Fross & Fross manages our IRA's and find them to be very good, I have recommended several friends to them and everyone is very pleased. We have quarterly one on one meetings, they want to know there clients, and I don't find there fee's out of line compared to others, and we did check several other firms out before we settled on Fross & Fross.

Good idea Cassie. I will help with that. There already is an online group that does a good job of doing exactly what you're doing. And they also have an annual face to face meeting. You may already follow it. www.boogleheads.org

Go with Fross, you can't go wrong. Been with them 8 years...classy guys..very smart !!!!

Don't apologize for simply stating...and proving facts. :ho:


And as you stated, ALWAYS go with someone that is paid a flat fee and does not get a commission on an investment vehicle they recommend. :thumbup:


Way too much conflict of interest in doing that.

Fross uses private REITs that lock your money up for years and years and pushes annuities.

Are you a client of Fross and Fross??? If so and you do not want REITS and Annunities talk with them.....they will listen. If your not a client and your repeating hearsay, I have been with them for more than 5 years..and I have never had a REIT or an Annuity in the account. Yes they were discussed but we simply moved on to other subjects. Everyone's financial situation, risk tolerance and goals are different. They do offer REITs and Annuities but these would be for the more income oriented and risk adverse accounts.

Noticed a typo...it is
Bogleheads Investing Advice and Info

Named for Vanguard founder Jack Bogle.

Yes, very familiar with Bogleheads.com. Great information on low cost investing. If you are with a financial planner that doesn't charge fee based, you are paying a minimum of 1% per year on your balance (some charge 1.5% or more, so ASK!!), along with other commissions every time you buy a stock or mutual fund share. I was amazed as I had no clue because these fees never show on the statements, and even when you ask, they sometimes are not made clear. You never see where it is taken out, so you don't realize how much is missing.

This is a simplified example. Say you have $1,000,000 in retirement funds. Your rep charges 1%, which is $10,000 yearly. Plus commissions or loads on share/funds purchased. That is a minimum of $10,000 of your money yearly that is not invested or growing. If you are withdrawing 4% yearly for spending (4% of assets is common) then that $10,000 is a full 25% or 1/4th of your yearly income. This is why I learned to invest in stock index funds, inbounds, CDs, etc.

I realize some may need an advisor. But for me, it is a hobby/interest now.

Let's see if we can get enough interest t o start a group. Would be great also for any spouses who do not handle the money or investing currently, but wish to learn more.

I agree Cassie. And thanks to Villageswimmer for making the correction to bogleheads reference.

I recently helped a friend who used an advisor who I will not name, but they didn't know their real cost. They had a little bit more, but I will use the $1,000,000 to keep it apples to apples. They were paying 1.5% annual management fee's plus trade fees and also an upcharge fee. That is where the broker sells them something like a bond the broker buys and resells but adds a bit to the price plus his trade fee. And that is a very common practise. So on the $1,000,000 they paid $15,000 plus trading fees of $3827 and upcharge fee's of over $7000. I could not get it exact but the total was just over $26000 a year. So 2.6% on $1,000,000. And their total return for 2016 was 6.37%.

I showed him how I was invested and we used Morningstar radar to get my total cost which was .011% or only $1,100 on the same $1,000,000 amount. And my return for 2016 was 8.42%. And I had taken significantly less risk then he did. We went back over the previous 7 years that he had data for and my returns were more every year. Not a lot, but still more with less risk.

Go look at the Yale University fund and see how they manage their money and the returns. They use almost 100% index funds.

Gabelli Utility Trust (GUT)--currently paying 9.12% AND if you reinvest your dividends you get the additional shares @ a 5% discount below mkt--they pay dividends monthly compounded over 15% per annum--had this stock forever

And if you have owned it forever you're probably OK. But that is a closed end stock utility fund that is currently trading at a 46% premium to it's net asset value. In other words, you could buy the stocks the funds owns for 46% less than they are charging for them through that fund. I would consider any fund trading at that high of a premium a very high risk.

Vanguard will provide a financial planner for 0.3% of the money invested. We had a couple of conversations with one of the financial planners and was impressed although we haven't pulled the trigger on using them. I am comfortable doing it myself but if you want/need help they are worth considering. They will use Vanguard funds but that is a good thing.

Spend a little time on paulmerriman dot com. Download and read his FREE books.
Explore The Motley Fool's Rule Your Retirement.

Even if you don't want to do it yourself, invest the time - otherwise you may be investing in someone else's retirement.

FWIW

A fee of 1.5% is very high and unwarranted...especially if you are paying commissions and other fees on top of that. Look elsewhere for there are investment planners in our area who sit down with you that charge no more than 1% with no additional fees.

Again Fidelity, Vanguard and other big box investment firms may meet your immediate needs at a lower cost but this assumes you (and moreso your significant other) knows how to handle/invest money as well as having someone to discuss social security issues or RMDs from your 401 or IRA accounts. This stuff can get complicated.

A sad scenario would be you accumulated and managed over your lifetime a million dollar plus estate including retirement account(s) and then something happens and you no longer are around or have the ability to do so. Preparing for this eventually is part of estate planning.

Anybody I know that uses Fross & Fross is very happy with their choice.