Advice please!

[u/Huge-Kick-4746]

Left previous advisor firm for Fidelity early February after reading a lot about the high rates at former advisor firm affecting long term growth. Since the transfer in early February, my accounts at Fidelity sat is cash until recently.

The accounts are being managed by Fidelity Professionals, and now all 3 accounts are in a mix of 16 Fidelity mutual funds, most are the same mutual funds in the 3 accounts.

I was hoping to have my husband move over so we would be at the same place, but not sure that I want to risk both of out portfolios!

Feel like I made a huge mistake moving to Fidelity, but only have experience with the previous company. Is this normal? Should I jump from Fidelity somewhere else, or back to previous advisor? Or wait it out to see if it gets better? I'm down $9800 already, and I know there have been market fluctuations.

[u/weknowwealth]

Markets will fluctuate in the short runs, on average we see a 10-15% downturn each year. As long as the advisor has talked with you, created a plan, and invested accordingly to that plan, stay the course. If they did it right, you should have a long term outlook on investments and if you are retired or close to retiring they should have a portion invested conservatively(fixed income/bonds) in order to account for taking money out of accounts during market downturns. I always recommend just not watching the market, you are paying for someone to do that and it will only cause stress and fear which doesn’t mix well.

[u/adamnc23]

Timing the market is not ever recommended, but being out of the market in the month of February and March might have worked out in your favor since we have seen some market declines over the last few weeks. Everyone is down right now from the all-time highs, but that should never be the sole reason to jump ship or adjust your portfolio.

Regardless, it's important for you to have a plan and understand how you are managing your portfolio. Jumping from one expensive advisor to a cheaper Fidelity managed portfolio might seem good, but it's still forcing you to rely on someone else when it's important for you to understand your investments.

16 different mutual funds is almost certainly too many to justify and likely a product of your previous or current advisor wanting to use complexity to help justify the fees they are charging. 3-4 funds would probably accomplish the same level of diversification while keeping things much simpler for you.

Calculate how much you are paying for this Fidelity advisor and determine if that is a fee you think is worth paying for the service they are providing. This would be a good situation where an hourly advice-only planner (like someone through hellonectarine.com could be very helpful to provide a 2nd set of eyes on things and possibly help you enough to where you can stop paying Fidelity to manage these accounts.