<p>That is what is meant by a “fee-based” advisor: fees are based on the assets, not on a churn 'em and burn 'em scheme.</p>
<p>intparent, I told him that it would be confusing, and he did also say that all of the brokerages pretty much do everything, but he thinks it is more effective to go back and forth with questions rather than lay out too much info in the first place. (I disagree! )</p>
<p>Unfortunately, he just left for the office so I cannot ask for elaboration at this time.</p>
<p>We have multiple brokerage accounts and one bank account in the US and several in other countries. If you’re worried about US currency risk, then you might consider an account in another country.</p>
<p>I’ve had some quarterly rebalancing conversations where only one or two things are changed. I’ve also had other conversations where 10 or 12 things are changed.</p>
<p>I don’t keep large amounts of money in banks, so I don’t worry about it. My concern is if you have everything in one investment house like Vanguard, Fidelity, or Price and it “does an MF Global”. If the money is misappropriated, and is gone, is there any insurance to back it, since I don’t see why the govt or taxpayer should be bailing me out.</p>
<p>I have too much (as a% of total) of my assets at Charles Schwab. I also have a bank account there, and it is all very convenient. The fewer statements I get, the more convenient it is.</p>
<p>The big, “BUT, HOWEVER” is that for prudence, I think I should split assets between 2 brokerages. I have been meaning to re-open an account at Fidelity. Like Dadof3 mentioned, the whole MF Global fiasco has made me rethink how “safe” funds are at a brokerage house. If senior management gets reckless and takes down the firm and funds disappear, I have always assumed SIPC would protect me up to $500k and $250k in cash or whatever the limits are. Those limits alone would be enough to open new accounts if my balances exceeded those limits, but after MF Global, frankly I am not at all confident that I am protected.</p>
<p>The other danger is that any one firm could be susceptible to a large scale systems failure, for any number of reasons not limited to an outside hacker attack. I can imagine a situation where they got so screwed up I couldn’t access my funds for weeks. </p>
<p>There are legitimate issues to worry about without becoming a Chicken Little conspiracy theorist. Thanks for reminding me to get off my butt and open that Fidelity account!</p>
My investment advisor advised me to sell all my equities in March 2009, and be 100% in cash. Fortunately, I ignored him and did the exact opposite. Then I fired him.</p>
<p>I like to put the bulk of my retirement assets in a Vanguard target fund. It automatically rebalances every year and the administrative costs are low. Everything else is just casino exercise.</p>
<p>I think (many, all?)MF Global accounts were not covered by SIPC or the SEC. I think the CFTC had jurisdiction. Also, MF Global traded for its own account.</p>
<p>Because Schwab doesn’t trade for its own account and is not an investment bank, I am not that worried about Schwab. I am slightly concerned that Schwab loans money for mortgages so I am not worry free. </p>
<p>Himom, how much does Schwab charge for managing assets? Are assets treated the same or are charges less for cash, money markets and bonds?</p>
<p>“Since the Great Depression, banks have overcome the inherent weakness of fractional reserves with insurance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Brokerage accounts have insurance, too, but it’s limited. Most notably, the Securities Investor Protection Corporation insurance covers only securities, defined essentially as plain-vanilla investments (stocks, bonds, mutual funds). That leaves commodities and futures traders out in the cold.”</p>
<p>I still don’t understand how they can dip into your stock holdings for example. They can’t trade it without you. Do you mean they sell it and use it?</p>
<p>As for Schwab fees, there’s no fee for cash, lower fees for bonds. It starts out at 0.5% for bonds, 0.75% for stocks. There’s a small discount for holdings bigger than ??.</p>
<p>Ok Igloo and VeryHappy, thanks. I hate the fees, but whatever. Glad to see cash isn’t charged.</p>
<p>Looks like it is not quite over but MF Global customers will get paid back in full…
80 percent so far. Of course, not having the use of the money for over a year isn’t great.</p>
<p>So far, we have not had Schwab manage our funds. We have not been doing much “managing” at all, just buy and hold primarily. We have some index funds that we hold and some mutual funds and individual stocks. Perhaps it would be prudent to keep some funds at Fidelity (since they’re already there) and the bulk at Schwab (because they have a live person we can talk with at their brick & mortar office). Am still thinking about it.</p>
<p>Does anyone have money with USAA? What do you think of them? We do qualify and are members of USAA since we bought auto insurance with them. None of us ever served in miliary–only dad did so I was able to qualify.</p>
<p>My SIL having her accounts spread among so many different places has made it somewhat more complicated and time consuming to administer her estate. We are so glad she was sharp until the end and received paper statements regularly, so we knew where the assets were held. We spent a weekend sorting through all her documents and making a spreadsheet of the assets. The executor has refined the spreadsheet and been having disbursements made. All in all, it will take about a year for the finances to be distributed and than however long it takes for the titles to property to be finalized and wind down the trust.</p>
<p>I have been researching investment advisors for over two years, and always choke when I hear the fees. Usually between 1%-2% of total assets, regardless of performance! I just can’t bring myself to pay that given how much access the average person now has to investment opportunities. I did come across information about web based service that automatically rebalances your account according to your goals, and does so for a very low fee (around 0.35%). It’s called “Betterment”. Here’s a review:
[Betterment</a> Review](<a href=“http://www.smartonmoney.com/betterment-review/]Betterment”>Betterment Review)</p>
<p>I originally thought of opening an account to simplify investing for my daughter, but did a test run first to see how it worked. So far I’m impressed enough to consider moving some funds from Schwab for the long term. </p>
<p>My only concern is that the account is 100% web based- no statements, no brick and mortar presence. It’s a growing problem I foresee with all accounts as they move online and go paperless. What happens when I can’t remember passwords anymore? Poor DH hasn’t a clue of where it’s all stashed. Even savings bonds are in The Cloud now. I think it’s going to be important to keep a list of accounts and passwords in a safe deposit box.</p>
<p>I’d suggest using something like Microsoft One-Note or Growly Notes (on Mac) for keeping track of all of your accounts, assets, tax records, etc. It allows per-section and per-page encryption. I’d also recommend off-site backup for your notebooks.</p>
<p>To HIMom- we invest and bank with USAA. We have also borrowed from them. Their website is very easy to use. They offer a range of services and plans. It is easy to do most everything electronically and anytime I have needed to speak with a “live rep”, they have been polite, patient, and knowledgeable.</p>
<p>Yea, the annual fees for these “services” are high to me. Please let us know how you do with “Betterment,” as that has considerably lower fees than many others.</p>
<p>Haven’t heard of Growly Notes, I’ll check it out. I am also making a point of printing out account summary pages and storing them with all other records. In paper I trust!</p>
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