Edward Jones experiences

[Erich]

Was going to combine some 401 / 403s to IRA. Looking at using Edward Jones. But the fee basis seems a bit high. I understand the intention is its full services vs limited services of online self managed. I haven't evaluated all the brokerages fees, initial comparisons seem to put them on the higher side. Would be curious to see if folks using them here thought about the fees, if you felt it was worth it, or any other thoughts. 

I have an Ameritrade account for playing around, but in current market conditions and limited experience, I don't know I want to manage my IRA there at this time.

Thanks for any input

 

Edited June 25, 2020 by Erich

[Erik88]

I've been with Edward Jones since 2014. The fees are too high. I've been slowly educating myself on investing and I'll be firing Edward Jones soon. I can't even say the service has been that amazing. 

I recently moved my previous 401k to my new one with Fidelity. I like their platform and I've been buying low cost index funds. Vanguard also has a great reputation. 

You seem to have a decent grasp on this already. I don't think you need the high cost service from E.J. 

 

[gregintenn]

Just roll it into an IRA at Ameritrade since you already have an account there. They will assist you in doing that. I’d put it in an index fund of some sort.

Edward Jones makes their money by having a smiling face provide you with what you can do online for a lot less money.

I’m making a lot more money with my Fidelity accounts than I was at Raymond James. I actually get better customer service to boot.

Edited June 26, 2020 by gregintenn

[Erik88]

12 minutes ago, gregintenn said:

I’m making a lot more money with my Fidelity accounts than I was at Raymond James

That's a good point I left out. My friends that invest on their own consistently see higher rates of return than I do. I realize we're likely invested in different funds but if I'm paying a premium for Edward Jones I expect more than I'm getting.  I'm going to see how 2020 ends. If my Fidelity account does better than Edward Jones that will say a lot. 

[gregintenn]

18 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

That's a good point I left out. My friends that invest on their own consistently see higher rates of return than I do. I realize we're likely invested in different funds but if I'm paying a premium for Edward Jones I expect more than I'm getting.  I'm going to see how 2020 ends. If my Fidelity account does better than Edward Jones that will say a lot. 

Index funds are cheap and easy. You may luck into another fund that will beat an index fund by a little, but not much after fees.

[Erich]

Appreciate it guys. I guess I realized trying to avoid managing it myself means having to pay... just a bit caught out by some sticker shock. I think the factor I was mostly avoiding was having to manage my wifes. Two different strategies was not playing for her, using someone got me out of that pickle.

[gregintenn]

58 minutes ago, Erich said:

Appreciate it guys. I guess I realized trying to avoid managing it myself means having to pay... just a bit caught out by some sticker shock. I think the factor I was mostly avoiding was having to manage my wifes. Two different strategies was not playing for her, using someone got me out of that pickle.

They also sell target date retirement funds. This is a sort of auto management; much like you are paying so dearly for at Edward Jones.

If the peace of mind is worth the cost, by all means stay with them. If not, you can do it on your own if I can.

I realized one day that if a financial advisor was really awesome at picking stocks and funds, he'd be investing his own money instead of mine.

Edited June 26, 2020 by gregintenn

[MacGyver]

There are also financial advisors that you can pay on an hourly basis like you do other professionals.

It's totally worth paying for a few hours of their time to help develop a plan for you and your spouse - and then maybe check in every so often or when something changes.

Greg is right.  There are low cost ETFs that are appropriate for most of the population.  But, if you've got questions, there are options that don't involve putting all of your money with someone who may or may not have your best interests first.

[gregintenn]

I will add that while I am giving this investing advice, I am also getting my butt kicked in the market today.

[Erik88]

Edward Jones has value for someone who 1)knows little to nothing about investing and 2) isn't interested in learning. They were perfect for me at 26 when I first opened my Roth IRA. 

[tacops]

I originally tried Morgan-Stanley Dean Witter and felt as though I was speaking with a carnival barker every time I spoke with the broker.  I moved to Edward Jones and found them not only to be expensive but constantly pushed for investment in Edward Jones funds over others.  I have been handling my own for years now with a conservative approach.  I may not get the rocket climbs but I also don't experience the drops.  I use the turtle and hare approach in that slow and steady wins the race.

[jpx2rk]

4 hours ago, gregintenn said:

I will add that while I am giving this investing advice, I am also getting my butt kicked in the market today.

Day trader by chance ??????

[gregintenn]

2 minutes ago, jpx2rk said:

Day trader by chance ??????

No sir, but have you seen the numbers today?

[Erich]

I can relate to advisor have seemingly conflicted calls. When they dont follow the fund return data that they are showing, you can see who pays the most backend commission bonus. 

I'm sorry to see my concerns baring out. I also ran into a class action against EJ around what is being covered here.  We have not gone down the road, admittedly I was being a bit lazy, but more contending with the different risk tolerances we have in our household.

I am sure the married folks can relate to how a spouse may not listen to you, but will listen to a stranger who has a perceived expertise. Following a different path which may be more beneficial for just myself, could lead to its own set of problems. Lessor of evils choices maybe.

Thanks gents

 

[btq96r]

5 hours ago, Erich said:

Appreciate it guys. I guess I realized trying to avoid managing it myself means having to pay... just a bit caught out by some sticker shock. I think the factor I was mostly avoiding was having to manage my wifes. Two different strategies was not playing for her, using someone got me out of that pickle.

The benefit to low fee index funds from Vanguard (my personal investment firm), and Fidelity (where my work Roth 401k is) is you don't have to manage it yourself (beyond fund selection) and the paying is minimal.   Unless someone has time to do research and get a grasp of the risk (you could lose money) and volatility (it'll go up and down), while understanding they're not the same thing, I'll always say get a total stock market or S&P 500 fund, and a bond fund, then tilt it as heavily towards the stocks as you can stomach to sleep at night (I go 80/20 stock to bond, but a more prudent investor might use their age, or their age minus a number to decide the % of bonds).

I'm not a pro investor, but I've opined on some threads here, and in PMs because I flatter myself in that I think I know enough to pass on.  My rate of return is 9.7% from April 2013 when I started investing for real after clearing debts run up in stupidity (with a lot of swings in that short time)...so I feel confident saying I'm doing okay for myself and want to help people demystify investing because it really is something they can take charge of if they're committed to saving what would otherwise be disposable income.  Folks work hard for their money, and I feel they should be able to grow it for their old age or misfortune.  Then buy a few guns for their enjoyment of course.

[Garufa]

@Erich Chances are whoever you do your daily banking with has a high finance department who would love to have more of your money.  Might be worth going in and sitting down with one of their advisors and ask them what options they offer.  Not saying you have to go through them or commit to anything but you might pick up some decent advice.

Edited June 26, 2020 by Garufa

[Jeb48]

All of my 401K, Roth and our joint brokerage account are in Vanguard. My wife's 401K and Roth is in Fidelity. I do all the management myself on both and have for years. In two firms because at the time I thought it better not to put all the eggs in one firm. I was scattered out across 5 or 6 investment companies at one time and slowly moved everything into two for easier management. The short time I tried out a financial advisor,  I started him with $10K with the promise of more when he showed me what he could do. In 2 years he lost half of it and talked me out of investments that if I had made and held them till now would make me about $500K richer and that was using just a portion of the $10K.

I have most of my 401K split between whole stock market and whole bond funds. Roth's and brokerage account split between a few other more focused index funds in areas that might give a bit more growth.

My long range plan, starting in my late 20s, was to have enough stashed that I could retire at 55 if I wanted to. Until the 2000 tech ballon blew, I would have been ready at 50. I rebalance my accounts and started switching to the approach I still use now and was ready at 55 but work was fun at the time and I waited till 57 when the company was looking for volunteers to reduce size and offered a year's pay and bridge insurance till I was 65 so I took it. As I got closer to 55 I slowly shifted my allocation from 70:30 to 50:50 and I keep it there now plus or minus 5 points or so. 

One nice thing about Vanguard and probably Fidelity is one call and my wife or I can change to a managed account and start paying them to do what I do, which is very little now that I have picked my mix and allocations. I'm now 72 and we lived off our savings all this time and waited till 70 to start taking SS and have more money now than we had when I retired. Maybe a sharp advisor could have made us more money or maybe not.

Everyone has to make their own decision but a couple of good index funds will outperform 70-80% of the actively managed funds that advisors will put you in and you get to pay higher fees for those funds and pay the advisor. If you are into picking stocks you either have to be very good or lucky picking them. When I was doing stocks, every stock I picked went down accept the ones the financial advisor talked me out of and in reality they could have went the other way.

Probably more than anyone wants to know.

[Erich]

4 hours ago, Garufa said:

@Erich Chances are whoever you do your daily banking with has a high finance department who would love to have more of your money.  Might be worth going in and sitting down with one of their advisors and ask them what options they offer.  Not saying you have to go through them or commit to anything but you might pick up some decent advice.

That is a good thought. I recall when we put our equity from our CA home sale into money markets at Suntrust when we first moved here and they offered to set up with one of those folks, which I did not take advantage of as I was managing our Fidelity accounts at the time. Had some in Merrill Lynch before I we moved our real money away from BofA (they deposited a 40k check into the wrong account and would not explain it!).

We've moved our real funds to Cap1 for now, its an internet deal, but may just check out what services they have to offer

It occurs to me as you put that out there, that USAA offers similar services.

Thanks, great reminder to take advantage of what current relationships have ahead of brokerages.

1 hour ago, Jeb48 said:

...I do all the management myself on both and have for years. In two firms because at the time I thought it better not to put all the eggs in one firm. I was scattered out across 5 or 6 investment companies at one time and slowly moved everything into two for easier management. ....

That last bit was the initial goal that started this. We are in multiple 401 and 403's with cash balance pensions. The bulk being Fidelity, but overall feel onorous to stay on top of. I have managed both of ours over the last several years as well, and am trying to encourage my wife to take ownership of hers as our risk tolerances diverge. In as graceful a way as possible!  Having her move thru consolidating multiple accounts and talking strategy with someone (that she would listen to) seemed a good start.

 

End of the day, I realize moving to self management most likely is the way to go, I would love to get her to do it as well. The thing I appreciate in this thread is folks reiterating to take advantage of what may be available to me which I previously forgot about or put out of my mind, or pay for it as needed.

Thanks for the comments guys.

[i1afli]

12 hours ago, gregintenn said:

They also sell target date retirement funds. This is a sort of auto management; much like you are paying so dearly for at Edward Jones.

+1

The target retirement funds are a great idea...someone should have thought of them decades ago. Automatically reallocates based upon how aggressive you want to be. Want to be conservative? Pick a close-in target date like 2030.  Want to be aggressive?  Pick a far-out target date like 2060. I use a mix of both. 
 

My MIL uses EJ.  She likes them because they provide a free lunch once a month at a presentation where they encourage her to churn her account, generating commissions for EJ. But if shes’s happy then my wife is happy and we all know that is priceless. 

Edited June 27, 2020 by i1afli

[i1afli]

7 hours ago, Erich said:

I am sure the married folks can relate to how a spouse may not listen to you, but will listen to a stranger who has a perceived expertise.

Like when discussing what may be wrong with the wife’s car a husband’s opinion doesn’t stand a chance against that of a man with his name on a patch on his coveralls. 

[jpx2rk]

13 hours ago, gregintenn said:

No sir, but have you seen the numbers today?

Yeah, I follow the market to some extent.  I follow a more conservative buy and hold strategy, so yes it affects my portfolios just like everyone else, but the large swings from over-reacting to political or medical news (in these days) are un-warranted IMO.  Day traders cause a lot of the large swings/over-reactions looking to make a quick profit or to protect their profits.  JMO

[gregintenn]

9 hours ago, i1afli said:

Like when discussing what may be wrong with the wife’s car a husband’s opinion doesn’t stand a chance against that of a man with his name on a patch on his coveralls. 

Everybody believes anything a guy says if he has his name on his shirt or wears a lab coat!