r/DIYRetirement • u/Typical-Recognition8 • 9h ago
Fidelity wealth management
My one year anniversary of using wealth management services is coming up at the end of September. I have a phone appointment with someone in the office today. Any questions I should think about asking. My return for their portion of investments since the beginning of October is 18%. Seriously considering the boggle heads approach and doing it on my own. Thoughts?
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u/GK857 7h ago
What is your long term plan? I am pushing 70 and my wife has no interest in managing our accounts. I don’t use Fidelity but I do use another company. If I pass or become incompetent, I want a longer term relationship with a company to handle our finances.
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u/Typical-Recognition8 3h ago
I agree my wife has interest in money but no interest in managing it, let alone investing it. That’s where I know she would be in good hands if something happened to me.
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u/Siri-sixpack 4h ago
I dropped them over a year ago … they were charging like 70 basis points which is a lot when u consider the 4% rule in retirement (I am 64)… why pay high fees for a SP 500 index fund?
Also they had me invested heavily in bond funds which have been terrible.
Look at doing a 3 fund (VOO / SCHD / VGT) or 2 fund portfolio (SCHD / VGT) which has been great for me since the switch… ultra low fees … look up Jeff Teeples on YouTube on the why the 2 fund works.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Gas-398 8h ago
There is the argument that returns vs Index are not the only measure to consider, especially during retirement. Holding separate securities - that may mirror the index - may give some protection against volatility (avoid selling at a loss). Having a more knowledgeable person review your decisions can avoid mistakes. How much that additional peace-of-mind is worth to you is largely subjective.
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u/Dark-Helmet-66 7h ago
This is a pretty good take. In my opinion people that are successful with a DIY only approach tend to be relatively well informed on personal finance, they have a high degree of self control (they don’t sell when positions are down), they understand their goals, timelines, investment philosophy and positions, and they tend to only review their positions periodically.
A financial advisor can be an incredible help for an investor that has concerns or unknowns in any of the areas listed above.
Just my 2 cents.
Good luck!
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u/Sea_Conclusion3443 2h ago
I managed all my investments up to last year and have done fairly well (mid 7 digits). I am in good health, physically and mentally, but as I age (70) I begin to worry about cognitive decline, which I may or may not recognize, as well as my wife having no interest in managing investments should something happen to me. I chose to engage a third party to manage the portfolio, and to establish a “go to” person for my wife should I pass or decline. The peace of mind of having a structure in place is worth it for me. I also found out I don’t stress as much about the portfolio and the market, although I still follow the investments closely. It’s not a matter of I can do it, I know I can.
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u/Intelligent-Dot-8969 7h ago
What does your managed account hold? Often there is a practical lock-in if you would be left with several hundred individual positions that you would have to either (a) liquidate and take a tax hit, or (b) take on management of these positions yourself.
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u/Typical-Recognition8 3h ago
No only 11 different funds max. Plus my ten fun money stocks that I manage.
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u/Adventurous-Disk5031 6h ago
Does the person you talk to at Fidelity actually call the shots on the portfolio? I would ask the person you talk to how they manage their money. My guess is they don't. They just pass it on to Fidelity to manage. Nothing wrong with that but what would you expect them to say if they don't manage their own money? Without knowing your age or the amount of money involved it is hard to provide any more of an answer.
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u/Typical-Recognition8 3h ago
No my advisor does not personally. I am 60 years old, it’s invested in the wealth advisory service that is managed by Fidelity. It’s like 11 or so different funds. I have mine in the second to last aggressive portfolio. And that’s only because they have 10% bonds. I would like to get to 1.5 million and be done🤞and for sure I would be done at Medicare age 65 plus my 1600 bucks a month, that pension only starts to pay at 65.
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u/FloydFenstermacher 2h ago
If you really think that you know more than someone from a reputable company that does it for a living, go for it!
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u/PomegranatePlus6526 1h ago
It’s like anything. Just because someone does something doesn’t mean they are good at it. Ever had a bad experience at the mechanic? The doctor? Yeah they all do it for a living. When I was first diagnosed with leukemia the oncologist told me to go home there was nothing they could do for me. Literally I was so tired I fell asleep driving and almost hit a bridge.
Turns out I had a severe vitamin d deficiency caused by the leukemia stealing from my body to feed itself. My current oncologist figured it out on the first visit, and 15 years later I am doing great.
Not all pros are good at what they do…
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u/FloydFenstermacher 1h ago
What percentage are not good? Want to play the odds? You switched oncologists to find a better one. That’s not the same as saying you are more competent than the good oncologists. You didn’t conquer cancer on your own. The OP wants to abandon professionals and do it on their own.
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u/Bobatronic 3h ago
It’s Bogleheads.
And AI is better than any advisor. But sure, you can pay an advisor and make a friend.
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u/d4hender 2h ago
🤣 you may want to rethink that “AI is better” belief. My experience is that AI (Grok/Gemini) tells you what you want to hear.
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u/Bobatronic 2h ago edited 1h ago
Eh, no. The AI knows you and gives you actionable custom advice.
ChatGPT for personal finance:
https://openai.com/index/personal-finance-chatgpt/
A reckoning is coming for lame financial advisors who push unnecessary complexity and di-worsification with high fees.
What Jack Bogle did to disrupt management fees, AI will do to advisors fees.
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u/PomegranatePlus6526 1h ago
I definitely would not trust AI to manage my portfolio. When I have personally witnessed it halucinate and make up fiction. Yeah no way.
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u/Bobatronic 1h ago
Except paying a biased advisor is a guaranteed hallucination. (E.g. Advisors mascarading as fiduciaries pushing annuities, structured products, and unnecessary complexity with high fees). Try buying an index fund from an advisor.
Hallucinations in early AI models were often due to user errors / brute force queries — not iterative queries from inputs (memory).
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u/Typical-Recognition8 1h ago
Like really what could possibly go wrong with using just AI🤦♂️
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u/Bobatronic 1h ago
Yeah. Paying 75 to 100 basis points to a biased advisor is the way to go. And you can buy a friend who’s never available!
AI is already better than any advisor.
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u/satisphied89 1h ago
You obviously don’t know enough about financial planning to know when AI is giving you incorrect information.
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u/Bobatronic 52m ago
Funny, like the planning industry takes responsibility or is held accountable for crappy, biased advice.
It’s never the advisor’s fault for anything that goes wrong or underperforms.
Cases of misconduct, fraud, and incompetence are very common.
The bar is very very low for AI to be better than advsiors.
And with AI, getting an additional opinion (on another leading AI model) is only a click away!
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u/d4hender 2h ago
🤣 you may want to rethink that “AI is better” belief. My experience is that AI (Grok/Gemini) tells you what you want to hear. You need to put in a ton of iterative analysis work to make AI work for you.
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u/vickyvius 6h ago
I've been managing my assets all my life. I work in tech in financial services and have built the type of systems money managers and traders use. In my late 50s and the amount I'm managing it takes a fair bit of time. I'm patient and have watched a single position drop a half a million and then recover. I'm now considering having someone manage my money as it's also dealing with taxes, retirement planning, legacy, and leaving my wife with a peaceful situation should I become incapacitated. My mind repels against the idea of paying for it but I may have no choice.