Fidelity: Anyone here ever let them manage your money?

While I mentioned my good experiences with Fidelity in an earlier post, I also had one bad experience with a rep a few months. We seemed to clash in general, as he was a little pushy. He was making a pitch to take over the management of my assets with Fidelity, something I was dead-set against. I dropped him as a my informal advisor, writing a letter to his boss to complain about him. He also appeared to have stolen me from another rep, something his boss did not know about (that's his problem, not mine). Coincidentally, I was returned to the rep I was previously assigned to but had never met.
 
My experience up until this guy was great at Fidelity. A nicer group of people you couldn't find.
THEN:
This is a guy who carries a religious keyring and proudly showed it to me cause it has some "do unto others" philosophy on it. Well, Mr. Hammer in his final pitch on the phone when I was driving away was shouting that Vanguard's cost per stock trade was $13.75 and theirs was a mere $7.50. Well, kids, it ain't. Vanguard's is only $7. Shall we say "liar, liar, pants on fire?":rolleyes:
It's unfortunate that I pulled the one hammer salesperson on the staff (I hope he's the only one), Mr. No. 1 in the office. And it's unfortunate for him that I have been in sales so long that I knew what he was doing it was so obvious.
I came in with a good account, and he was hell bent on me using their managed services whether I wanted them or not. This has been a totally draining experience truly, and one I wish I could have avoided.
As Flo used to say, Fidelity can kiss my grits...

...and I think Mr. Hammer needs to GET some religion.
 
scrabbler1 said:
While I mentioned my good experiences with Fidelity in an earlier post, I also had one bad experience with a rep a few months. We seemed to clash in general, as he was a little pushy. He was making a pitch to take over the management of my assets with Fidelity, something I was dead-set against. I dropped him as a my informal advisor, writing a letter to his boss to complain about him. He also appeared to have stolen me from another rep, something his boss did not know about (that's his problem, not mine). Coincidentally, I was returned to the rep I was previously assigned to but had never met.
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Wow, sounds like some pressure is being put on the sales force to bring in the bacon, and some are taking it waaay too seriously. :(
And it is only the under-performers who resort to stealing other people's clients...trust me on that one. What a creep!
 
FinanceDude said:
You really think the REPS get kickbacks?:LOL::LOL: As far as Fidelity Advisor Funds goes, I think they will sell that division in the next 5 years to someone else. The internal conflict there is getting worse each year. BTW, the "soft dollar" amounts you are referring to DO NOT go to the reps, they go to the brokerage firm of the reps. This practice has been going on for years, but the new financial reform bill will probably kill it, and that's not a bad thing at all.

FWIW, if someone wants to manage their own money, they go direct to Fido or VG anyways, they don't call an advisor. Advisors can use Fidelity no-loads but many do not............;)
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I just reread this post and get it now. Internal conflicts at Fidelity? Yup, makes sense they would heavy hand someone like me. I get it. Nice to know someone that really "knows" what's going on in the firms, FinanceDude. Thanks.
Fidelity hammered me and Scrabbler1, our fellow board member. Fidelity needs the money pretty bad. This doesn't pass the smell test and something bad is going down there I bet eventually. Those who are "set" already with them they are leaving alone it seems, but they are really attacking the newbies.
 
I "third" the Vanguard...

REWahoo said:
You say that like it's a bad thing. Actually, those of us who aren't active traders should probably do much less "stock watching" and get on with enjoying life.

I second the suggestion you consider Vanguard. If you want to spend the money to have someone else manage your portfolio*, I'm guessing they would be the lowest cost alternative.


* I cringed when typing this. In my admittedly biased opinion, you'd be much better off with a simple, low-cost DIY mix of Wellesley, Wellington and cash. Have the dividends from W&W fund your cash account and look at it once a year to rebalance.
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With just a little reading of diversification and the long term value of index funds I think you'd be comfortable doing it yourself. I use a Scottrade account to monitor my portfolio and do very little trading, it is accessible world wide and you probably wouldn't need to access it more than every few months.
 
Thank you OrchidFlower et al for sharing your experiences with Fidelity. I opened an account there to have inheritance money transferred in. I have an account with Vanguard, but they just opened a new Fido branch that is very convenient. I told Fido I am comparing them against Vanguard and the winner will get all my money.

I only have $5k in the account as the estate hasn't settled yet. I have received quite a few phone messages from my young account rep. I suppose I will set up a meeting once the bulk of the estate has been transferred.

I think I will try not to give too much information and just watch what their plans are.

What I will probably do is met with a NAPFA and discuss my situation then implement into an asset allocation plan that is simply structured. One frustration with Vanguard is I find their website cumbersome. The other is their brokerage fees are high and I will have a lot of stock in one company I will be selling over time.

I'll bump this thread to share my experience with Fidelity. It will be interesting to compare notes.
 
Well, Vanguard did just lower their buys on stocks to $7--a whole 50 cents you can save over Fidelity...yeah, I know, big whoops...:rolleyes:
For me, the built-in fees someone else mentioned in what he purchased from Fidelity scares me, also.
But the main thing was I just do not trust them at all with their sales tactics for this newbie. I would rather pay a little more in a fee that I know about and can live with than get sneakily messed over with their high "built-in fees" mentioned in another post by one of our board members.
I got bad vibes from Fidelity's tactics, my intuition said run...and I did. Right or wrong (and I think I'm right), I have to trust the red flags I saw all over. I don't trust them. I do trust my own gut.

***By the way, when I got in there to this meeting, the salesguy at Fidelity had an entire single spaced set of notes on things I had said to the reps. He clicked off of it really fast so I couldn't see it when he was shuffling thru things to show me, but I caught it. If you don't think Fidelity is going for the KILL, you are kidding yourself. And this, remember, was the first time I ever met this guy in person.

Helen, why don't you do what I did and put something in Fidelity so you can use their great website but use Vanguard for most purchases? I can use their website now which is, granted, the best by far. Vanguard's website leaves an awful lot to be desired.
 
I am inclined to post but I feel I would get yet another infraction...........:(
 
Bestwifeever said:
Orchid, have you looked into Charles Schwab? They also have offices if you want to have face to face discussions, and many people here are happy with them, I believe.
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I'm happy with Schwab, but I have never asked them for advice or hand-holding.
 
It seems to me that if you are a do-it-yourself investor, that there is no real advantage to having all your assets at one broker anyways. Whereas, if you have an advisor, they will probably want you consolidated all at one place which typically appears to be Schwab or TDAmeritrade unless the advisor is specifically associated with a financial institution like Fidelity or Vanguard.

I don't think there is one vendor that offers the best of everything at the lowest cost. So I have a TDAmeritrade account that gives me free Level II quotes and holds assets that I won't have to sell or tax-loss-harvest or rebalance for quite a while which means no fees whatsoever. I have a little bit of money at Vanguard because I like their Admiral share class bond funds. I have some money at Fidelity because that's where my 401(k) is. And the bulk of my investments are at WellsFargo because everything is free including all commissions on ETFs and mutual funds including Fidelity and Vanguard mutual funds.

Bottom line, splitting up my assets costs me nothing yet has some advantages to me. Orchidflower is splitting between Fidelity and Vanguard which I think is a good idea.
 
brewer12345 said:
I'm happy with Schwab, but I have never asked them for advice or hand-holding.
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Me too. I use them primarily as a discount brokerage with a good web site. But, as mentioned in earlier posts over the years, I do appreciate their help with the mechanics of various transactions as I continue to learn about investing. I use both the 24 hr tel#, on line instruction sessions and the nearby retail facility from time to time.

They must have a note in my file that I'm not interested in any FA services as that hasn't been mentioned in years.
 
We have been with Fido for sometime and never had any experience similar to Oflower. They have always been helpful and gone out of their way to be a positive resource. I screwed up a transfer between my bank and an account which amount to the money going the wrong way and of a sufficient size that would have created a mega overdraft at the bank. The Fido rep late on a Friday afternoon figured out how to do a wire transfer to zero out the error and my only cost was the incoming wire fee from the bank. Could have been much much worse.
I have had two Private Client Advisor in the last 7 years and have never been pressured to make ANY transaction much less pay a fee.
We also split our resources with Vanguard where we enjoy Flagship thanks to an inheritance. The customer service from Vanguard has at best been proficient but never exceptional. In fact when I was dealing with their estate people, they were basically rude when I caught them messing with my Mom's beneficiaries listings without her authorizations. Vanguard also administers my former Mega Corp pension which took me six months to get the correct amount to be paid. Even doubly frustrating was that every rep agreed that there was an error but seemed totally unable to fix. I had to escalate the issue through multiple levels of Vanguard management and still only got results when I contacted the Mega Corp VP of Benefits and pointed out how little they were getting from Vanguard.
It is really unfortunate, you had such a terrible experience with Fido but I would encourage you to call the branch manager and share your experience and ask for someone who better represents the client focus most of us with Fido get. BTW, Smartmoney rated Fido top of the pack. Does not say much of the "pack" but you can and should get a far better experience than you have.
Nwsteve
 
One thing I didn't mention before is this rep wanted me to take a pittance (enough to live on frugally maybe 18 months) and keep that in checking and give them EVERY penny I had...we're talking cash and investments. EVERYTHING.

His attitude was if you don't want our managed services then avoid taxes and go into our tax deferred annuity with a big chunk of the investment money....for ONLY .025% a year.

I had mentioned to the note taking reps you initially talk to that I had a decent sum in cash that I might like to invest later (let me emphasize the word "later"), but for him to have the guts to literally push me over and over and over again to do this was shocking to me. When I said no... I had to have more than that for me to invest in stocks if I wanted to he acted like I wasn't quite thinking right. The entire experience was insulting.

For an in-person consultant to treat me like this he has to have the approval of the higher ups, because it always starts at the top and rolls downhill...and his heavy handed sales pitch has something in it for him 'cause he surely wasn't thinking of what was best for me.

And, yes, I too get Smart Money magazine.
 
Orchidflower said:
One thing I didn't mention before is this rep wanted me to take a pittance (enough to live on frugally maybe 18 months) and keep that in checking and give them EVERY penny I had...we're talking cash and investments. Everything.
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Does not surprise me. He is probably under pressure to justify the salary he gets..........more and more common these days........

His attitude was if you don't want our managed services then avoid taxes and go into our tax deferred annuity....for ONLY .025% a year. You know what that is on $500K for an example? $12,500 a year in fees to Fidelity. Whether you have more than this or less than this, this is a huge, huge fee based item for them. Yeah, I am so stupid that I know that would really save me money...not.
And he kept selling and selling this, hammering and hammering.
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Did you mean 2.5% or .025%? Because .025% is $1250 a year........ Like I said, there is pressure for them to justify a salary........reps at Fido and Schwab and VG and Td Ameritrade are not paid all that much unless they "grow" their business...........

I had mentioned to the note taking reps you initially talk to that I had a decent sum in cash that I might like to invest later (let me emphasize the word "later"), but for him to have the guts to literally push me over and over and over again to do this was shocking to me. When I said no... I had to have more than that for me to invest in stocks if I wanted to he acted like I wasn't quite thinking right. It was insulting.
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Maybe he was hired to be the
hammer"............

And my hope when I went there and my thought was the initial reps you talk to could give you enough information to work with, but that isn't the way it is. You have to have an assigned specific person to work with when you need information on some item, so there would be no way for me to avoid this guy.
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It's part of their sales model..........
 
FinanceDude said:
Does not surprise me. He is probably under pressure to justify the salary he gets..........more and more common these days........



Did you mean 2.5% or .025%? Because .025% is $1250 a year........ Like I said, there is pressure for them to justify a salary........reps at Fido and Schwab and VG and Td Ameritrade are not paid all that much unless they "grow" their business...........



Maybe he was hired to be the
hammer"............



It's part of their sales model..........
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Thank you. I was beginning to feel like maybe I was the only one who saw thru this. But, of course, I knew you would get it, FinanceDude.:rolleyes: Maybe I was in sales too long.....
 
The bottom line in this post is that even so-called "direct" firms want to make money like their brethren. Take VG for example, no-load funds are very low cost, but their brokerage prices are quite high..........
 
I understand from VG that they just dropped their rate from $13.50 to $7 just recently. That should tell us something about the state of business at these brokerages.
 
Orchidflower, it's hard to believe that it's been nearly two years since you left your old "full-service" broker for Fidelity. It seems it's been quite the educational process, too.

How long did you have your funds with Fidelity before you contacted one of Fidelity's reps about managing your assets? Other than the heavy-handed sales tactics from the rep at the office, how was the rest of Fidelity's staff and their service? Is it possible that this particular rep was an isolated case compared to the other Fidelity reps you dealt with (including Spencer Oliver)? If an E-R.org poster who's in the position/knowledge today that you were two years ago asks me for a recommendation, would you propose Fidelity or Vanguard?

The advantage of managing your own assets is that you only have to be an expert on one account-- yours-- and no one else will care as much or be as alert to opportunities that come your way. Now that you're looking out for yourself and no longer in need of handholding, that's certainly what Vanguard offers.
 
Nords, remember Spencer never called me back, because I was too far out of his territory?

I didn't contact Fidelity about managing my assets at all. I called, and they INSISTED on my having a face-to-face meeting with one of their consultants to decide what to do with some loser mutual funds I've been holding, and want to dump. It was during the meeting that it was brought up, but I was open to listening about anything they might suggest. I just did not figure the conversation would go like it did. I actually thought they might be in my corner, silly me.

I'd love my hand to be held right now, but if that's the "help" I get from any brokerage...forgetaboutit!
 
Orchidflower said:
I didn't contact Fidelity about managing my assets at all. I called, and they INSISTED on my having a face-to-face meeting with one of their consultants to decide what to do with some loser mutual funds I've been holding, and want to dump.
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Sorry to hear that. In nearly 25 years with Fidelity I've never been treated that way... although for me, a face-to-face meeting with one of their reps would require someone to fly between here & Seattle.

Have you looked at the Bogleheads wiki on asset allocation and rebalancing?
Category:Asset Allocation - Bogleheads
 
Yes, it has been 2-3 years since I moved things from Mom's old broker she had for a long time who was flipping all her accounts to mutual funds with 5% front-end loads. Wonder why I moved? He was leaving the firm he was a VP at, she didn't know stocks and trusted him. He left a happy man I am sure after he ripped her off royally.

I just slid everything to Fidelity at the time and left it there. I was pretty busy with a mother with dementia. Yes, my mistake, but I am now in a position to correct everything. Not that I have to justify myself to anyone else but myself.
 
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