When I was in my 20's, I had a coworker who kept pushing the greatness of his financial advisor.

Being fairly new at investing, I decided to go in for a free consultation.

As I was sitting in the parking lot afterward, I saw the guy I had just talked to (and I admit, he 'sounded' great with lots of terminology I was clueless about and seemed to know what he was doing)...get in his car.

It was an old beater, but more importantly, was covered with dust & dirt...indicating to me he wasn't big on details.

A light bulb went off and made me think... "if this guy is so good, why does he look so broke?" :oops:

And yes, I also took into account that maybe he was really filthy rich and driving cheap cars (like Warren Buffett)...is one of the ways he was able to become wealthy.

It was his lack of taking care of what he had though...that tipped the scales for me.

Which made me think of Trevino's famous quote...on why he didn't have a golf coach.

Trevino's answer was basically (paraphrasing)... "because I haven't found one that can beat me." :D

So I decided then & there, I would educate myself as much as possible and at least then...I would be solely responsible for any failures/successes.

I've never looked back...and certainly don't regret my decision. :ho:

I have also managed all my investments solely myself. My Barron's list/Raymond James guy won't oversee my investments until I am either unable to while alive or deceased. If I had an adult child that could handle it the stock bookie would not get the job, just saying...

If financial advisors could really provide valuable investment advice, they would not be financial advisors. They would be billionaries. The first thing you should ask an advisor is to show you their own personal portfolio, and their total return over the last 10 years.

I read a quote somewhere of a man saying something like "I sent two children to college with my investment portfolio, my broker's!'.

It is so easy to do yourself with today's investment options that I would never pay anyone to do it. Just follow a simple model like the Yale University model. Use low cost index funds. I have done my own for the past 40 years and have averaged 8.34% annual return with a VERY low risk portfolio. Someone told me that that is about the same as the S&P 500, and yes it did, but at a much higher risk profile. I use Vanguard, but Schwab or Fidelity also have low expense index funds.

Google the Yale model and just follow it using ETF's or index funds with low expense ratios. They manage the largest endowment fund around very successfully using just low cost index funds.

So never pay anyone for things you can do with better results and lower cost. Raymond James is fairly expensive and will impact your returns. Returns will be lower or risk will be higher to achieve what you can do yourself.

And again, we don't answer the OP's question.

With all due respect, I would point out that most of the other posts...at least gave a lot of usable info on investing in general. :ho:

Not sure I agree. In my opinion, advising the OP how to manage their own investments instead of paying an investment advisor is answering the question.

Broker - just in case
 

As I've noted before, I decided to give a financial advisor (i woudnt call him a broker) a portion of my assets .. just in case I was unable to mentally do it in the future. I came down to the Villages and have gone to the Investment clubs and have played poker with 80 and 90 year olds that are sharp as a tack. I hope to be that with it when I reach that age. In the meantime, I'm back to managing 100% of the portfolio.. and my wife has the call to take over or hire someone in the event she declares me incapable (no jokes pls) ..

I'll leave the talk about millenial children and their knowledge of and interest in finance to another discussion

Investing Models
 

Along the lines of Paul Merriman (paulmerrimandotcom), I would look into John Bogle (bogleheadsdotorg).

Both advocate simple approaches to investing.

Merriman includes several model portfolios using low cots ETF's.

Bogle (recently passed) founded Vanguard

Neither charges a fee.

Has anyone else noticed that the old term "buy and hold" approach to investing has been replaced with the "hang in there" approach to investing. And, "market timing" has been replaced with having a "managed portfolio". Different wording, same meanings, but apparently, "hang in there" sounds more negative than "buy and hold". Most research surveys reveal that about 66 percent of financial advisors who decide when to buy and when to sell your stocks (managed portfolio), end up providing a total return of less than the total return for S&P 500 index funds.

So the OP asks specifically about experience with Raymond James in Brownwood and nobody answers his question but provides opinions on managing his own finances and you consider that an answer? You make the assumption that the OP is ignorant to the advanatges of doing his own investing and never consider that maybe he has explored that option and isn't interested in doing that. Can anyone answer his question?

I use Steve Saylor and his recommendations have been spot on. Would highly recommend Steve and his team.

Thank you!