Fidelity Portfolio Advisory Service?

[Deleted]

Hi All, does anyone use the Fidelity Portfolio Advisory Service? Basically Fidelity's financial planning group. I am at the point that I think I need to start think about having a professional help and based on the site if you are over $250k in investments you have an account executive and specialist on your account instead of a team. I would am over that amount and I would prefer a one on one person but was wondering if anyone had any experience with Fidelity.

Thanks,
Dave

[HoneyBBQ]

I've tried it on for size and found it rather worthless. YMMV however. Basically if you use their online tool, you get the same thing. They use preset stock/bond ratios depending on your age. They don't really help you sub-diversify into small cap, med cap, international, etc. And they really don't make any "recommendations" other than "keep your money with us!".

Perhaps someone else had a positive experience but mine was rather a waste of time.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

You might get more responses over in the Investing forum (just a suggestion). If you want, a Moderator could move your thread ... just let someone know.

[TD2K]

According to one bunch of information I found Fidelity allows these with as little as $50k. You aren't going to get much personal over-sight for $50k. Even $250k isn't a large account. Also, there was mention of a net advisory fee which sounds like a wrap fee over and above what your underlying investments such as mutual funds charge, do you know how much this is?

Personally, I suspect it's a better deal for Fidelity than for you. I have my 401k with Fidelity and they phoned me up to talk about my allocations and plans, I can't say I was very impressed with the advice, it was pretty superfical. At one point they told me a couple of my funds weren't in line with the "recommended averages" for my age, when I asked for specifics, we were talking about a few %, not enough to be significant. Hell, it's not like the investment industry has a great track record in spotting upcoming problems.

[formerexpat]

Our 401k is through Fidelity and we have an adviser over top the platform. I'm not impressed. I'm getting more involved in the options that are in our platform because they don't seem like their in the best interest of the employees. The S&P index we have is 30 bps more than the Fidelity S&P index. I'm told that it's the cheapest available when there is an adviser associated with the 401k platform. 30bps for what? Most of the funds have nearly a 1% expense ratio. I'm trying to influence change on the platform so our employees can benefit long term.

I told him my overall philosophy and that I'd like to see more low cost alternatives on the platform and inactively managed indexes to the extent possible. Our conversation veered towards my belief that I don't think a manager over the long run can beat a basic index, and I used Bill Miller as the example [his 15 year streak v the S&P 500 before getting hammered in 2008].

The adviser then continued to tell me that he knew Miller personally and he knows that Bill has some other things going on in his life and believes that is affecting the results. I said, no disrespect to Bill Miller, but how the hell do I know what's going on in Bill Gross's [PIMCO bond is a fund in our platform] or any of the other "good" managers life that will affect my return? Gross, Miller and the other managers aren't affected when they f*** up my portfolio but I am. They'll still take their cut off the top.

No one is going to care more about your portfolio than you. I'd pay for fee only planner service to get a second opinion on my overall picture, but otherwise, I'm staying involved in the management of my own portfolio.

[motherto2]

I've always been told to go to an individual planner that is not connected to any of the products out there. Of course they are going to sell you on why their stuff is better than anyone else's. It would be worth your while to pay an independent for a couple of hours of their time. If you like what they say, keep them on the rolodex. If not, you aren't tying up any money or assets.

[Deleted]

"No one is going to care more about your portfolio than you. I'd pay for fee only planner service to get a second opinion on my overall picture, but otherwise, I'm staying involved in the management of my own portfolio."

I agree with ExPat and Exhalts.

We are currently going through the process with USAA. They are not commissioned based but they are sales people. Doing the review with a person vs taking a quiz on-line is likely to give you some more options and personal attention. But it doesn't relieve you of the responsibility of doing your own research with respect to the recommendations given.

Phil did a post about a month ago where he says if he had to do it all over again he would invest in certain Target funds which are invested in low cost index funds. He believes that over the long term (say 30 years) that they will outperform any manager, including very good managers who might have an excellent 10 year + track record. Part of his reasoning is the automatic rebalancing feature. While you can do rebalancing yourself, there's typically a 6 month lag.

For DH and me, I know that we're more emotional than we'd like to admit. We didn't panic in Sept 2008 because we are old enough to remember Oct 1988(?). However we've been rooted in place (and waaaaay too much cash) because of this constant threat of DH losing his high paying job. Never mind that we have a decent net worth and can afford to retire today.

[Deleted]

Thanks guys, I go through this every once in a while where I wonder if I should use a service but I always come back to the fact that I KNOW I have our best interests at heart and I don't know that about anyone else. My results the last 5 years have been with the market or just above and I am good with that as that will more than reach our goals.

Dave