Talk of The Villages Florida - Please explain to me like I'm 12, why I should fire Fidelity, EJ, etc.

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- - Please explain to me like I'm 12, why I should fire Fidelity, EJ, etc. (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/investment-talk-158/please-explain-me-like-im-12-why-i-should-fire-fidelity-ej-etc-357438/)

I have been using Fidelity for 40 years, I do my own investments changes within the account online, no need for a " guy" to make changes for me.... They do keep calling and emailing me to set up a meeting, but I just ignore them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ignatz (Post 2417826)

I have enough pride to admit that I am not strong as I should be with investments and market savvy to manage our own portfolio. Thus we leave it in the hands of a trusted expert.

Sure it costs us fees, but we’re still doing well and I don’t have to deal with the nagging question of whether MY choices are killing our finances.

But that’s just me…

YES, I see your point! It is an individual decision for sure!

Quote:

Originally Posted by BillHitz (Post 2417820)

I could do it myself and really enjoy it but I use a flat fixed fee advisor because odds are I will die before my wife and I want her to have someone she can depend on and trust and not have to worry about it. I also like the portal tools he provides that can give all kinds of reports and different ways to analyze your portfolio.

This. Just in case. Do not want her to be looking when has other things to deal with.

Quote:

Originally Posted by manaboutown (Post 2417799)

I gave up on Fidelity many years ago and use Schwab and Vanguard.

This comment would be considerably more useful if some context was provided. WHY did you leave Fidelity?

I have used all 3 and moved everything to Fido. Better customer service and better website with better tools. Vanguard, while the cheapest has terrible customer service and an antiquated website. Schwab pays poor rates on idle cash.

Having said that, none of it answers the OP's question. The short answer is if you are willing to do it yourself, you can save a ton of money. If you're not willing, just buy a Target Date Index Fund and you're there. Not perfect, but good enough.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rsmurano (Post 2417856)

As for AI, Schwab has had their Robo-advisor investment process that cost nothing to use, for many years now. The drawback is this robot process keeps some cash (could be good or bad) sitting in your portfolio.

It costs nothing bc they make all their money by holding disproportionally high amounts of cash in their Robo-Portfolios and paying below market rates on it. There is no point in holding any cash in a Robo-Portfolio other than maybe a miniscule amount for rebalancing. Cash should be earning the highest rate possible and instantly liquid, otherwise there is no point having it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nevinator (Post 2417825)

I maintained an account at Fidelity for over 33 years. During that time I also held assets at JP Morgan Chase later moving those to Edward Jones and eventually moving everything to Fidelity. I managed everything myself in the 90’s and early 2000’s, but as my portfolio grew I felt like I needed professional advice. What I found was disappointing overall. Like others have said, the returns I received weren’t significantly out of tolerance +/- from the S&P for any given year. When I first moved from Chase to Edward Jones I had a very seasoned adviser who had been in the field for more than 35 years. He’d seen market changes, recessions, etc. Overall, he was a very good adviser. He retired after I had been with him about 3 years. My account was given to a brand new adviser who had recently finished training with Ed Jones and shadowed my former adviser for about a year. He initially gave me good service because I was one of his larger clients at the time but as time passed he gained new more affluent clients and I found that aside from an annual review, I didn’t hear from him unless I felt I needed something.

In 2017 I moved all my assets to Fidelity. Same level of service with investment choices mirroring my risk tolerance. Returns were average and I was paying about 1% per year as a management fee. In 2020 Covid hit. The markets initially tanked and my accounts suffered greatly. I spoke to my adviser seeking words of wisdom that would magically improve my net worth. The advice was typical: “Ride it out. Over the long term market returns have always outpaced inflation.” I was now retired and had more time on my hands so I decided it was time to quit paying people for following simple mutual fund and ETF fund selections. I fired my adviser and started managing things myself. I participated in some online webinars about options trading and watched many YouTube videos on the topic. I got approved for options trading on my accounts and started using ActiveTraderPro, Fidelity’s in house trading platform. I did this until recently.

Fidelity had me classified as an Active Trader VIP. In late 2024 I asked Fidelity for some assistance with reviewing some estate documents (one of their services) and I was told it would take two months to get an appointment. Unsatisfactory in my opinion, but I waited. I called them a couple of months later to follow up and discovered that nothing had been scheduled and they asked me to once again explain to them what I needed. That was enough for me…

I moved all of my assets to Charles Schwab. They use a trading platform called “Think or Swim” that is truly phenomenal. It runs circles around the Fidelity Investments platform and allows me to develop custom scripts and studies for evaluating stock trades. No fees for stock purchases. Small fees for options trades.

In summary, I’ve had both good and bad years doing this, but at the end of the day I am the master of my own universe with respect to having control over my account management. I do not pay thousands in adviser fees and can still call Schwab anytime I need for free advice. Lots of Schwab tutorials on YouTube. I highly recommend that anyone with half a brain and a little time on their hands learn more about managing their own finances and do it themselves.

Does anyone really think that the adviser “truly” cares whether you make money or not? They get paid whether your account goes up or down. Think of this like Bacon and Eggs. The adviser is the chicken and you’re the pig. The chicken is involved, the pig is invested. Good luck.

Does anyone really think that the adviser “truly” cares whether you make money or not?

If that is your opinion then get rid of your advisor. A good fiduciary advisor should do his job with your desired outcome in mind. Any advisor that simply 're-balances' every quarter is not a goof fiduciary advisor. They should be contacting you when things aren't happening within your desired outcome. Otherwise, you can buy SPY and maintain your account equal with the S&P

Love Edward Jones

I have been a client of Edward Jones for more than 20 years. I use their 'Advisory Solutions' program and have averaged 7% after all fees over those years. All I have to do is take my tax papers and file income tax. They do minimum withdrawals and wire money to my checking account. I could do it too, but who wants to spend time doing the footwork.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AMB444 (Post 2417801)

Yes, I get it. Why did you switch to Schwab and Vanguard?

Thanks

Back in the the day when one paid brokerage commissions Fidelity used multiple trades instead of a single transaction to increase their commissions on a few bonds I bought. When I called them about it they laughed at me so I closed my account with them.

Then a few years later I kept some money market funds with them for a while. I eventually closed the account.

In 2022 I sold a major commercial real estate property and wanted to place the funds I received among several brokerages, Schwab and Vanguard, where I already had accounts and add a (new) Fidelity account. I opened a Fidelity personal account online with a few thousand, no problem. Then when I tried to convert it into a RLT account I ran into horrendous back office difficulties. Fidelity even told me my address was no good although it was plenty good enough for my personal account. I finally ended up going into their office and showed them my driver's license which has my address on it. lol. The odd thing is I had a bad gut feeling about opening an account with Fidelity in 2022. I should have listened to my gut.

I bought some BRK which I probably will never sell in the mid 1980s through Vanguard and I just keep it there. I also use Vanguard for money market funds as they are the lowest cost, for some of their ETFs and for a few stocks.

I use Schwab to buy and sell T-bills, some of their ETFs and stocks.

Long ago I opened an account with Olde Discount which eventually evolved into Ameriprise Financial. I have a C corp account there and some other accounts. Although Ameriprise charges commissions on trades they are low and I rarely trade. Also, I am just too lazy to go through the hassle of moving accounts. I only add funds to my C corp account there and withdraw accumulated dividends from my personal account now and then. I have a ROTH IRA there but have added nothing to it nor withdrawn from it for many years.

The one question everyone avoids is whether you use an advisor or manage by yourself, do you beat the S&P?

Advisors are Needed At times

I have been managing my investments for many years and found that I could use many of the tools available to select good stock investments. However, I also have an investment advisor because I found he had access to many fixed income opportunities that I had no way for finding. When he started in the business, he was trading fixed income assets for one of the big financial firms. Eventually I worked in his firm for 13 years and came to realize that his network could find good fixed income assets much better than I could. The portfolio that he manages is heavily into fixed assets while the portfolio I manage myself is almost stocks and EFT's. This approach allows me to allocate my total portfolio easily.

Aren't there investment clubs in the Villages? Is anyone a member? Are they helpful?

At your age..............no advisor.

Why??

By now, you should be balanced and assuming the risk you are comfortable with.

Over the 30 years of advising, you have a feel for what remaining risk you have in your portfolio.

You're not looking for the next great investment, you're looking for a fair return as you coast to the end.

:posting::posting:

Quote:

Originally Posted by rekosior (Post 2417913)

The one question everyone avoids is whether you use an advisor or manage by yourself, do you beat the S&P?

In retirement, you should not be beating the SP500, due to a bond allocation, or a more diversified portfolio than a 100% large cap equity index.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CarlR33 (Post 2417855)

Or, your advisor could be earning enough to cover that cost and more? Another way to look at it.

Less than 10% of all advisors beat the S&P 500.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cliff Fr (Post 2417821)

This thread has me wondering when AI will be used to manage an investment portfolio. :)

It is already being used, and it's called machine learning. This is not the AI that is used for interactive customer service.

The AI/machine learning is used to select the best allocation of ETFs, or portfolio balance.
I subscribe to a service that has over 100 different AI/machine learning portfolios, using different ETFS, different risk tolerances, different rebalancing strategies. All trained from the start of ETFS in the early 90-s and then the explosion of them in the 2000s. Mostly stock market and economic conditions based. I am discontinuing it because its very difficult to actually follow the daily recommendations.

All beat their benchmarks, whatever the benchmark you want to select is.
If you don't want a benchmark, you should select the highest sharpe ratio, and the smallest maximum drawdown, say sharpe greater than 1.0 and largest draw down over 30+ years of -10%.

The service is under the name Jungle Rock, and its based out of the UK/Cayman Islands.

The other subscription i have with a mean reversion individual stock selection with hedging/option writing, also using AI/machine learning. Average return over 20+ years is 20% per year, huge sharpe ratio, and minimal correlation to the SP500. Independent also running institutional money. He lives in Switzerland. Substack name is BankofVol

good luck