I have helped a couple of friends/family members move away from Edward Jones (and other brokers/advisors too so it’s not related just to Edward Jones) because they weren’t making money on their investments at a time when you could be blindfolded and threw darts on a board to pick equities to invest into. They were in equities that were not making them any money for quite some time. When each of them went in to tell them they were leaving, the advisor (different advisors in different cities) told them they were just about to call them to go over their portfolios.

IMO, learn to be a boglehead. Most people can learn this methodology pretty easy and invest in 3 low cost index funds that you can buy for the long haul.

Bogleheads 3 Fund Portfolio Review and Vanguard ETFs (2023)

You can apply this to any index fund company, it’s not specifically for just vanguard funds.

If there was anyone on the planet who knew how to play the market, they would be more than happy to manage your money for free in exchange for a cut of the profit. Ever hear of anyone making that offer?

Insurance companies seem to make that claim. And you'd think that any 100-year-old insurance company would have learned enough about investing by now to actually sell an insurance policy that would guarantee a percentage of stock market gains, while protecting you from losses. After all, unlike you, they have the longevity to weather a bear market.

But the lesson that a 100 years of investing teaches is that the best way to make money in the stock market is to scam your investors. Think about it -- even though the insurance company gets to KEEP THE MONEY when an annuity holder dies, they still never really offer a gain that matches even the inflation rate (much less the stock market), after all of their astronomical fees are applied. You'd do better in a savings account.

That's the one thing Fisher gets right. He hates annuities. But that's only because he wants your money, so he can skim 1.5% from your BALANCE (not just the gains!) with no risk to him whatsoever.

There is no passive investment you can make that beats an old-fashioned savings account, in the long run. The only investments I've ever made that beat the market were businesses and properties that I owned and actively managed.

I am a fan of the Vanguard/Fidelity because of the low fees. And then only owning a single S&P500 fund (VTI) and individual bonds. Easy, simple and performs as well as the stock/bond market.

But I understand that there are many people out there who feel unable or are unwilling to do manage their own money. They want someone to do it for them. Fischer is not cheap … but they are much more likely to manage your money correctly than the other money managers. Fischer holds itself to the fiduciary standard … and that is rare.

I am old enough to remember when trading costs were fixed...and they were high! I recall moving what little I had in the market to Olde Discount after May Day in 1975 at my astute boss's urging. I never again used Merrill Lynch or any other high cost brokerage company.

Although I do not know how compensation packages work in the financial industry stock brokers, or financial advisors as they like to call themselves, seem to get paid in part by the size of their customers' accounts. I am primarily a real estate investor but when I hit 80 sold off a couple properties. For years I had a small account at Schwab where I was (thankfully) ignored until I made a sizable deposit in 2022. Then I got noticed big time, greeted, called, invited to lunch, asked what they could do for me, all that concierge service stuff. To stop this, or at least put it on hold, I finally agreed to talk to a rep. During our conversation it came out that I had financial assets spread among several brokerage houses. He immediately urged, almost demanded, that I transfer all my accounts to Schwab. I refused and told him I remember Lehman Brothers and others and believed in spreading my financial assets among several of his competitors. By the way, at that time Schwab held long term Treasuries and interest rates were going up so it had to be squeezed and sweating it out. On top of that its clients were pulling money out of their Schwab bank accounts and putting it into T Bills, money market funds and CDs.

Over the years I have held both individual stocks and mutual funds. I actually was licensed and sold mutual funds in 1965 and 1966 so I knew back then about the various high fees. This was 10 years before Vanguard started on May Day 1975.

I even traded commodities for a time but gave it up after needing to call in from a pay phone under a bull moose head on the wall in a hunting lodge in Maine during deer season. I more than broke even - lucky me - but I could not handle the stress and I was young!

At present I am still mostly in real estate but have invested about half of my after tax RE sales proceeds in short term T Bills. The rest I put into individual stocks - I can't kick the habit - and ETFs. If I felt I needed a financial advisor I would go to an hourly rate fee only outfit having some depth of talent or team and not a highly and expensively advertised outfit like Fisher, Edward Jones or Raymond James which would happily rake off 1% or more of my financial assets in their accounts every year. (If my assets made 10% in a year they would get 10% of my return. If my assets earned 5% they could get 20% of my return. If my assets earned 1% in a year they would take 100% or more of my earnings. No thank you!) I would also choose someone I got along with and trusted. I would look for someone who had satisfied clients in my age group and financial situation, quantitatively and qualitatively. An individual advising owners of $100M portfolios would have no interest in me as my account would be peanuts to them. I would seek to find someone with experience and expertise at my financial level.

But when you put your money into a Fidelity or Vanguard, it is being managed by professionals. They just don't charge the fees that Fisher does.

Yes, they were high. I just found a trading confirmation where I paid $49.95 (including telebroker discount) on a $2,000 trade I made in 1991.

I have never found value in Fidelity’s “professionals”. I have met with them several times and they cold call me a couple of times per year. They also push some risky adventures that have high fees. These guys are not fiduciary. So I don’t use their advice and just manage everything at Fidelity myself.

That’s why I say, if you do not have the interest or ability to manage it yourself, the best option is a money manager that follows the fiduciary guidelines.

It needs to be risk and tax adjusted. That figure is meaningless

If you don’t understand the math posted by manaboutime then you need to read it over and over again until you do. Or, ask someone to explain it. It is based on a 1% AUM fee. If you are charged 1.5% in AUM fees than the numbers are even more staggering.

“If my assets made 10% in a year they would get 10% of my return. If my assets earned 5% they could get 20% of my return. If my assets earned 1% in a year they would take 100% or more of my earnings. “

A common suggestion by advisors is to take 4% of your portfolio each year and adjust it for inflation. This “rule” was suggested by William Bengen, a financial advisor, in 1974 and was designed to allow a 30-year withdrawal period, covering your retirement years. Whether that is appropriate or not is a topic for another post. However, with a $1 million dollar portfolio, this equates to a $40,000 withdrawal the first year. Charging a 1% AUM fee would result in the advisor pocketing $10,000.

This means the advisor is taking a mind boggling 25% of the money you are allowed to withdraw and likely took you decades of hard work to accumulate. Actually, it’s even worse because now you have withdrawn 5% (your 4% + the 1% AUM fee). People underestimate the effect fees have on their portfolio. “Gee, it’s only 1-1.5%”. Imagine paying only 0.14%. It’s easily done when you invest with Vanguard and Fidelity (and others).

In my opinion, you have two options:

1. Open an account with Vanguard and invest 40 percent in the S&P 500 Index stock fund, 20 percent in the short term bond index fund, 20 per cent in the total bond market index fund, and 20 percent in the money market cash reserves fund.

2. Pay Fisher Investments 1 to 1.5 percent of your total investment portfolio each year to select the investment products for you.

I would advise you to choose option 1, and I have been doing that for over 40 years. I have never paid an investment advisor a penny.

I would not pay Warren Buffet 1.5%. He says use index funds. But so many think they can do better. The odds are against you in the long run just like playing in the Casino

I lost money with Vanguard. Since switching to Fisher my investments have done better than the S&P 500 but not as good as the Nasdaq 100 index. I am ok with that because it fits my risk tolerance.

I have three accounts with them IRA, Roth and Brokerage. I am required to take RMD from the IRA and I am still making money from that account.

During the Bear market of 2022 mu accounts did go down but not as much as the S&P and Nasdaq. At the end of the bear market, I was still making a lot of money above my original investments in each account.

They set up your investments based upon your financial facts and other factors (i.e. your risk tolerance, age, etc.)

If you invested in Vanguard's 500 Index Fund Admiral shares and forgot about it you'd be up 20.62 as of yesterday.

My 401k is up 39% as of yesterday. Both of those without advisor fees.

If its working for you then you should feel good, but if I were in your shoes I'd feel ripped off. By the way, you are not up 26%. That may be your return before paying your advisor costs.

How is a "good advisor" going to beat the market most years? Without insider information how are they going to beat the market? What kind of insight will guide them into making decisions that others don't make? The reality of the situation is NO advisor has ever beaten the market over a long time period.

Do what this guy says.

Good observation. Fisher spends mega millions on advertising. Who do we think pays for all that advertising? Could it possibly be coming out of the investor's pockets? Reminds me of Parady here in the TV area. You think you're doing well? Think again.