Do I need a “wealth manager”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, What services does your wealth manager provide?

mine has access to funds that regular trade accounts don't. They have in house analysts that know what to buy. I don't have time or the interest to keep track of it.

We have about $3mil with them.

What funds,exactly?

And what has the record of their analysts been over the last 20 years, compared to the stock market as a whole? Most studies show that in the long term, around 95% of stock pickers underperform the overall market.

A long time ago, my spouse decided to use a wealth manager; I didn't because I didn't think they were worth it. This was actually 23 years ago.

After 2 years, his account did better than mine. I just didn't have the time or the inclination to manage it. So, I moved my account to a wealth manager, too.

I don't recall which funds they have access to that the general public doesn't, but I know there are a few. I tried to buy the same funds that my spouse had (we used the same investment firm), but I didn't have access to them.

At some point, we might move the funds out of the wealth manager, but I'm still working, have kids to deal with, so I'm going to keep my funds there for the time being.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, What services does your wealth manager provide?

mine has access to funds that regular trade accounts don't. They have in house analysts that know what to buy. I don't have time or the interest to keep track of it.

We have about $3mil with them.

What funds,exactly?

And what has the record of their analysts been over the last 20 years, compared to the stock market as a whole? Most studies show that in the long term, around 95% of stock pickers underperform the overall market.

A long time ago, my spouse decided to use a wealth manager; I didn't because I didn't think they were worth it. This was actually 23 years ago.

After 2 years, his account did better than mine. I just didn't have the time or the inclination to manage it. So, I moved my account to a wealth manager, too.

I don't recall which funds they have access to that the general public doesn't, but I know there are a few. I tried to buy the same funds that my spouse had (we used the same investment firm), but I didn't have access to them.

At some point, we might move the funds out of the wealth manager, but I'm still working, have kids to deal with, so I'm going to keep my funds there for the time being.

Cool, so no answer to either question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, What services does your wealth manager provide?

mine has access to funds that regular trade accounts don't. They have in house analysts that know what to buy. I don't have time or the interest to keep track of it.

We have about $3mil with them.

What funds,exactly?

And what has the record of their analysts been over the last 20 years, compared to the stock market as a whole? Most studies show that in the long term, around 95% of stock pickers underperform the overall market.

A long time ago, my spouse decided to use a wealth manager; I didn't because I didn't think they were worth it. This was actually 23 years ago.

After 2 years, his account did better than mine. I just didn't have the time or the inclination to manage it. So, I moved my account to a wealth manager, too.

I don't recall which funds they have access to that the general public doesn't, but I know there are a few. I tried to buy the same funds that my spouse had (we used the same investment firm), but I didn't have access to them.

At some point, we might move the funds out of the wealth manager, but I'm still working, have kids to deal with, so I'm going to keep my funds there for the time being.

Cool, so no answer to either question.

To be clear- I doubt there is evidence of gains above the market in the long run. There could still be value to you of paying someone else to manage your money- if you have neither the time nor the inclination to do it, and enough money to cover the cost. Or if you are the type who might overreact to market changes, and having someone managing things and helping calm you down would be useful. I have a family member who was a financial advisor for a while, and in his opinion that was the most value he added for his clients.

[Anonymous]

Index fund and live your life. But some individual stocks if you're excited about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, What services does your wealth manager provide?

mine has access to funds that regular trade accounts don't. They have in house analysts that know what to buy. I don't have time or the interest to keep track of it.

We have about $3mil with them.

What funds,exactly?

And what has the record of their analysts been over the last 20 years, compared to the stock market as a whole? Most studies show that in the long term, around 95% of stock pickers underperform the overall market.

A long time ago, my spouse decided to use a wealth manager; I didn't because I didn't think they were worth it. This was actually 23 years ago.

After 2 years, his account did better than mine. I just didn't have the time or the inclination to manage it. So, I moved my account to a wealth manager, too.

I don't recall which funds they have access to that the general public doesn't, but I know there are a few. I tried to buy the same funds that my spouse had (we used the same investment firm), but I didn't have access to them.

At some point, we might move the funds out of the wealth manager, but I'm still working, have kids to deal with, so I'm going to keep my funds there for the time being.

Cool, so no answer to either question.

it was a long time ago. I'm not going to spend time dredging it up. Great that you have time to manage your funds. I don't want to. At some point when I have time, I might. But, right now, too much going on.

[Anonymous]

Above a million you should have access to a free financial advisor team at Schwab. They won’t manage your money daily but you can meet with them about general allocation. They will likely recommend an intelligent portfolio which fees are probably cheaper than what you’re currently paying but as others note you can also just tell them you want to stick to index funds and get guidance on that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, What services does your wealth manager provide?

mine has access to funds that regular trade accounts don't. They have in house analysts that know what to buy. I don't have time or the interest to keep track of it.

We have about $3mil with them.

What funds,exactly?

And what has the record of their analysts been over the last 20 years, compared to the stock market as a whole? Most studies show that in the long term, around 95% of stock pickers underperform the overall market.

A long time ago, my spouse decided to use a wealth manager; I didn't because I didn't think they were worth it. This was actually 23 years ago.

After 2 years, his account did better than mine. I just didn't have the time or the inclination to manage it. So, I moved my account to a wealth manager, too.

I don't recall which funds they have access to that the general public doesn't, but I know there are a few. I tried to buy the same funds that my spouse had (we used the same investment firm), but I didn't have access to them.

At some point, we might move the funds out of the wealth manager, but I'm still working, have kids to deal with, so I'm going to keep my funds there for the time being.

Cool, so no answer to either question.

it was a long time ago. I'm not going to spend time dredging it up. Great that you have time to manage your funds. I don't want to. At some point when I have time, I might. But, right now, too much going on.

I haven't done a thing with my investments in probably 10.years. I came up with a reasonable asset allocation a long time ago, and one of the Vanguard Target Retirement funds was close enough that I just put my money there. I check maybe a couple times a year out of curiosity and to make sure everything looks okay. Not starting withdrawals for a long time.

As I said in my followup post, there is value to some things an FA can provide. But I sincerely doubt it's related to their investment advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here—thank you all for the Bogleheads recommendations.
16:36…she recommends what to buy and sell, and we meet four times a year for about 45 min each time.
I just also realized I can leave everything with Schwab and take it out of “wealth management.” So thank you to the other poster. That 10k can definitely go toward an Index fund instead. Thanks everyone.

Meeting four times a year and recommending what to buy and sell is not wealth management. What they provide is probably worth $1,000 or -$20,000.

You need financial planning help. Very few people know how to manage their finances and if they do, they don't have the time to do it well. Picking index funds is what you do after the financial planning is done. Yes, picking funds is easy, it's the financial planning part that people are too lazy to do or don't know what to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, What services does your wealth manager provide?

mine has access to funds that regular trade accounts don't. They have in house analysts that know what to buy. I don't have time or the interest to keep track of it.

We have about $3mil with them.

What funds,exactly?

And what has the record of their analysts been over the last 20 years, compared to the stock market as a whole? Most studies show that in the long term, around 95% of stock pickers underperform the overall market.

Accredited investors, sometimes called sophisticated investors, do have access to investments other retail investors don't. The SEC defines this--as I recall you need to have $2 million in investable assets and meet other criteria.

These investments are less conventional and often more complicated. I am not convinced investing in them results in higher returns than one can get (over the long run) from putting your money in a diversified index fund.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No! Move everything to fidelity and put it in low fee funds.

This. Ours is free with fidelity.

[Anonymous]

Once you have over $1M with Vanguard you are Flagship which gets you a dedicated phone line. We always found that plus our own knowledge was plenty. $5M+ is Flagship Select which includes even more services.

[Anonymous]

OP’s story explains why I’m constantly getting calls and emails from my Schwab representative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP’s story explains why I’m constantly getting calls and emails from my Schwab representative.

Ask them if it’s free. Most of these places have free services for certain amounts bc it’s market now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, What services does your wealth manager provide?

mine has access to funds that regular trade accounts don't. They have in house analysts that know what to buy. I don't have time or the interest to keep track of it.

We have about $3mil with them.

What funds,exactly?

And what has the record of their analysts been over the last 20 years, compared to the stock market as a whole? Most studies show that in the long term, around 95% of stock pickers underperform the overall market.

A long time ago, my spouse decided to use a wealth manager; I didn't because I didn't think they were worth it. This was actually 23 years ago.

After 2 years, his account did better than mine. I just didn't have the time or the inclination to manage it. So, I moved my account to a wealth manager, too.

I don't recall which funds they have access to that the general public doesn't, but I know there are a few. I tried to buy the same funds that my spouse had (we used the same investment firm), but I didn't have access to them.

At some point, we might move the funds out of the wealth manager, but I'm still working, have kids to deal with, so I'm going to keep my funds there for the time being.

Cool, so no answer to either question.

it was a long time ago. I'm not going to spend time dredging it up. Great that you have time to manage your funds. I don't want to. At some point when I have time, I might. But, right now, too much going on.

I haven't done a thing with my investments in probably 10.years. I came up with a reasonable asset allocation a long time ago, and one of the Vanguard Target Retirement funds was close enough that I just put my money there. I check maybe a couple times a year out of curiosity and to make sure everything looks okay. Not starting withdrawals for a long time.

As I said in my followup post, there is value to some things an FA can provide. But I sincerely doubt it's related to their investment advice.

those targeted funds don't grow as much. I had two separate 401ks, and one was in the vanguard targeted fund. It underperformed my other 401k that is managed by the wealth manager.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, What services does your wealth manager provide?

mine has access to funds that regular trade accounts don't. They have in house analysts that know what to buy. I don't have time or the interest to keep track of it.

We have about $3mil with them.

What funds,exactly?

And what has the record of their analysts been over the last 20 years, compared to the stock market as a whole? Most studies show that in the long term, around 95% of stock pickers underperform the overall market.

A long time ago, my spouse decided to use a wealth manager; I didn't because I didn't think they were worth it. This was actually 23 years ago.

After 2 years, his account did better than mine. I just didn't have the time or the inclination to manage it. So, I moved my account to a wealth manager, too.

I don't recall which funds they have access to that the general public doesn't, but I know there are a few. I tried to buy the same funds that my spouse had (we used the same investment firm), but I didn't have access to them.

At some point, we might move the funds out of the wealth manager, but I'm still working, have kids to deal with, so I'm going to keep my funds there for the time being.

Cool, so no answer to either question.

it was a long time ago. I'm not going to spend time dredging it up. Great that you have time to manage your funds. I don't want to. At some point when I have time, I might. But, right now, too much going on.

I haven't done a thing with my investments in probably 10.years. I came up with a reasonable asset allocation a long time ago, and one of the Vanguard Target Retirement funds was close enough that I just put my money there. I check maybe a couple times a year out of curiosity and to make sure everything looks okay. Not starting withdrawals for a long time.

As I said in my followup post, there is value to some things an FA can provide. But I sincerely doubt it's related to their investment advice.

those targeted funds don't grow as much. I had two separate 401ks, and one was in the vanguard targeted fund. It underperformed my other 401k that is managed by the wealth manager.

Not relevant unless they had similar asset allocations. I wanted a 90-10 allocation.