my invested assets and the rest is at UBS with an AUM advisor. I do plenty of research on my own and listen to a lot of business-related podcasts but he's made some good proactive suggestions, such as getting out of a lot of my tech exposure last July. They also run a Monte Carlo simulation (including all my assets) that I find useful even though the result is pretty consistent from year to year (98-99% chance of not outliving my savings). Another good product- I have a separately managed bond account with UBS of about $365,000 in which they buy (and mostly hold) municipal bonds in my name. The market value hasn't done well, of course, but as long as I'm happy with the yield to maturity I don't sweat over that.

If he retired I'd probably move it over to Fidelity and manage it myself. Why not now? I'm guessing he's in his early 60s now. By the time he retires I'll have few enough years left that there won't be much I can do to mess it up unless I buy a yacht or get an expensive boy toy.

 

[SumDay]

We found ours at napfa.org She is fee only, paid only for meetings and projects.

We used her in the years before retirement to help us budget and invest in our 401ks.
She helped me learn to rebalance our IRAs and move them from corporate 401ks to Vanguard.

We had her do a project for us this year on RMDs, IRMAA, and Roth conversions. That's the first time we've used her in the 5 years since we retired. Works for us.

 

[punkinhead]

I signed up with Planvision when I retired 2 years ago. I only did one consult with them as a sanity check to see if my assumptions about my financial ability to retire were correct. We didn't really talk about my asset allocation or funds because I was comfortable with my choices (Vanguard index funds). They would have given advice if I'd have asked for it. We also discussed Roth conversions and a major purchase. I still send them $8/month for access to eMoney and may have another consult with them later this year about Roth conversions.

My mother uses the Vanguard service for 0.3% AUM. I'm not a fan of the AUM model but 0.3% is low enough that it's not awful and it gives her comfort.

 

[firemediceric]

Use to with EJ until I came here. I was getting robbed with front load and ER.

I'm in the process of interviewing financial advisors. Your comment about the front load fees struck me as one F/A who I overall liked is pushing hard for me to put 15% of my current employer held portfolio into Blue Rock with a front load fee of 4.75%. It's just not sitting right with me.

 

[F.I.R.E User]

I'm in the process of interviewing financial advisors. Your comment about the front load fees struck me as one F/A who I overall liked is pushing hard for me to put 15% of my current employer held portfolio into Blue Rock with a front load fee of 4.75%. It's just not sitting right with me.

FA will make it seem very complicated and put in million funds which isn’t needed. This is how they people to stay with them. They prey on the elderly and the who don’t know the basics of investing.

 

[OldShooter]

I'm in the process of interviewing financial advisors. Your comment about the front load fees struck me as one F/A who I overall liked is pushing hard for me to put 15% of my current employer held portfolio into Blue Riock with a front load fee of 4.75%. It's just not sitting right with me.

EZ decision. Reject that one. There is never a reason to pay a load. Never.

 

[RetiredAt49]

EZ decision. Reject that one. There is never a reason to pay a load. Never.

Preach! OldShooter is a wise one…