Any exp or recommendations for Waddell & Reed Financial Co?

[BBQ-Nut]

My wife went to a teaser seminar for retirement planning at the local library sponsored by Waddell & Reed Financial Co.

She seemed to like the presenter and the info.

Do any members here have experience with them or use them for financial planning/management?

 

[growing_older]

High fees. Lots of high fees.

Of course the presenters are charismatic and seem like nice guys. But they are a pure sales machine and you would be much better off asking financial management questions here or on bogleheads.org

 

[brewer12345]

Run. Fast.

 

[Gotadimple]

If you want to buy a specific Waddell & Reed mutual fund, the only way to buy it is through them. As for financial planning and managment: they are stock brokers. High fees, and high loads.

You can do better with other full service brokers if that is what you want.

 

[2B]

You'll find few of us here recommend anything other than low cost index funds. Mostly, we argrue between Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab. Of course, anybody that doesn't prefer Vanguard is wrong.

+1 on the previous "Run" comment.

 

[travelover]

I've heard that they will send you a birthday card, every year without fail.

 

[MRG]

Local company. Knew a few people who w*orked there. I didn't want to just say no, so I looked. Class A shares 5.75% front end load(2 at 4.25% 1 at 2.5%). Almost all their funds are over 1% ER.

As said run away. I'd throw rocks and road apples at them. Stop only if you find more, then stock up and keep running, throwing.
MRG

 

[braumeister]

My wife went to a teaser seminar for retirement planning at the local library sponsored by Waddell & Reed Financial Co.

The library?
Even my Fidelity rep sometimes schedules these things at the Hofbrauhaus, where we can enjoy good German food and fresh beer while we listen to their "insights" on current market conditions.

If an outfit like W&R can't offer at least a steak dinner, it should be obvious they're not worth your time.

 

[jebmke]

I've heard that they will send you a birthday card, every year without fail.

for the right fee, I'll send you a birthday card.

 

[travelover]

for the right fee, I'll send you a birthday card.

No kiddin'? Would you do it for less than 1% of assets under "management"?

 

[clifp]

Paradise Financial Planning has a special 1/2 off spring sale. You'll get a birthday card, and it will not be just some Hallmark card but a handmade one created by my sister an accomplished artist and a tropical themed Holiday card. Plus if you act in the next 24 hours additional greeting cards on your anniversary or other special occasion.

Every quarter I'll send you a fancy report, with cool graphs and such showing how you made more money at Paradise Financial Planning,than if you were at Ameriprise, Waddell and Reed, or a full service broker.

All this for a mere .5% of assets under management *

As an added bonus just mention this forum and I'll include some custom FIRECalc runs.

*$200,000 minimum.

 

[braumeister]

Every quarter I'll send you a fancy report, with cool graphs and such showing how you made more money at Paradise Financial Planning,than if you were at Ameriprise, Waddell and Reed, or a full service broker.

Yeah, but Bernie Madoff promised annual returns of 18-20%.
Can you promise better than that?

 

[splitwdw]

We had them because of a company that my husband worked for. The fees were high and the person that handled our account didn't speak very clear English. She would explain something and I'd tell her politely that I couldn't understand what she was saying. I finally asked for a different person to handle our account and got lots of hemming and hawing so we transferred to another company.

 

[panacea]

+1 on avoiding them. If you need help you can get it for free at a discount broker like Fido or Vanguard. Can't think of a single good reason to work with them. The birthday card wouldn't do it for me and you can find plenty of others just as nice who don't charge an arm and a leg.

 

[clifp]

Yeah, but Bernie Madoff promised annual returns of 18-20%.
Can you promise better than that?

Nope just better returns than the other guys. I figure even adding my 50 basis fee to Vanguard or Schwab index/fund I'll do better than the other guys.

Plus you'll get much nicer cards.. Surely that is worth $1,000+/year

 

[ziggy29]

You'll find few of us here recommend anything other than low cost index funds. Mostly, we argrue between Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab. Of course, anybody that doesn't prefer Vanguard is wrong.

But even if you aren't drunk on the Vanguard Kool-Aid, people who prefer Fidelity or Schwab are a LOT less wrong than people who prefer folks like these guys, or Ameriprise or Edward Jones or........

 

[redduck]

Paradise Financial Planning has a special 1/2 off spring sale. You'll get a birthday card, and it will not be just some Hallmark card but a handmade one created by my sister an accomplished artist and a tropical themed Holiday card. Plus if you act in the next 24 hours additional greeting cards on your anniversary or other special occasion.
*$200,000 minimum.

I followed the link. Your sister does some fine work. But $200,000 is a lot dividend money to accumulate in 24 hours. How about 72 hours?

 

[BBQ-Nut]

Not a single recommendation....

I did find out that they have two payment approaches:
1. Flat charge to put together the financial plan and specific recommendations based on disclosing all of our estate information.
2. Percentage fee for 'assets under management'

My first reaction was to possibly pay for the first year of financial analysis with their plan and see how it goes from there - as the analysis/plan will be very specific to our situation accounting for our expenses, review of pension plans and insurance policies, SS benefit analysis, etc.

But definitely not surrender our assets to be under their management - which would result in a lot of 'churn' and tax burden.

 

[REWahoo]

My first reaction was to possibly pay for the first year of financial analysis with their plan and see how it goes from there - as the analysis/plan will be very specific to our situation accounting for our expenses, review of pension plans and insurance policies, SS benefit analysis, etc.

If you feel you need to consult with a financial adviser, why not seek out a fee-only planner who will have no conflict of interest? The salesperson at Waddell and Reed will develop a plan that will be certain to enrich their bottom line - and may or may not enrich yours.

 

[REWahoo]

Following up on my last post...

http://www.early-retirement.org/for...a-hourly-fiduciary-cfp-71151.html#post1428640