Dropped from having a Fidelity named advisor

[COcheesehead]

Back in the day - 15 ish years ago now I actually met with a Fidelity rep. He helped me transition from a full service broker. I remember asking him how many people he worked with and he said hundreds (I am sure now likely thousands) and of only a certain account size.

 

[COcheesehead]

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

It used to be automated. They listed the bonus options, you pick which one you wanted, cash, airline miles, Apple Card I remember being some of the options. Now they don’t even tell you that you can get a bonus for big deposits. You have to call and “negotiate”.

 

[RetiredHappy]

We don't use Fidelity's paid money manager and we are listed as "Fidelity Private Client Group". Our advisor is a VP, who is also a CFP, has been super helpful. She has another assistant, who is also a CFP, who will do the paperwork stuff for us. He calls us every quarter to come in to see her to review our portfolio. She knows we don't want paid service and doesn't even bring it up in our meetings. Overall, we are very pleased. We do still get the free Turbo Tax.

 

[Koolau]

Yes, things have changed at Fidelity.

Sounds like the complaints over Vanguard.

I wonder if the CEO's of all the big Houses got together one night (over cigars and scotch) and decided to begin gauging their customers. As long as they all do it, no one will change - and if they do, it'll just be a shuffle instead of a major shift to one house. Bottom line will be higher profits to the Houses (and bigger bonuses to the CEO's!)

I can picture the CEOs lighting up a Cohiba and laughing about how they'll pull it off.

Probably just my imagination, but it's starting to sound like it could have happened though YMMV.

 

[RetiredAt49]

When I opened up multiple accounts with Fidelity a couple of years ago, I was never “assigned” anyone and I’ve never received a call from anyone (and it’s been blissful). We have over $2 M in assets there so perhaps we are small potatoes compared to the rest of you. Perhaps when we drop another M in there we might hit someone’s radar but I hope not

 

[Dtail]

Still have a Fidelity advisor and free Turbo Tax and do not pay any advisory fees.

 

[Mark1]

DW and I have the same advisor in the Sugar Land, TX office, although we live in CO. I got a e-mail and a follow-up call by his assistant this spring to set up a meeting after a ~5-7 year hiatus with no contact. I called back and set up a 30 minute meeting, instead of the 1 hour proposed meeting. In the end, it was only a 5 minute meeting and a pledge to touch base again in another 5 years. I have a soft spot for my advisor, since he was the first one to clue me into the backdoor Roth conversion option back in ~2011.

I have no idea if I could get the free Turbotax software, since we always do taxes by hand with Free File.

 

[rkser]

Our local Fidelity Rep has been very helpful, I & DW have gone to his office 1 or 2 times a yr & he knows I manage our index fund portfolio by myself. Initially he did push for their 0.4% advisory services.

Now that the balance with Fidelity is north of their required cutoff for a free TurboTax after transferring from Vanguard, I will check with him for the TT later this yr.

So far we have been happy with Fidelity holding our Vanguard ETFs, we will see what future holds in store for us.

(We were once happy with Vanguard foot a long time till they chose to hound us out by dropping their Advisor & their poor customer service.)

 

[COcheesehead]

FYI, there are levels above Private Client status and they include more benefits. There are likely even more levels above my experience that include things I can only imagine.

 

[RetiredHappy]

Now that the balance with Fidelity is north of their required cutoff for a free TurboTax after transferring from Vanguard, I will check with him for the TT later this yr.

So what do you think is the cutoff for a free Turbo Tax?

 

[mrfeh]

I'd be more inclined to think it was some clerical error associated with the opening of the new office. We are self-directed Fido customers and have always had a PCG rep.

I certainly wouldn't file this under "Fido's customer service stinks", at least not without more information.

 

[rkser]

So what do you think is the cutoff for a free Turbo Tax?

If I remember right, I think he mentioned the assets of above a million around 3 yrs back. It may have changed now as I think lots of people are moving to Fidelity.

 

[COcheesehead]

So what do you think is the cutoff for a free Turbo Tax?

I think it’s a combination activity levels, account size and a wild card possibility of having funds in Fidelity funds or ETFs. I hit on all three of these and have been getting it free for years. I do not have a rep.

 

[Dtail]

I think it’s a combination activity levels, account size and a wild card possibility of having funds in Fidelity funds or ETFs. I hit on all three of these and have been getting it free for years. I do not have a rep.

Agree, but as we know from our famous yearly Turbo Tax threads, it is not an exact set formula and can appear to be random within certain parameters.

 

[COcheesehead]

Agree, but as we know from our famous yearly Turbo Tax threads, it is not an exact set formula and can appear to be random within certain parameters.

I also think they only award so many. So I always click on the offer to lock in the offer code even though I won’t do my taxes for a couple months.

 

[CincyDave]

Agree, but as we know from our famous yearly Turbo Tax threads, it is not an exact set formula and can appear to be random within certain parameters.

Amen to that! I got the TT for a couple years and was then dropped when they dropped our advisor off. Dropped to TT Deluxe, and honestly not sure what the difference is. I've had another rep calling for the past few months wanting to set up and meeting and go over everything, but I haven't returned her calls. Would rather pay for TT than be hounded by someone wanting to manage my money for a fee.

 

[audreyh1]

Amen to that! I got the TT for a couple years and was then dropped when they dropped our advisor off. Dropped to TT Deluxe, and honestly not sure what the difference is. I've had another rep calling for the past few months wanting to set up and meeting and go over everything, but I haven't returned her calls. Would rather pay for TT than be hounded by someone wanting to manage my money for a fee.

I’ve never paid advisory fees at Fidelity. They’ve never angled to manage our money for us.

Agree that for us we don’t see a difference between TT Deluxe and Premier, probably because we download our brokerage 1099s.

 

[Texas Proud]

One of my sisters transferred most of her money to FIDO and got a FA assigned to her... she has told me that he calls a couple of times a year and gives good advice...


One of the thing he did was move her account money to a higher paying fund... called her up and said since interest rates had gone up the account she chose was not paying enough... she agreed and he changed her... made her some money...


I am looking at moving.. and hopefully will get off my butt and do so... do not need an advisor but would like one for DW if I happen to pass...

 

[JBTX]

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.

So you are upset that Fidelity changed your advisor whom you otherwise don’t/didn’t need?

 

[misanman]

I have no idea if I still have a local Fedelity rep. It's certainly been a long time since there was any contact. We still get the TurboTax deal though.

 

[COcheesehead]

I have no idea if I still have a local Fedelity rep. It's certainly been a long time since there was any contact. We still get the TurboTax deal though.

If you have one, they will be listed on your account summary page, upper right.

 

[misanman]

If you have one, they will be listed on your account summary page, upper right.

Oops, looks like we've been dropped too - there is no name. Still part of Private Client Group, whatever that is. I don't think I'll miss having a local rep, as we didn't use him/her.

 

[Koolau]

Oops, looks like we've been dropped too - there is no name. Still part of Private Client Group, whatever that is. I don't think I'll miss having a local rep, as we didn't use him/her.

Yeah, IIRC V wanted us to "rent" a rep. I can screw up my finances all by myself thank you very much.

 

[CRLLS]

So you are upset that Fidelity changed your advisor whom you otherwise don’t/didn’t need?

No. It is more like I'm disappointed in the lack of communication on their part. I was blindsided/confused about their change in offices and by a cold-call. It is okay that they didn't want to assign an advisor. Just tell me that. And then, don't have one of their advisors call as if I was fresh bait.

 

[Koolau]

No. It is more like I'm disappointed in the lack of communication on their part. I was blindsided/confused about their change in offices and by a cold-call. It is okay that they didn't want to assign an advisor. Just tell me that. And then, don't have one of their advisors call as if I was fresh bait.

Yeah, that would upset me as well.

While Vanguard has been upfront (and in my face) about charging me for paper reports, it appears that Fidelity is being less open about "saving their money" by dropping a perk.