Seeking app or portal w/ tools for TIAA portfolio

[CrazyHamsterLady]

I am looking for a service, preferably app and browser portal, into which I can plug my TIAA managed trust portfolio.

I have my own retirement savings; retired at 63 to take care of parents in failing health. Both passed; I inherited a brokerage account and 2 IRAs, mostly equities. That, plus my own retirement funds, were too convoluted for me to handle along with other time-consuming non-financial obligations. I put most in a "trust" with a TIAA portfolio manager, and have moderately aggressive strategy. So far, returns have been very pretty. Better than I could do.

When I received the accounts from legacy sources, I opened new brokerage & IRA accounts at TIAA, unmanaged for starters. I had tools—you know, P/E, market sector, charts, news clips. Nothing phenomenal, but good starting point.

Now that it's managed—no tools. Shows "yeah, you got equities," # of shares, ticker symbol, current price, and that's it, a pig in a poke. I've been hollering at anyone who will listen at TIAA, getting the run-around. I'm thinking of finding another home for this package because of this tom-foolery, but prefer streamlining over complexity. And returns are admittedly good.

Reason I don't have tools: accounts are managed as a trust. Apparently TIAA's IT decision about what I am permitted to have, or not. Reason I want tools: I want to learn. Learned the basics at mom's knee, literally; audited a college course as a pre-retiree; want to move beyond basics.

I don't want to hand-enter every ticker symbol (100+), and adjust every time TIAA portfolio manager rearranges something—what TIAA recommends I do.

I do want e-safety—and know that if it's free, I'm the product. But would like companion app/portal that can pull directly from TIAA account and auto-populate with my info for history, tools, etc. Hesitant about turning over account password…

Does such a thing exist? Thank you!

 

[pb4uski]

Something doesn't sound right. For one thing, you can't have IRAs in a trust. I suspect that it is really more of a managed accounts group than an trust.

Tell them that if you can't get better tools then you will either go back to the way you were or move the money elsewhere. You don't really know if the returns they are providing are good until benchmark them against an indexed portfolio with a slimiar asset allocation. You can use Portfolio Visualizer to get the benchmark returns... you can use the Stocks/Bonds (60/40) portfolio under the drop-down menu for Portfolio #1 and adjust it as needed to be a relevant benchmark for your "moderately aggressive" AA, run it for certain periods of time and compare the benchmark returns to your actual portfolio returns.

https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio#analysisResults

Another option might be something like Personal Capital... I haven't used it but I think it may do what you want... perhaps others who have used it can weigh in.

 

[MRG]

This doesn't sound good. My experience with TIAA is around funds but they have you in 100 funds, or equities? Either way its a good way to confuse you or anyone. Sometimes advisors do this to confuse, bewilder or pump up their compensation. Beware.

How are TIAA advisors compensated? 1% fee or other? Maybe post a sample of your holdings.

 

[OldShooter]

... I don't want to hand-enter every ticker symbol (100+), and adjust every time TIAA portfolio manager rearranges something—what TIAA recommends I do. ...

Something doesn't sound right. ...

I think @pb4 is correct.

** If you hold 100 funds that is beyond crazy.

** If you hold 100 stocks and the holdings are at all diversified, then your manager is closet indexing. (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/closetindexing.asp) If they are not diversified then you are at risk of his bets failing. Which they eventually will.

I would just pull the whole package and move it to Fido or Schwab. There you will have the visibility and tools you want. If you feel you still need an FA, there are literally thousands of them that use Fido or Schwab as custodians, giving you the same visibility to the managed account as to your DIY accounts. The only other thing I would do with an FA is require that equities and fixed income be held in separate accounts so you can easily compare their results to your results and to common benchmarks.

 

[Running_Man]

Something doesn't sound right. For one thing, you can't have IRAs in a trust. I suspect that it is really more of a managed accounts group than an trust.



https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio#analysisResults

Another option might be something like Personal Capital... I haven't used it but I think it may do what you want... perhaps others who have used it can weigh in.

You cannot have IRA assets in a trust directly, but you can have the trust named as beneficiary and he could have inherited the IRA's into a trust.