How to Leave Your Investment Advisor (It's Easier Than You Think)

I've received countless emails from viewers sharing horror stories about their investment advisor. One viewer shared that his advisor had him in a complex 24-fund portfolio!

Here's an email from a viewer named Dan:
"I have a financial advisor at Edward Jones who has most of my retirement investments, I've rolled over all my 401ks to IRAs with her, about $500k worth now. She has me in a bunch of managed mutual funds. I would like to move everything to low cost ETFs like VTI. Does it make sense to move everything or does the cost of conversion typically outweigh the benefits? Should let those ride and put all my future investments in low cost index funds?"

In today's video I'll walk though how to move your investments away from your investment advisor. We'll look at some things you should consider, along with where to move your investments and some ideas on how to invest your money.

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#advisor #investing #robberger

ABOUT ME

While still working as a trial attorney in the securities field, I started writing about personal finance and investing In 2007. In 2013 I started the Doughroller Money Podcast, which has been downloaded millions of times. Today I'm the Deputy Editor of Forbes Advisor, managing a growing team of editors and writers that produce content to help readers make the most of their money.

LET'S CONNECT

DISCLAIMER: I am not a financial adviser. These videos are for educational purposes only. Investing of any kind involves risk. Your investment and other financial decisions are solely your responsibility. It is imperative that you conduct your own research and seek professional advice as necessary. I am merely sharing my opinions.

AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE: Some of the links on this channel are affiliate links, meaning at no cost to you I earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase and/or subscribe. However, I only recommend products or services that (1) I believe in and (2) would recommend to my own mom.

[alphamale]

Your calm, pleasant manner is very appreciated when discussing something as potentially stressful as financial issues, (especially these days).

[geoffgordon]

My Grandma lost almost $40, 000 with a financial advisor from Wells Fargo in the early 2000s. Found out the young kid kept churning her money between four risky mutual funds. She never received any payback from the lawsuit. Only the millionaires got their money back.

[davidandrews]

I went through this about 5 years ago. I did have a few mutual funds in a taxable account with decent gains. I was able to exchange them for low cost index funds when the market was down during COVID-19 through tax lost harvesting. Before COVID-19 I was selling small amounts to reduce the overall tax consequences.

[calbob]

It’s easy to leave your advisor. Most don’t even know you’ve gone. Less than 1, 000, 000 of assets under management? This includes those on the Baron’s top 100 list.

[METVWETV]

Chase...
.65% Investment Advisor fee, which they don't charge if you invest in Chase Funds/ETFs....

[skiphoward-fglg]

How can I invest money for my children who are over 21 yrs old so they can not withdraw the money for 10 to 20 years & benefit from compounding interest to purchase a home or help in providing their future needs?

[HamiltonRb]

Fees & diversification is everything. It's hard enough to save for your own retirement, without saving for your advisor's retirement as well.

[Jimmy-ooyl]

People thinking of these fees as “1%” time to change your thinking….
If you went up 10% and you have a 1%fee then you have them 10% of your gains… when you lose money, you still pay the 1%. Suppose you made no money the next year you would lose 10% of last years gains while still assuming you made 10% the previous year. Making your 10% gain now an 8% gain which is 20% of your money gained

[SuperMatrix]

If it's other than annuities yes. If it's annuities just have the new advisor 1035 it. When the advisor sees it coming across their desk then they will know. Fidelity ! They said they were calling back that was a month ago. You leave your advisor you leave those funds for better ones. Screw the advisor.

[kcfd]

My mother and late father fell into a couple of expensive advisors. My dad was a very smart guy (even held a patent) but he never made the time or interest to learn about investing. I help my mom with her finances now and have met with her "advisor" a few times and it just makes me shake my head.

[j.p.]

After my wife passed I invested With an advisory firm 5 years later I’m burnt out on the amount of fees I have paid . They have me in hundreds of individual stocks . I want to get out looking to transfer to Schwab. I have a low tax load retired military 100 disabled vet. I need a strategy on going to the three fund portfolio.

[Bananamaltastic]

Thanks to your videos, I terminated my Roth IRA advisor last week. I gave them a call to discuss fees, self management, termination, etc. They were investing in roughly 15 etfs, but at the end of the day it was just a 3 fund portfolio with various overweights. I can do that myself without an annual 1.65% fee. They were super professional ("it's your money. You can do whatever you want.") I am in process of transfering to M1 which was as simple as clicking the transfer button on their website. No advisor termination fee. No outgoing transfer fee with Fidelity. Roth is nontaxable so should be as easy as autobuy. The only question is that the advisor had me at ~20% cash, and it's so tempting to want to time reentry. Not sure whether to dca or lump sum invest at this point

[colleenconger]

Vanguard… low fees personal select advisor is the way to go!

[TerryJLaRue]

Having an advisor is good for one thing: keeping you from doing something stupid. When you manage your own funds, you can still get emotional and do the wrong thing. Everyone is a "long term investor" until the market crashes. Panic selling emotions set in. A decent advisor can keep you from doing that.

IF you are one of the few who can keep his/her head in troubled times, you don't need help.

[DYI]

I have no idea how all the 1% advisors convince so many people to give them money. They must be much better at self-promotion than money managing. I interviewed several and never found one that would give me performance data on their existing clients (eg. Did they beat the market?). Considering how hard it is to work and get enough money to invest it is well worth figuring out how to invest yourself. 1% may sound like a small amount of money, but when you consider taxes and inflation and the fact that you can really only afford to take out 4% a year. The 1% accounts for about 25% of your spendable money. The 1% is not too painful if the market is up, but you still need to pay it on the way down. Rob Berger does a great job.

[bridgecross]

Just the idea that it's normalized for someone to take 1% of your wealth annually while adding (in most cases) no value seems criminal. All the information required is free and publicly available. There are a huge number of incredibly safe, diversified investment vehicles with *extremely* low fees, which over any given 12 year period have *never* lost value. And in this new world all your assets are visible and manageable under one pane of glass. It's crazy.

[Cross-xmfr]

If financial advisors knew what they were doing they would be on a beach instead of stealing 1% of your money every year

[philip]

I’m in the middle of moving my taxable account from JPM to fidelity. Do you recommend move the investments in a down period like now or wait to recover/minimize losses?

[mooring]

Left my advisor (1% AUM) about 6 months ago. LPL (custodian) charged closing fees, several hundred dollars, on each of my 6 existing accounts. Called my advisor and had fees reversed, not sure if he paid them or had them canceled. We did tell him if I were to pass, wife would bring funds back because she doesn’t want do deal with finances. We chose E*Trade to hold our funds and they offered a $6;000 bonus to move to them. Sweep of funds is still ongoing and waiting for promised bonus payment. BTW, funds stayed the same, next task is to go to the 4-fund portfolio.

[gumgirlcam]

There is brilliance in simplicity... thank you for another great video!