Posted: 1/21/2004 3:17:32 PM EDT
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I have had it with my financial planner and I'm looking to move on, the Ed Jones person has f'd up for the last time (first time) with my money. Does anyone have a good planner that is decent and knows WTF is going on with your investments that you could recommend? Hot tip: When you ask your planner "what happened to the money" and they say "I don't know" it is time to move on. |
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So far the only thing I can suggest is to stay away from the Morgan Stanley folks. I've just moved all my IRAs out of there. They suck (both in service quality and your money). Fidelity has been working OK. But my wife and I have been doing all the research. And for what I talk to my friends and workmates they have the same conclusion: "the best financial planners are ourselves". |
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Rossi beat me to it. If you're comfortble with it, do it yourself. Read some good books and subscribe to Kiplingers. Nobody will ever care about your well-being as much as you do. BTW- I learned my lesson the hard way with Merrill-Lynch. I was 17 when I started investing with them. I was stupid. I paid a lot of fees to them that I wouldn't have if I'd done some solid research, developed a plan to retire, and gotten an [insert name of reputable online broker] account. I think that your attitude is good- your future is to important to let someone mess it up. What happened, if you don't mind me asking? The straw that broke the camel's back for me: Me: "I've been looking at investing some of my Roth in ETF's [Exchange Traded Fund]. Do you have a lot of people moving to those?" Broker: "An ETF? What's an ETF?" AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH. -Hobbit |
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What happened is that we decided to stop our drafts to our Roths so we could knock down our recent debt with our addition, we also took the money out of our Money Market account as well. We were sent a check for just over 2000 wich seemed about right, we didnt have much in that MM acct. A few days ago my wife goes in to do our annual review and she asks about that money, mainly where did it come from. The planner says $950 came out of my Roth and was not invested in any way. When we draft money over to them to invest, it should only take no more than 3 days to get that money working for us.. it was never deposited. When we asked why it had not been invested the planner says I don't know. That does not cut it with me AT ALL! I'm going to go down Monday and see what the hell they have to say about it. Regardless, "I don't know" is the last thing I ever want to hear from a financial planner and I will be moving my money no matter what their excuse is. I dont work 40 hours a week for nothing. I thought about doing my investments myself but I really do not think I can do that good a job. I do know about investments and the market and trends but I seriously doubt I have the motivation to keep with it over time and keep that level of scrutiny necessary to actually make money in the market. |
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It seems the same story among those folks. Of course, there are exceptions and there should be good ones around. I simply did not find one yet. As for trusting my money (I also work 40 hours - presently more - per week) to these guys it will be a long way... My advice is that even if you do have an advisor you do have to follow up. Afterall it is your money and your future. As Hobbit said, no one will take more care than you. Because I do not have the time to do individual corporation evaluations I usually invest on Mutual Funds. Of course, you also need to investigate them before investing. However, they are not so vulnerable as simple stocks. Funds such as Fidelity, Vanguard, etc. are generally reliable. Just notice that they were ones of the few not cited and fined in the recent investigations and scandals. Just my 2c. I wish I could be of more help. But I'm also still investigating the matter. :-)) |