[rsmurano]

If you don’t know how to invest your money and/or how to make money while in retirement, you are at a huge disadvantage and are vulnerable to hire a bad person to handle your money.

Just because “a friend” says some firm is good, ask your friend what kind of equities your invested in and what kind of fees they are paying and what kind of gains they are getting now and say for the last 5 years, and 99% of your friends are clueless and won’t be able to answer these questions. I have helped dozens of friends and a lot of them had some of the advisors mentioned above and they were not making any money while paying loads and high fees.

Ask any potential financial advisor can they guarantee that they will make me more money compared to what I have been making and their answer is always no guarantee.

Stay away from the free dinner investment sales pitch. Nothing is free.

I would recommend checking out the robo investment advisors for no cost from Schwab or vanguard.

[crash]

Originally Posted by MsSurfer

I am looking for recommendations for a financial advisor within The Villages that can help someone totally reluctant to make any change from a current broker. Do you know of a professional who offers reliable advice about annuity and other investment accounts (to someone totally ignorant about investments)? I have an appointment with Truist about an annuity account, but aren't there other options, whether it be a bank or brokerage? Alternatively, are companies who offer a free meal to talk about retirement planning a legitimate option? The way their ads are presented reminds me of timeshare sales and makes me leery. Thank you for any responses.

If they are selling you an annuity they are not working for you. Find an advisor that is a fiduciary they are required to do what is best for you.

[Caymus]

Originally Posted by capecoralbill

I would go with Schwab, or Fidelity, maybe even Edward Jones. A friend of mine used a local Advisor (Who does host dinners here) with a small office of maybe five or 6 employees they put her into some questionable stocks, some of them even went bankrupt and she lost seven to 10 thousand dollars on two of them. He was charging her 1 1/2 per cent every month. We eventually got away from him entirely and split her assets between Fidelity and Schwab. They are both self directed accounts, which means no fees. They both offer some financial guidance at either one to two percent, if you need guidence. So just go talk to them without swapping your money there and listen to their sales pitch. But I would definitely stay away from these small outfits especially when they have relatives working in their office.
Just think if one of their principles would die, the chaos your money and income taxes Would be in.

They actually charge 1 1/2%? The average investor can do as well or better with a list of broad market ETF's taped to a wall and a dart.

[Rwirish]

Fidelity.

Annuities are not a bad investment for many and should be a consideration of any retirement plan IMO.

[Sandy and Ed]

Originally Posted by LonnyP

Annuity’s are bad. Put your money in Vanguard and save all those fees. If you are totally uncomfortable with that they do have people to help you but a little research on your own is pretty easy. Their funds offer low expense ratios and you will be money ahead.

Agree. Have both Fidelity and Vanguard. Both have been kind to us - Vanguard more so. We have been happy with our portfolii.

[Carolynp4]

Originally Posted by MsSurfer

I am looking for recommendations for a financial advisor within The Villages that can help someone totally reluctant to make any change from a current broker. Do you know of a professional who offers reliable advice about annuity and other investment accounts (to someone totally ignorant about investments)? I have an appointment with Truist about an annuity account, but aren't there other options, whether it be a bank or brokerage? Alternatively, are companies who offer a free meal to talk about retirement planning a legitimate option? The way their ads are presented reminds me of timeshare sales and makes me leery. Thank you for any responses.

We use creative planning, Colby Winslow (he comes to our home) who is brilliant. I’ve used vanguard, (advisor), for several years, but after a situation where they made a recommendation that I totally disagreed with and I lost 25% of my portfolio. If I hadn’t followed the advice from Vanguard, I would have been fine. They intimidated me saying I was paying for their “expert advice “. So I followed their terrible advice.
Next month I’m meeting with Colby to discuss how to approach the end of Trumps tax cuts in 2026. He thinks outside the box.

[Pat2015]

Originally Posted by Carolynp4

We use creative planning, Colby Winslow (he comes to our home) who is brilliant. I’ve used vanguard, (advisor), for several years, but after a situation where they made a recommendation that I totally disagreed with and I lost 25% of my portfolio. If I hadn’t followed the advice from Vanguard, I would have been fine. They intimidated me saying I was paying for their “expert advice “. So I followed their terrible advice.
Next month I’m meeting with Colby to discuss how to approach the end of Trumps tax cuts in 2026. He thinks outside the box.

Definitely going to be an issue in Jan 2026 with the end of the tax cuts unless that’s continued. I just moved my investments from Merrill Lynch where I was paying a 1% fee to Schwab where I’m not paying any fees. Happy with the free advice, research, and info provided by them thus far.

[CFollansbee]

Originally Posted by MsSurfer

I am looking for recommendations for a financial advisor within The Villages that can help someone totally reluctant to make any change from a current broker. Do you know of a professional who offers reliable advice about annuity and other investment accounts (to someone totally ignorant about investments)? I have an appointment with Truist about an annuity account, but aren't there other options, whether it be a bank or brokerage? Alternatively, are companies who offer a free meal to talk about retirement planning a legitimate option? The way their ads are presented reminds me of timeshare sales and makes me leery. Thank you for any responses.

Blackston Financial is fantastic. Located on 466.

[SaucyJim]

Originally Posted by Carolynp4

We use creative planning, Colby Winslow (he comes to our home) who is brilliant. I’ve used vanguard, (advisor), for several years, but after a situation where they made a recommendation that I totally disagreed with and I lost 25% of my portfolio. If I hadn’t followed the advice from Vanguard, I would have been fine. They intimidated me saying I was paying for their “expert advice “. So I followed their terrible advice.
Next month I’m meeting with Colby to discuss how to approach the end of Trumps tax cuts in 2026. He thinks outside the box.

If a single recommendation lost you 25% of your portfolio, the position sizing was completely out of whack. My cost basis on any position cannot (by my rule) exceed 4% of my investable assets at the time of the trade. The only positions I hold that exceed this percentage do so because of growth and dividend reinvestments. Once the position exceeds 6%, I place a 10% trailing stop to eventually bring the position back in line and provide me dry powder for my next investment. Using this technique, in a very-worst-case scenario, any single position cannot hurt my overall portfolio by more than 4%.

Oh yeah. Fidelity all the way. Self-directed and their trading interface is miles ahead of Schwab’s, where part of my HSA funds are housed.

[Ross]

Originally Posted by MsSurfer

I am looking for recommendations for a financial advisor within The Villages that can help someone totally reluctant to make any change from a current broker. Do you know of a professional who offers reliable advice about annuity and other investment accounts (to someone totally ignorant about investments)? I have an appointment with Truist about an annuity account, but aren't there other options, whether it be a bank or brokerage? Alternatively, are companies who offer a free meal to talk about retirement planning a legitimate option? The way their ads are presented reminds me of timeshare sales and makes me leery. Thank you for any responses.

Matt Plunket CFP,
Fidelity at Sumter Landing

[RcCalais]

Originally Posted by MsSurfer

I am looking for recommendations for a financial advisor within The Villages that can help someone totally reluctant to make any change from a current broker. Do you know of a professional who offers reliable advice about annuity and other investment accounts (to someone totally ignorant about investments)? I have an appointment with Truist about an annuity account, but aren't there other options, whether it be a bank or brokerage? Alternatively, are companies who offer a free meal to talk about retirement planning a legitimate option? The way their ads are presented reminds me of timeshare sales and makes me leery. Thank you for any responses.

If you are NOT in tune to investments, I would definitely go with a company and an assigned advisor (at least to start with). The company and its cost to you does mean a lot but the advisor more so. I had an account with one of the favored companies mentioned in this thread but soon found his interest was more in himself. This was when I first moved to TV.

Another example was in the case of a different account, one I kept out of state. I was about to close that account because of the adviser but heard he resigned from the company. The advisor that took over my account was a blessing; we've been with him for about 45 years.

[Carolynp4]

Originally Posted by SaucyJim

If a single recommendation lost you 25% of your portfolio, the position sizing was completely out of whack. My cost basis on any position cannot (by my rule) exceed 4% of my investable assets at the time of the trade. The only positions I hold that exceed this percentage do so because of growth and dividend reinvestments. Once the position exceeds 6%, I place a 10% trailing stop to eventually bring the position back in line and provide me dry powder for my next investment. Using this technique, in a very-worst-case scenario, any single position cannot hurt my overall portfolio by more than 4%.

Oh yeah. Fidelity all the way. Self-directed and their trading interface is miles ahead of Schwab’s, where part of my HSA funds are housed.

It had to do with interest rates. My portfolio is diversified . I had bond funds.

[Jensor17]

When I first came here, I went to several presentations with the free dinners and I was told I was "over diversified" but those guys wanted me to put MY MONEY IN THEIR HANDS. THEIR CHOICES. NO WAY. The best advice I received was: Choose stocks in well-known companies paying dividends, in tech and oil companies and consumer products.

[wolfie]

I am quite a few of my friends use West financial group. Our contact is Skip. We have been using him for a few years and have been very satisfied with the results located here. The Villages telephone number is 33524610645 and my name is Peter Wolfinger, and I am not easy to please when I play with my money I get good returns from them and to me that's what counts

[roadrnnr]

I have a Fidelity Brokerage account and Have a couple hundred Thousand from a house sale I need to invest.

Looking for some flat fee General advice as to where to put it.

Would the fidelity office work for that or does anybody know someone who does like consultation on an hourly basis?