Fidelity's Private Wealth Mgmt Team Question

[TrvlBug]

Does anyone have experience with this level of financial service? Can you share the good, the bad, the ugly? I googled, but can't seem to find any info on this 'department' of Fido.

Some background info on us: We are clients of Fido's Private Client Group with some funds managed by their Portfolio Advisory Services Group. They have done a good job for us and we are not considering leaving Fido because we are unhappy with them. We felt we needed a firm with more robust investment offerings, trust dept, life management services, etc. and had decided to transfer most of our funds out of Fido. As DH is retiring next spring, we felt this was a good time. We have no kids; other than MIL, no immediate family on DH's side; and only a brother (great guy, but kind of flaky) on my side. No friends we would feel comfortable with as a trustee.

Due to the long term relationship with Fido, I felt strongly that I needed to speak to our reps and let them know what we were doing. Well, obviously they don't want to lose our business and apologized for not relaying all their offerings to us. It appears their Private Wealth Mgmt Team will meet all of our needs with much lower fees.

DH and I have decided to put the transfer on hold and explore their offerings in this area. However, I can't seem to figure out the difference between this group and the Private Client Group. The description from my rep sounds great and may even be a bit more comprehensive in the tax planning dept than what the other firm has to offer.

Any insight are greatly appreciated.

 

[bingybear]

Can I ask for a clarification? Are you referring to what is call Fidelity Wealth Advisor Solutions? My PC guy had talked about that a while ago... so did my Schwab lady (that is their version of this. I've never followed through with either.
I looked up "Fidelity Wealth Advisor Solutions" on Fido's site... still the same. It is really an introduction and some monitoring to a non-fidelity advisor, but one that will keep the assets at Fidelity with I would assume some will have some benefit to fidelity.
Like going out and finding an advisor on your own, how good or bad these are is highly dependent on how well the advisor meets you individual needs. Going through this service will most likely keep your $ @ Fidelity and mostly have trades going through Fidelity channels (my assumption). Fidelity may get something back but I don't know the details at this this time. It may be a fee for the advisor to be in the program, a finder fee, a small cut of the fee... or if nothing else getting the processing charges... I don't know for sure.
If this is truely "Fidelity's Private Wealth Mgmt Team", I'm not familiar with it and did not find that on Fidelity's site (but I did not search real closely).
If it is what I described, look carefully for advisors both in and out of the program. It is important that you can find an advisor that you can trust (and deserves you trust), will fulfill your needs and you can tolerate. While reps and advisors work to be your friends, remember they are in business. They are there to make money. Many of them really try to provide a good service and can be worth the charge is you need or want someone taking over.
If this program is the one I referenced, I see no reason not to look at the fidelity linked advisors, but judge them as you would your external ones. It is your decision and your future. Pick who you believe in. The big issue here is to be careful as there are many good sales people out there... both in and out of fidelity's program.

Good luck. I have no really good opinion on going in or outside for finding an adviser. I still deal mostly with my own investing and hire legal work independently of the brokerages... no real other advisers.
The most important thing is to pick what/who is best for you.... which is really hard to do at times.

 

[mathjak107]

Does anyone have experience with this level of financial service? Can you share the good, the bad, the ugly? I googled, but can't seem to find any info on this 'department' of Fido.

Some background info on us: We are clients of Fido's Private Client Group with some funds managed by their Portfolio Advisory Services Group. They have done a good job for us and we are not considering leaving Fido because we are unhappy with them. We felt we needed a firm with more robust investment offerings, trust dept, life management services, etc. and had decided to transfer most of our funds out of Fido. As DH is retiring next spring, we felt this was a good time. We have no kids; other than MIL, no immediate family on DH's side; and only a brother (great guy, but kind of flaky) on my side. No friends we would feel comfortable with as a trustee.

Due to the long term relationship with Fido, I felt strongly that I needed to speak to our reps and let them know what we were doing. Well, obviously they don't want to lose our business and apologized for not relaying all their offerings to us. It appears their Private Wealth Mgmt Team will meet all of our needs with much lower fees.

DH and I have decided to put the transfer on hold and explore their offerings in this area. However, I can't seem to figure out the difference between this group and the Private Client Group. The description from my rep sounds great and may even be a bit more comprehensive in the tax planning dept than what the other firm has to offer.

Any insight are greatly appreciated.

we have fidelity private access . they do not handle your money at all. all it gives yoyu is some perks and an actual experienced account rep instead of the random clerk who answers the phone.

the advisory service actually handles your money for a fee . they charge you a mgmt fee on top of the fund fees .

 

[TrvlBug]

Can I ask for a clarification? Are you referring to what is call Fidelity Wealth Advisor Solutions? My PC guy had talked about that a while ago... so did my Schwab lady (that is their version of this. I've never followed through with either.
I looked up "Fidelity Wealth Advisor Solutions" on Fido's site... still the same. It is really an introduction and some monitoring to a non-fidelity advisor, but one that will keep the assets at Fidelity with I would assume some will have some benefit to fidelity.
Like going out and finding an advisor on your own, how good or bad these are is highly dependent on how well the advisor meets you individual needs. Going through this service will most likely keep your $ @ Fidelity and mostly have trades going through Fidelity channels (my assumption). Fidelity may get something back but I don't know the details at this this time. It may be a fee for the advisor to be in the program, a finder fee, a small cut of the fee... or if nothing else getting the processing charges... I don't know for sure.
If this is truely "Fidelity's Private Wealth Mgmt Team", I'm not familiar with it and did not find that on Fidelity's site (but I did not search real closely).
If it is what I described, look carefully for advisors both in and out of the program. It is important that you can find an advisor that you can trust (and deserves you trust), will fulfill your needs and you can tolerate. While reps and advisors work to be your friends, remember they are in business. They are there to make money. Many of them really try to provide a good service and can be worth the charge is you need or want someone taking over.
If this program is the one I referenced, I see no reason not to look at the fidelity linked advisors, but judge them as you would your external ones. It is your decision and your future. Pick who you believe in. The big issue here is to be careful as there are many good sales people out there... both in and out of fidelity's program.

Good luck. I have no really good opinion on going in or outside for finding an adviser. I still deal mostly with my own investing and hire legal work independently of the brokerages... no real other advisers.
The most important thing is to pick what/who is best for you.... which is really hard to do at times.

Nope, not Fidelity Wealth Advisor Solutions or anything else on their website. The dept/program is not publicized on their site. It is interesting and I will be getting into the detail with them next week. It appears the other company has greater strengths in the investment type area (Fidelity being too conservative a company), however, Fido appears to be much stronger in the tax planning arena. I'll be comparing these 2 side by side in depth and making our decision. I'm glad I talked to my rep, otherwise, would not have been aware of this program.