Why hire an investment advisor/planner/counselor?
 

My experience talking to these sort of firms/people, and what friends and family have shared with me on their experiences, I have no desire to go with these investment advisors.
Most of these investment advisors have 1 main goal, and that’s how can they make money. Your goal is the same, how can I make the most money on my investment dollars?

In my experience and a couple of friends experience, a few advisors wanted over $40,000-$60,000 per year to manage my/their investments. Which is a lot of money, but take that amount and extrapolate that for 10 years: that’s around $400,000 - $500,000 or more in fees alone. On top of those fees, you might have some funds that have high expenses or loads. OR worse, you could be talked into an annuity.

The most beneficial way to handle investments IMO is for you to learn how to manage your money yourself, or learn enough to know when an advisor is worth the money you are paying him.

Do research and make your own decisions. I buy 8 hrs per year from a fiduciary planning firm for $1200.00. Some years don't use all the hrs.I like it better than giving someone 1% of total.
I have done all my own investing for the last 40 years.

I also do my own but do read a lot and follow my investments closely

The reason I am looking is to have a system in place when my cognitive ability to make financial decisions declines. I have no desire to have an AUM based advisor especially since my investments will eventually be in ETF's.

Who do you use? I have not been able to find one.

Plug for Edward Jones
 

I don't want to take the time to do my own investing. I have some friends that do and spend hours every week making trades. I have been with them for at least 10 years. Over the last 5 years (with all the stock market turmoil), I have averaged 4.8% return. In good years, it has been as high as 22%. There is a monthly fee based on the amount of investments managed. I get a call at least every quarter from my financial advisor with trade recommendations - doesn't do any trades without my approval. I can call/message anytime and he gets right back to me. They have a portal (not unique here) where I can check stuff as often as I want. Before retirement, I had my 401K money "managed" by other firms but never got any investment advice and had to pick my investment locations (which fund(s) to invest in and percentage) myself. As soon as I was able, I pulled funds out of 401K and put with EJ where I believe it is actively being managed by someone for me. I've been very happy.

You are being smart. I can see that sometime out on the time horizon, maybe sooner rather than later, I will be facing the same issue if I live long enough.

Hopefully we will see some productive posts!

I do have a RLT which names a trust company located where I hold commercial real estate. This company can manage it and the rest of my estate if I become incompetent and/or after my demise. They do charge for their services but I feel I have no choice as none of my beneficiaries/devisees are capable of stepping in and managing my estate.

Each person's situation is unique, at least to some extent. Thoughtful planning is always a good idea.

great planning ahead goal. . .

The goal will be keep a conservative cash / bond / investment portfolio balance with proper rebalancing, preferably by quarter.

I just ran a momentum based monthly rebalancing scenario on my laptop in python, and the statistics for drawdowns are phenominal over twenty years, just using the 9 SP500 subsectors and only being invested in 1/2 of the sectors at any one time. The key is NOT the gains, but the minimizing the drawdowns, which over twenty years was less than 20%, from 2000 to 2020 as my first class taught portfolio.

The key for minimizing equity risk is rebalancing and the key for longevity is a conservative equity portion and the remainder in bonds.

in a few weeks after driving back north this week and working on perfecting the python financial packages, I can offer some interesting suggestions for equity portfolios to discuss with a financial advisor. . only for those who are interested who want to look at portfolio construction and results. .

and the portfolios can be made up of etfs and/or individual stocks, and/or bond funds, or a combination of all three. .

also a very valid reason for wanting someone else to do what you don't want to do, given the time and the resources and the skill/knowledge/abilities. .

sounds like a great plan.

:agree:

Before you do any type of investing you have to plan on what type of return you want to get on your investments and how much time you want to invest. If you're looking for a modest return, somewhere in the 4% range you should defiantly do it yourself. Today you can achieve this from dividends on utilities or bank CDs which are paying near 5%. You purchase CDs at 4 banks at $250K each, that will cover a million and it's FIDC insured. If you're thinking about speculating, that you better do your homework or rely on a professional.

Ask how their RISK adjusted return beat the benchmark after fees. You have a very high probability of being disappointed. If they even bother to answer the question.

Many advisers use a computer model to allocate investments that can be found for free. Save the fees. They have no magic formula. Ask Warren Buffett.

I had a friend in the business. His educational credentials were no better than a car salesman. He used a computer program and collected a nice fee.

I find it bizarre that one thinks they have special insight. Otherwise they would be billionaires.

Caveat Emptor

These threads are becoming dog poop threads.........kind'a silly.

$40k to $60k in fees are nothing on a $100mil portfolio.
$40k to $60k in fees are painful on a $1mil portfolio.
"In my experience....." :ohdear::ohdear::ohdear:

Thank you Mr. Obvious:
"Most of these investment advisors have 1 main goal, and that’s how can they make money. Your goal is the same, how can I make the most money on my investment dollars?"
"The most beneficial way to handle investments IMO is for you to learn how to manage your money yourself, or learn enough to know when an advisor is worth the money you are paying him."

:shrug::shrug:

4% gains? You are losing money every day if that’s all you are making. Average annual gains over decades is way over 4%. Earlier this year it was very easy to make over 100% gains in certain equities. Money markets are over 5.1% and have been all year and they won’t be going down anytime soon.You can get equities that pay 4% dividends. If you are only making single digit gains, then I would look for help.

It’s not only how much you make, but after a certain age, it’s how much you preserve to live on for the rest of your life. Financial freedom outlined in many good books is the ultimate state to be in financially. Every year since retirement, we make more money in passive income than what we spend.

As for getting an advisor after you reach “old age”, why? If something happened to me, my wife will be just fine not touching the portfolio for many years into the future, just living off the dividends. Thats 1 of the many benefits of low cost index funds.

I've been doing my own for many years now. Only bought stocks from companies I studied and believed in that offered a decent dividend. Now I check them once a month to make sure all is in good order, so it's not much work at all, and no fees to anyone. Being in it for the long run and being patient with ups and down is the way to go IMO.