Talk of The Villages Florida - Bank financial planner or independent financial planner, which one?

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- - Bank financial planner or independent financial planner, which one? (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/investment-talk-158/bank-financial-planner-independent-financial-planner-one-317847/)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Debfrommaine (Post 1921288)

What are these?

Here is a good explanation:
Actively Managed Funds vs. Passive Investing

I would recommend independent and also recommend you talk to Cebert Wealth on 466. Excellent firm and very client oriented. Have done wonders for us.

Quote:

Originally Posted by valuemkt (Post 1920800)

Going to Fidelity or Vanguard is good advice.

I've not heard ant comments on Ameriprise. Any advice would be welcomed.
Thanks, Bob

Quote:

Originally Posted by cfhelz45 (Post 1921259)

I would use a firm like Wells Fargo Advisors. I would not use a bank.

WFA is good.
Various relationship options.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob45 (Post 1921320)

I've not heard ant comments on Ameriprise. Any advice would be welcomed.
Thanks, Bob

I have used Ameriprise since the early 1970s when it was Olde Discount and am very happy with it for many reasons.

Having had a problem with Fidelity in the late 1960s I dropped it. I also use Vanguard and Schwab and am happy with both of them.

We have used several but have had the best luck and made the most money with Creative Planning. They give incredible personalized investment service and guide with information that is clear and fully directed with us in mind. We use Andy Gryszowka @ 913-303-4454. Good luck!

Stay away from Banks or Edward Jones. Prefer Schwab and if necessary Fidelity. My Financial Planner is in IL been with him for many many years. Turned everything over to him after I lost my stockbroker hubby. I would not go with anyone in FL

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bridget Eichaker (Post 1921416)

. I would not go with anyone in FL

Wow, not one good advisor in the whole state. :shocked:

Quote:

Originally Posted by dewilson58 (Post 1921420)

Wow, not one good advisor in the whole state. :shocked:

Not since Bernie got put away. Florida's Palm Beach Rocked By Madoff Scandal : NPR

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boomer (Post 1920769)

I would not use a bank.

The reason?

I don’t know if this is how it is in TV, but I know that there are banks in the city I’m from where tellers are instructed to pay special attention to customers who maintain large balances in their checking accounts. (They are told to be especially aware of older customers who can sometimes tend to keep larger balances.)

Then — as part of their “customer service” — the teller is supposed to suggest an introduction to the bank’s investment advisor. (I am pretty sure there are incentives for tellers who make these connections.)

How do I know this?

I know two people who have been tellers, one is a friend who retired from a tech career with a big company but wanted to work part time. She got a job at a branch of the biggest bank in the city.

She said the tellers were constantly pressured to sell, sell, sell — might be just a credit card, but even better, getting money into the hands of the bank’s investment department.

She would not do it. But she did not need the job so she was immune to pressure. She was also very good at being a teller so the boss left her alone.

The other story made my skin crawl. This one was from a woman who had worked as a teller in a downtown bank. She had been there for a long time, and knew many of her customers who had been coming to her window for years. I remember she said her customers were among the richest and the poorest in the city. She loved her job because she liked interacting with people and the day went by fast.

Then the bank was sold and Cruella DeVil was the new manager. The pressure was on to grab those big accounts for the bank.

One older lady had an especially large balance and the teller was told to reel it in.

The teller had known the woman as a customer for a long time. She said to the boss, “I can’t do that. I am afraid she is slipping into dementia.”

To which the boss replied, “So much the better.”

The teller quit.

The banks I am talking about are not in TV. But the stories I am telling you are the reason why I would never put investments in the hands of a bank. Whatever they are selling has to be super high commission to cause that kind of pressure on tellers.

I bank only with community banks, but I do not invest with them either. I have an aversion to big banks because of the stories I just told you. (I guess online banking has cut down on the in-person opportunities for “customer service.”)

Fidelity or Vanguard can help, as can others like them. You can arrange to talk with someone and see if you click. If you are rolling money from a 401(k) or a 403(b) into an IRA, they can help you do that so you don’t cause a tax consequence. They should also help you evaluate your risk tolerance. With companies like this, you also have the option to manage your own accounts.

(Oh my, you asked for the time, and I built you a clock. I must feel like typing tonight.)

Anyway, take your time and find your comfort zone.

Boomer

As to asked for the time and built a clock. Sadly many of the issues posted cannot be answered in one line and many try to do that.

Conflict of interest is sadly common. A family member was my accountant. A definite mistake. He started selling securities. Apparently legal. To me it is a conflict of interest. I bought a tax free bond from or through him. I discovered that I could have bought the same bond at the same time and paid less for it-raising my return. Reminder, family, reminder I paid him to be my accountant. I asked him about some bond or stock accounting issue and his reply was you did not buy it from me. I should have but never did. I later discovered we were paying him for accounting services almost twice what it should be.

Sadly, I could not even trust family.

Same guy, sold my mother at 86 years old, I discovered after she passed a tax freed bond fund with a 2% load and a 12b fee. I've had people tell me there is no such thing.
There is and my dirt bag relative sold it to my mother. I expect it is a criminal act.
I chose not to pursue it. Due to being a small theft, mom did not have much and it being family.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MickeyStevens (Post 1920794)

Interesting, we put money into 3 annuities quite a few years ago, we now enjoy a steady stream of income each month from them.

There are no do-overs. The commissions are very high on annuities, the reason why they are aggressively sold. Depending on the type of annuity you buy part of the steady income is your own money. The money you paid for the annuity coming back to you, plus the return on where they invest your, now their money.

Simply put, no annuity sales person will ever say state the reality. If, you put in 10,000 and the commission is 20% including all the fees, you now have 8,000 trying get the financial return of 10,000.

Quote:

Originally Posted by petsetc (Post 1920801)

My obligatory canned reponse...

In addition to all this good advice, take time to read Paul Merriman’s 3 free ebooks.
1. First-Time Investor
2. 101 Investment Decisions
3. Get Smart or Get Screwed (this is a MUST read)

Found at paulmerriman.com

Free anything. You get nothing for nothing. When you sign up for any of these free books. Somehow they are making money. One common way they make money is they have a list that is salable. Name, e-mail address, interested in investing.

There are many free investing books. Some are even printed hard cover. Free only 14.95
to cover shipping and handling and I don't want to state the book or who is doing this but the DVD also being offered is another 14.95 to cover shipping and handling. The free book is only $30.

Quote:

Originally Posted by manaboutown (Post 1921423)

Not since Bernie got put away. Florida's Palm Beach Rocked By Madoff Scandal : NPR

Bernie Madoff was a very interesting con. The moral is of course if it sounds to good to be true it is not.

I knew someone who fell for it. Bernie was paying out more than normal market returns. He is/was Bernie Madoff people including the government who were supposed to investigate for fraud. They all knew him and knew him or thought he was honest.
They simply did not look. To get into his too good to be true you had to know someone.
People want to be in an exclusive group. I got in, you, well if you are nice to me, oh and buy me an expensive diner I will vouch for you.

Madoff is now back page news. His wife was on TV complaining that she is being shunned. Her exclusive beauty parlor does not want her business. Bernie used to a lavish life style is in jail. If, I recall his son committed suicide.

Years ago, some group called Wall Street something or other got my name. They would call regularly trying to sell me weird investments. I researched them on the internet
moving addresses all kinds of complaints. I recall reading the two partners were arrested and sent to jail.

If it is too good to be true, it is too good to be true.

Back in the early 1970's a fellow where I worked in Rochester, NY got involved in trading naked commodity options with a firm named Goldstein Samuelson. Seemingly he was making money hand over fist so I asked a friend of mine in NYC to check out their offices, which he did, even meeting my colleague's broker, Charlie. The GS office was located on the "seedy side" of Wall Street according to my friend. Anyway, I put in a few thousand and started trading, using an expensive commodity trading newsletter. On paper I soon multiplied my money so I asked the broker to send me a check for some of it. It was like pulling teeth but I finally got most of what I put into the account back. Eventually of course the firm went out of business. Later I discovered my colleague lost a lot, possibly even his house which he had mortgaged to trade more contracts. To get "even" I actually traded commodities for a while but when I found myself every evening on a payphone under a Moosehead in a hunting lodge in Maine during deer season checking on the recommendations of my newsletter service I cashed out. It was just too much. Potatoes and Copper got me better than even. When I quit my local (legitimate) commodities broker asked why I was quitting as I had done so well. I just told him it was too much stress for me.

"A new breed of commodity options which has proved quite popular in this country was the ingenious or misguided, depending upon one's point of view, creation of Harold Goldstein, the founder of the largest of the new naked commodity option firms. Beginning April 28, 1971, Mr. Goldstein parlayed, in less than two years, an investment of only $800 into Goldstein Samuelson, Inc.," a corporation with more than
100 outlets throughout the world selling over 175,000 options valued at $88 million.' 2 As a result of the phenomenal success of this enterprise,
other firms offering similar options were quickly formed.13 Although the majority of these firms, including Goldstein Samuelson, have been forced out of business, either because of bankruptcy or as a result of increased regulatory pressure, a small group of second generation firms, some operated by the promoters of the original companies, have begun to
appear in states which have not attempted to regulate trading in naked
14 options.
The financial bonanza began to evaporate for Harold Goldstein and the other naked commodity option dealers in October 1972, when the Oklahoma Securities Commission gave Goldstein Samuelson notice of its intent to issue a cease and desist order against the firm for violations of the state securities law.15 Public hearings were held in November 1972, and an order was issued barring further sales of naked options in late February 1973.16"

https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/v...9&context=wmlr

After I had changed jobs and moved I dumped and lost a few thousand in cheap mining stocks through a Denver outfit in the late 1970s. The broker was a coworker's old college roommate. I was young and foolish. Luckily I had new a boss who was a stock market genius who got me on the right track. Live and learn, sometimes the hard way.