Dropped from having a Fidelity named advisor

[CRLLS]

As most of us here, I am a self-directed investor. Most of our savings are at Fidelity, consisting of IRA, Roth, IRA and TOD accounts. A few years back, Fidelity opened a new office near us. It was about the same distance as the one we had been using. Fido asked us if we would like to change to the new office. We declined and kept our existing relationship. We have had very little need or contact with our named advisor, especially since the beginning of Covid. The last contact was when DW opened an inherited IRA about a year and a half ago and that was via Phone and with our advisor’s assistant. At least I think she was his assistant.

Fast forward to this month. We were contacted by that new office to come in for a complimentary financial review. I said we had an assigned advisor and asked about that. The new person said that, in the Fidelity computer we were unassigned. What? What happened? I checked online and it still shows we are part of the Private Client Group.

We went to visit the new office this week for that review. I told him that I was very concerned about being dropped without being notified. He said he had heard the same concern from several of his new clients. He is new to that office and Fido but been with a couple of investment houses for over 20 years, so is not new to the business. Nice enough guy. Straight shooter from what we can tell from that 1 meeting.

He didn’t know why we were dropped but shared his thoughts as to what might have happened. Since we were not depending on Fido to make suggestions and certainly not making changes based on them, within Fido we were considered “Self-directed”. As such, we had no need for an advisor, I said we were surprised at not being notified. We believe that we were dropped sometime between Jan ’22, our last contact, and Jan ’23 when we didn’t get our free Turbo-tax. He knew no way of seeing when it happened. We showed up on an AI report indicating unassigned clients.

Pay attention Fido people. Things have changed.

 

[COcheesehead]

I am unassigned and have been for years. Happy as can be. Still get free TurboTax.

 

[CRLLS]

I am unassigned and have been for years. Happy as can be. Still get free TurboTax.

Well there goes my one theory.

My main reason for seeing the new guy is to get DW more involved with finances in case I lose my mental faculties or my life before she does. WE seldom talk and this gets us some time to discuss subjects based on what the advisor is pushing.

 

[Freedom56]

Be aware that the private wealth management services at Fidelity involve a fee as a percentage of your assets. Fidelity has also been pushing their closed real estate fund to many of their clients including us. Upselling is a normal process in this world.

 

[JoeWras]

It's how it started at Vanguard. Many of us who had well over double the amount needed were dropped, while others who barely qualified were not. Mystery.

With Fido, I was assigned years ago despite having only an HSA with less than 50k, and pretty large 401k. I told them 3 times I'm self directed and to not call me. Never got the Turbo tax.

Last month I see another name and a different classification of my status. I've been pouring money in Tbills through Fido. Got a phone call out of the blue. Decided to take it. Told the guy I'm self directed, he said fine. Told him I'd consider a transfer from VG to Fidelity if he could get me a good bonus.

He did. He also set up a 10 minute zoom with him and the transfer specialist. It was a nice, short discussion. He affirmed I was self directed and said that's fine and he'll be my guy if I don't mind him checking in 2x per year.

Last guy I barked back at, but I figured I'll agree to this for DW's sake. Next meeting will be with DW too. If I kick off, she can get help. Not perfect, but she'd be in trouble with no help. We did this with Vanguard too and they dropped us about a year after the meeting.

 

[COcheesehead]

Well there goes my one theory.

My main reason for seeing the new guy is to get DW more involved with finances in case I lose my mental faculties or my life before she does. WE seldom talk and this gets us some time to discuss subjects based on what the advisor is pushing.

I don’t see having a rep, which is problematic at best, as a solution for continuity in case one passes.

 

[Aerides]

Every now and then my rep calls me, and I ignore the call, thinking "what is this 28 year old guy gonna tell me that I don't know (and that he doesn't actually know anyway)?"

 

[Another Reader]

Last time I had to go into a Fido office to get some paperwork done, the guy that handled walk ins said that only people with managed accounts are assigned an account rep. That was maybe a year ago. Haven't heard a peep since. When I sign in, in the upper right, there is a box saying "contact your team" with a phone number for the Private Client Group. I think if I had a serious paperwork issue, I would probably check with the guy in the office first. If he is still there...

 

[Ian S]

I had the same guy at Fidelity for several years - we'd touch bases twice a year. Earlier this year, I was informed he had left the firm and I'd been put in the care of a regional center based in Denver. This is hundreds of miles away but I was told I could still conduct business in Scottsdale (100 miles away now after our move from Phoenix.) TBH, I'm fine with dealing by phone/email as with the distance to their closest office and covid, I rarely if ever need to go to an actual office.

I was just notified that my TD-Ameritrade accounts will be transferred to Schwab over the Labor Day weekend. I think Schwab has a rep only 50 miles away so I might set up a meeting with him at some point. I have one other tax-deferred account at Corebridge Financial (originally VALIC) that I plan to transfer to either Fido or Schwab as part of my account consolidation. With RMD's starting next year, I'd like to be down to only two tIRA accounts and one Roth. I'll see how things go when the TD-Ameritrade dust settles and consider getting down to one firm - or not.

 

[CRLLS]

I don’t see having a rep, which is problematic at best, as a solution for continuity in case one passes.

I do feel the same way. The rep is not the end-all. It does help to get DW a bit more involved in the language of finance while we are both around. She really doesn't care much about the whole subject. Seems odd to me, since she has been in accounting for her entire career. It also gives her the opportunity to see how the rep tries to push the "services de jour" that we would never use. Things like annuities, managed accounts, and more. It gives us some discussion time on the way home that we probably never have otherwise. I think of it as a learning experience. Hopefully, she will have seen their sales tactics in operation and recognize it if/when the time comes. Being forewarned is being forearmed IMO.

 

[njhowie]

I don't know if my rep is "official", but he is in my local office. I visit him in the office maybe once every year or two for paperwork of one sort or another. He understands our relationship - I don't want to hear from him, if I have something I need of him I'll drop him an email. He always takes care of what I need quickly, whether it's getting something moving or simply to answer some questions. If he's done anything for me during the year, I drop him a $25 or $50 Amazon gift card at Xmas.

 

[audreyh1]

Well there goes my one theory.

My main reason for seeing the new guy is to get DW more involved with finances in case I lose my mental faculties or my life before she does. WE seldom talk and this gets us some time to discuss subjects based on what the advisor is pushing.

We lost our free TurboTax when we lost an assigned advisor, so you never know.

After a couple of years we had a Fidelity advisor call and volunteer and now we have free TurboTax again.

 

[JoeWras]

I do feel the same way. The rep is not the end-all. It does help to get DW a bit more involved in the language of finance while we are both around. She really doesn't care much about the whole subject. Seems odd to me, since she has been in accounting for her entire career. It also gives her the opportunity to see how the rep tries to push the "services de jour" that we would never use. Things like annuities, managed accounts, and more. It gives us some discussion time on the way home that we probably never have otherwise. I think of it as a learning experience. Hopefully, she will have seen their sales tactics in operation and recognize it if/when the time comes. Being forewarned is being forearmed IMO.

This is exactly our situation. DW knows sales. She shreds all the free dinner offers from FAs, which are always sent only to her. Talking with the VG or Fido guy is a jump off for more discussion.

BTW my guy is in his 50s, not 28. [emoji3]

 

[steady saver]

I like the Fidelity woman we consult with when I have a question. She is super helpful, not pushy. We were up front from the beginning that we did not want a money manager. Initially when we were going over things in detail before we retired, she'd bring another person in and he kept encouraging us to do a separately managed account for "tax loss harvesting" but we simply persisted in saying we weren't interested after we understood the whole thing. I can harvest my own tax losses. Still, it was educational and we liked him. We felt no pressure b/c we knew we weren't going to do it.
As a bonus, their office is conveniently located and they have good coffee We typically schedule an appt before lunch as there are good restaurants nearby. A win-win...

 

[MRG]

Yes, things have changed at Fidelity.

I was in the KC office for years and had a great advisor even though I didn't qualify at the time. Later, I did and used the Denver office remotely. After a couple of meetings, I was handed over to a new guy, who promised me the moon. I asked if he was trying to sell me an annuity because I had no interest. He said he wasn't. Three days he talked until I finally said to tell me what he was talking about, or I'd hang up. He was selling annuities .

Since then, I have bounced around, Fidelity tells me in public forums that the situation has been addressed. The same annuity salesman still works there, and I don't have a named advisor. At this point, I don't give a crap as they are mostly former Ed Jones guys who are looking for a bonus.

 

[audreyh1]

BTW those two years we didn’t get free TurboTax we used the much cheaper (and often heavily discounted) TurboTax Deluxe just fine and don’t really care that much one way or the other.

 

[Midpack]

We probably shouldn’t be surprised as investors seek lower and lower fees, discount brokers have to cut costs to stay in the game. Vanguard did it, and now evidently Fido is too. Both offer more handholding for an additional low fee (e.g. 0.30% at Vanguard?). Probably as it should be - why should actual DIY investors pay fees for others who use advisors, let them pay for it. If anything, Fido accelerated the race to (fee) bottom building their index fund portfolios, they used to have nothing much to offer there.

 

[COcheesehead]

If I really need to talk to someone I use the number in the upper right of my summary page. Call gets answered right away. If they can’t help, I get a specialist.
If I have a simple question I use the chat feature which I also like.
There are so many tools now at Fidelity, I honestly don’t know what a rep could do that I can’t already do.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Every now and then my rep calls me, and I ignore the call, thinking "what is this 28 year old guy gonna tell me that I don't know (and that he doesn't actually know anyway)?"

Exactly.

 

[njhowie]

If I really need to talk to someone I use the number in the upper right of my summary page. Call gets answered right away. If they can’t help, I get a specialist.
If I have a simple question I use the chat feature which I also like.
There are so many tools now at Fidelity, I honestly don’t know what a rep could do that I can’t already do.

A few years back, after I moved all of my remaining funds to Fidelity, I was new to the Active Trader platform. There were a couple things that I needed/wanted to do, but for the life of me could not figure out how to do them. My rep set up an in-office session with one of their tech guys to go over everything with me for about an hour. That was extremely helpful for me, sitting with a live person being able to watch/do.

 

[scrabbler1]

I have a no-fee Fido Account Executive and have had one since 2008 in the lead-up to my ER. I believe it is because I have a high-enough portfolio balance.

Some of the AEs I had over the years didn't last too long - they kept leaving Fido or at least moving far away and joining another office. One of them tried to poach me from another AE during an AE change in 2009. Mr. Pushy wanted to take control of my portfolio, for a fee. He spent 2 hours trying to convince me; I told the office manager afterward I wanted a new AE. He switched me to another man who remained my AE (he was good) for 11 years before I got switched to another man in 2021. That man didn't last long, as he left Fido in 2022 but nobody told me. I found out when an email to him got bounced back to me. I told the office manager and he assigned me to another AE last July.

I haven't had any contact with him or anyone else at the local office since January, which is fine. He knows I have everything running on autopilot and will contact him if I have any questions. I might meet with him near the end of this year, as I tended to meet with my AEs every 12-18 months.

 

[COcheesehead]

I just looked at my summary page again and in the lower left is a “talk to an advisor” button which I had not seen before.

 

[PatrickA5]

Looks like my FA is still showing up on my account. I've only talked to him personally a couple of times since I moved everything over about 5 years ago. He's decent. Been with Fidelity for 20 years.

One thing I find mildly annoying is when I contacted him for help regarding DW's inheritance a few months back, all correspondence was with his assistant. While, the assistant did a decent job helping, I was a little put off by the fact that my actual "advisor" didn't respond to any of the emails/phone calls. During each response, the assistant wanted me to make an appointment with the FA to "go over things" and make sure I "was on the right track". I figure if the FA really wanted to talk to me, he could ask me himself. Yes, I know I'm being petty.

Oh, I've never been worthy of a free Turbotax.

 

[JoeWras]

If I really need to talk to someone I use the number in the upper right of my summary page. Call gets answered right away. If they can’t help, I get a specialist.
If I have a simple question I use the chat feature which I also like.
There are so many tools now at Fidelity, I honestly don’t know what a rep could do that I can’t already do.

The one thing they did was get me the transfer bonus. The mechanics were done by me. The transfer specialist made sure I did it right

 

[Another Reader]

I just looked at my summary page again and in the lower left is a “talk to an advisor” button which I had not seen before.

Hmmm...I don't have that. I can see the current and legacy summary pages, that's not on either. Wonder who gets that option?