Please explain to me like I'm 12, why I should fire Fidelity, EJ, etc.
 

Above ^

I have an accounting degree and can apply myself if I need to. (I'm at that age that I don't want to)

What are the advantages of keeping a "keeper" of investments.

So far I like my "investment person". But willing to listen to you educated folk.

Thank you in advance for not being overly condescending, like this forum tends to lean towards.

TIA

How long have you been dealing with Fidelity and how are the results?

Some of my investments are there and they have done very well over the years

30 years. Not sure how they compare.

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

Thank you!

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

Thanks

Do you value what they are doing for you, or are you willing to do it yourself?
 

Most "investment guys" do the job of periodically rebalancing your portfolio based on objectives/guidelines that you define, and may offer suggestions/solutions to minimizing tax impact of capital gains and/or RMDs. You can do all that yourself and do your own research on your investments if you want (you indicated that you do not want to). I test drove an investments guy with a portion of my assets but over several years I was generating better returns (doing the work myself) than him, so paying him roughly the 1% fee wasn't worth it, so I fired him (you still will have your investments at a place like Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, but there's no cost to that). If you don't understand the value, and costs, of what your investment guy is doing for you, then you should have him explain it to you, and then decide if you want to do the work yourself. There are cheaper "robo" advisor options (Wealthfront, Betterment, SoFi, etc.) where rebalancing, etc. is done in automated fashion. They charge less (.25% vs. 1 to 1.5%) than typical investment guys. You may want to look into that also.

This is great info, thanks!!

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

Wow, that would interesting for sure!

I'm sure you've heard of the 4% rule. Simply stated, you can withdraw 4% of your assets every year and not run out of money. Most advisors take 1 to 1.5% of assets under management (AUM). That means you're giving up a minimum of 25% of your 4%!

I would suggest that you visit bogleheads.org and look around. Their Wiki will explain a lot of things. There is a forum where you can ask any questions. Everything is there that you need to self direct.

Hope that helps.

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.

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…

I agree with this statement. I have used Creative Planning for six (?) years. Their compensation model charges a percentage of assets under management (AUM). My wife likes the guy that is the face of the company to us. He has two tasks: hold my wife’s hand upon my demise; and, talk me off the ledge when I’m about to do something stupid with our investments. If he were to leave, then we’d probably move to a fee-for-service advisor. I’ve found a guy in the Florida panhandle (we just moved from there) who I like. I had him run some numbers to get a second opinion on our move to The Villages.
I have used Edward Jones and Fisher Investment. The former was a disaster (hired EJ in 2005). The latter was fantastic, but I was searching for lower fees.

I just switched from Vanguard to Fidelity. I manage my own investments, so my criticism of Vanguard was with their IT system.

I feel like Fidelity has a more robust research platform and is easier to use. Vanguard has been on a cost cutting push for the past few years and it looks like their computer system has taken a large part of the brunt of that push with some much needed upgrades delayed. For me, it wasn't any one issue, event or feature that pushed me to Fidelity but there was enough little things.

I have no thoughts on the advisor side of things except from watching Merrill Lynch manage my mother's investments...the 1% they are taking for their "services" are criminal. Stay away from them!

I have had bad experiences with investment advisors. It is like going to a car dealership and asking for the best car. The best car is always something on their lot. Investment advisors focus on what they have available to sell and what their superiors tell them to promote. I wanted to move some investments from a retirement plan into precious metals, but I was told it was "not appropriate." I decided to diversify my portfolio and transfer money out of an IRA into a Roth IRA by doing it myself. After I retired, I moved the remainder of my IRA into another IRA that aligns with my investment philosophy.

Would you say what advisor you use?

Why pay someone to "watch" your money while any of the major brokerage houses offer similar services and/or diverse funds to use.

One advantage is if some day we no longer have the mental capacity to properly manage our investmens,, there's someone to help.

We switched over to Fisher Investments about 5 years ago and after setting up our accounts we have never changed a thing. The folks at Fisher make all the changes in buying, selling, switching, etc, we pay our 1-1/4% with no additional fees and let them handle everything. So far we are more than happy with the results and ken Fisher has made some amazing forecasts regarding the various markets. They may not be for everyone but for us, not being educated in investing, they were/are exactly what we need/needed.

Fidelity offers the ability to build your own investment plan for free. On fidelity.com, select "Planning and Advice" from the top tool bar and then "Build your free plan". Fidelity doesn't like to advertise this but I've used in the past with good results. You must have an account with Fidelity to use this feature.

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

If you use someone (fidelity, Schwab, Fisher, EJ, on and on), the client only assumes they are making money, but in reality, the hired broker is the only person making money. Most clients don't know what they are making, nor what they are paying in loads/fees when somebody else controls everything. I have helped over a dozen friends with their portfolios and every 1 of them was using a brokerage house to run their portfolio, and every 1 of them when I looked at it weren't making the money they could have been making, no where close to what I was making, and most of them were in loaded funds or funds that had higher fees that an index fund. I will always remember a couple of friends that when they went in to fire their broker, they got a response: "I was just going to call you about making some changes", classic!

Since I have been doing my own management, I have used many of these firms websites to manage my portfolio. Overall, I like Schwabs different websites. I haven't used fidelity's or anybody else's site in over a decade, so maybe another brokerage house leapfrogged Schwabs. I get so many perks being with Schwab that would cost me a lot of money if I had to pay for them being somewhere else.

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.

After 2021, I get out of the market completely when I see issues coming up instead of riding it out and put my $$$ in money market funds. I did this at the end of 2021 and last December. When I think the market will turn around or the economy will get better, I get back in. No fund manager will do this, and I never did this either before 2021. But now it's a game with me on how close I can time the market. While others will wait for months and months of gains to get back to being even, I start making money from the start or pretty close to the start of the rally. Plus, there are always certain stocks that look to be favored after a downturn that I jump into and ride them until they stall. Some of these made me hundred(s) of percent gains when I was getting back into the market during 2023. There are many companies that are prime to make a lot of money when things turn around this time too, its just a waiting game now.

We have been with Fidelity since moving to the Villages. They have a very good website with tons of information. Their fees if any are reasonable. The selection if investment choices is huge it covers everything. They have a Local office should you need it. Vanguard is also popular but I an not familiar with their + & - aspects.

When I retired I took a lump sum instead of a pension. I studied for many months on how I was going to invest my money. Researched a method called "Modern Portfolio Theory" MPT. I went on to research the stocks or mutual funds to follow the theory. Most mutual funds have a fee buried in the fund and the funds are not pure. ie a small cap fund will not have 100% small cap stocks. I discovered Dimensional Funds DF were the purest funds for MPT based portfolio with very low expenses. Then I discovered I could not buy the funds! You have to go thru a DF fund manager. FYI many large institutional firms have their retirement funds in DFA. Searching more I found Evanson Asset Management EAM that currently has 5 billion in client assets. My portfolio is in a Schwab accounts that's managed by EAM. All trades and account balancing and RMDs are managed by EAM. I love Schwab, free checking and all atm withdrawals are free. Been with EAM for 25 years. Best decision I ever made. I do not worry about investment stuff.

I met with Evanson at my home 25 years ago. That's the only personal meeting I have had with EAM in 25 years. All discussions have been via phone or email with his staff. My point is, you do not need face time or an office to work with an asset manager firm.

https://www.evansonasset.com/
Dimensional Fund Advisors | Dimensional

Lots of info on EAM website.

Good luck
Bob

I’m educated (advanced science) and have zero interest in managing my own portfolio. I could learn to but it would take time and energy I don’t want to invest. I’ve been paying an advisor for over thirty years and am happy with their services. I think it really just boils down to interest and how much you’re comfortable paying an advisor. I’m ok with the % for peace of mind and more free time to do what I enjoy.

Currently have investment money with Fidelity, Vanguard, Wells Fargo and Interative Brokers.

Vanguard is a low cost dumpster fire of a firm IT systems old, and paper statements suck. Attract bogglehead cultists, and actively dismisses any criticisms of such from their forums, if not investors. Actively discourages fund swapping and trading. Pros: does develop and use annual tax minimization strategies which results in a higher tax upon withdrawal in taxable accounts. tldr: they swap annual short term gains for long term cap gains for a lower tax rate but a higher pretax gain amount. pick your poison. Last time I had issues, no online forms, but printing and USPS mail only. . not a risk free lost mail proposition. . Also has developed and IRS approved swapping managed mutual funds to a similar ETF for zero tax implications, which is huge. Other financial firms are copying it which is great for the current tax advantage of ETFs over mutual funds.

Advantage long term set it and forget it investors. . main customer target is 401K/IRA corporate accounts.

Wells Fargo most corrupt national financial institution around. most fined institution primarily handling individual investments. Still trying to clean up the lack of controls and internal fraud. Great online data / transactional excel format, including withholding/payment of taxes with all transactions. very easy to reconcile from start to end. Currently I am using a CFA advisor, with someone who can easily recommend different strategies. WF custom built a stock portfolio for my parents 2 accounts which has withstood since the 1990s with excellent stability, growth and dividends. But that was before the corruption stated. Very easy to talk with, however, the downside is that he is very tax ignorant, as he should be. His job is to invest for wealth creation. The CPA is to manage strategies for tax minimization. I am currently bridging the two due my parent's financial situation, can't do one without the other. Am not using their on line brokerage features, so I can't comment. Currently assigned advisor not able to be changed easily if desired, I tried for a more local one and was denied, saying its up to the individual branch negotiations.

Fidelity have been an options trading customer since the early 80s. My first options course was in freshman year of college in 1976-77. Great local firm with offices for easy access. great customer service. Have regular web seminars, and have attended both online and in person seminars. Last one was the ins and outs of collecting social security timing. Currently using their Active Trader pro software, dislike their web site for trading. Financial reports are pretty, however, they suck for being super intuitive. have two different labeling conventions for funds. Missing tax withheld transactions, making it difficult to foot transactions from opening balance to ending balance. Having worked with insiders after leaving, they are profit/incentive driven from their advisors to their fund managers. Consistently had the lowest interest rate / dividend rate of competitors due to high fund management costs, accruals for incentives.

Current customer targets: corporate 401K / 403B plans and very high net worth customers. small individual investors, not so much, but you are coat tailing the high net worth strategies.

Friends are using their internal portfolio management strategies, and all are very happy with it. One friend retired early, prior to 60, using Fidelity's IRA tax strategies to avoid early withdrawal penalties. . . somehow, not sure of the details. . for regular monthly paychecks.

Interactive brokers: target customers are high tech algorithmic traders. cheapest transaction costs anywhere, since all electronic. Can send orders for execution using python, making lots of trades in many accounts much faster and efficient. Have lots of independent strategies to select from. I tried one options strategy, and they executed very well, but I got my account executed at the same time. For only highly sophisticated investors, and mostly used for risky strategies. Sending and executing orders electronically was cool for me anyway, but I don't trust the purchased trading strategies yet, as i use independent purchased portfolio strategies along with personally in development trading strategies being developed with python.

Conclusion: most big firms, V, WF, and Fido charge alot as they target high net worth individuals. Most strategies will be a buy and hold with minimal trading or monthly/quarterly rebalancing. Most do not have any systemic issue protection, so if the SP500 goes down 40%, and your portfolio goes down 30%, it's a huge win! Quarterly rebalancing is the max length of time for conservative portfolios. There are factor investing strategies which can be very good as well, such as investing in high inflationary environment. There are publicly available portfolios to track, such as the JPM Efficient Five https://sp.jpmorgan.com/spweb/content/307403.pdf and there are small / private money managers who will manage your portfolio at a cost. however, cost should NOT be the sole/primary selection driver. Strategy with quarterly rebalancing and after tax/commission returns, sharpe ratio, and largest annual drawdowns should be the primary metrics for evaluation.

good luck, and sorry if the post was long or detailed, but the trade off is personal experience. And yes, all my own very opinionated opinions, use it or ignore it, i don't care.

GRATEFUL
for the Truly Well Explained
and Very Thorough Advice
that you took the Time to Offer

From my opinion, AI is just an extension of all the technology automation full of delays and frustration. If a persons issue is not straight forward and an "actual" human is needed, it's just another way for companies to hire fewer employees.
This in turn makes it harder for customers to get resolution. Every company that is called or contacted electronically now has some type of automated system and when you finally get a human well then that is another set of issues. We all have had the issue of the language barrier, oh and let's transfer you 3 times, and then suddenly the call is disconnected. The general public does NOT have a choice on using technology and I hope it will improve with time!

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.