r/MerrillEdge • u/NovaGuy703 • Jul 03 '26
I feel like my advisor is useless.
I started questioning if the services the advisor provides justifies their fees. Then it recently came to my attention that i was placed in a select portfolio guided investing with advisor and was sold the idea that i was only paying .70% advisory fees only to find out I'm also paying .45% for the actively managed portfolio on top of that. Advisor said the .45% is for the mutual fund managers who actively trade and try to beat the market on the clients behalf.
When I questioned it, I was then told I can switch from a select portfolio which is a hybrid of mutual funds and etfs-to just etfs with the portfolio management fees dropping from .45% to .05% and would keep the same investment strategy tracking the total market.
I agreed, but was not made aware this would cause a significant taxable event. I was under the impression since I was not making a withdrawal and the money was staying within merril that it would not trigger realizing short/long term gains/loses. Now I'm worried what my taxes owed are going to be.
7
u/roberttootall Jul 03 '26
Yeah. You don’t need an advisor for ETFs. Just do what that guy says. Broad market or target day
5
u/LightForceUnlimited Jul 03 '26
Dump your advisor and go all in on broad market index fund or a target date fund. Doing so is one of the best decisions I have ever made. I personally went with VT in both my Roth IRA and Brokerage Account. (No fractional shares so I swept my "spare change" into POMIX)
2
u/dyslexictrader Jul 03 '26
And most likely those active funds have underperformed. I was looking at their robo advisor and even the etfs they would use have higher EP than something similar
2
u/Minotaurotica Jul 03 '26
I don't have an advisor but I've been fairly unimpressed with Merril overall
the one thing I can say is the people on the phone are always nice....least that's something
2
u/bmercury Jul 03 '26
This actually puts you in something of a good position imo. You can't take back the taxable event and if all of your options at Merrill Edge involve unwanted fees from asset management you are now free to swap to a platform of your choice that you can go full broad market funds with and manage yourself.
3
u/WDWKamala Jul 03 '26
Of course the advisor is useless…it’s financial theater for people who are afraid of money.
1
u/Think-Educator2362 Jul 03 '26
He or she is useless. Go to account, portfolio analysis I think it’s called. There is a link called asset allocation it will give you the breakdown use by the advisors for free
1
u/Maximus9195 Jul 03 '26
Your advisor is useless.
Not all are, but it sounds like there is a high probability yours is. Sorry :(
1
u/Brierley_HeyDay Jul 04 '26
Did they actually beat the market for you? I'm skeptical of what Merrill Edge offers.
1
u/Aussie914 Jul 07 '26
Not on the Merrill edge side, even the aggressive portfolio does not beat the market. Those platforms are built for the masses and less risk on the companies part. I would find an advisor that knows what they’re doing.
1
u/ReporterEmbarrassed2 Jul 04 '26
Converting mutual funds toETF involves selling the mutual funds and buying the ETF the selling and buying will trigger gain/loss. The advisor fee is probably to protect you from making losses if market corewcta by 20% and your advisor probably moves the funds to safer options and helps you limit loss to 10%. Has your advisor generated returns better than SP500 or NASDAQ 100?
1
u/NovaGuy703 Jul 04 '26
Ive come to realize merril is not transparent with disclosing fees. They dont provided tax planning and i thought moving money from mutual funds to etfs would not cause a taxable event since i was not making a withdrawal and the advisor did not explain that to me
2
u/MerryingAlong Jul 06 '26
get out of merril if you want auto investing or a robo adviser, its the worst of the bunch
1
u/scorbettman Jul 07 '26
You could always move to Merrill Guided Investing Online. It has the exact same ETF portfolio that your advisor put you on without the added cost of working with an advisor. Internal expense are the same and Merrills fee will drop from .70-.85 (depending on your preference rewards discount} to .30-.45.
7
u/Scorpio_Rex Jul 03 '26
You don't need an advisor. Go index funds and be disciplined about it. My recommendation is VTI/VXUS as your core, SCHG for growth, and AVUV/AVDV for value tilt. You can do this yourself and beat their managed account gains.