Does anyone use a full service financial advisor to invest their money?

Question

Do you find it is worth it to pay such high commissions as opposed to using an online broker such as Ameritrade?

Answer 1

there are full service brokers and there are financial advisors. They are two different entities. Brokers charge commissions on executed trades. Financial advisors charge commissions on assets under management.

I have used full service brokers. I have not used financial advisors although I have talked to them.

It is my opinion that one is better off managing his own investments in almost every case. Based on experience. Full service brokers will not bother with you if you have less than about $1,000,000 with them. You are not worth the trouble. The investment advisor I talked to wanted to put my money into front end load mutual funds for me. I may not be the smartest person in the world, but I am sure smarter than that.

Where many individual investors go wrong is in too much speculation and too much buying and selling. The key, I believe, is to buy sound stocks in sound companies and hold on to them until such time that they appear to no long be of sound quality or until the market over values them as happened in 1999.

Answer 2

You must distinguish betwen a broker/rep/agent, etc. and a true fee-only advisor, who works for you....not the investment product distributor.

NEVBER, EVER take advice from someone whose compensation is an any way connected to the investment being recommended.

Also, look for the CFP certification.But, again be sure that the CFP is truly a fee-only advisor.

That way the advisor is helping you shop theough everything that's out there, and has no interest in putting you in the thing that pays him/her the most commission.

Answer 3

Unfortunately I've had two very bad experiences with full service advisors.
The first took an upfront fee to manage one of my accounts and let it sit dormant for over one year (this was the VP of a brokerage firm I used for 15 years.)
The second one was given one of my wife's IRA accounts to manage and they invested in their firms' instruments which never moved up or down for a year.
This prompted me to continue to manage my own investments and now I trust no one to handle my money.
Two bad experiences on my part should not discourage you from investigating the possibility of a managed account , however you must look for an advisor with a proven, verifiable track record, (insist on verification), a written agreement and a clean SEC record.
They should provide you with a face-to-face, no-charge, evaluation and help you lay out a game plan which will hopefully achieve your investment goals.
Be realistic and do not shoot for the moon for this will make you a pauper eventually.
Investigate, investigate, investigate - the key word!
Look for references from current clients, although most people will be reluctant to reveal any pesonal financial data, but ask them questions shuch as "If you had to do it all over again would you have _______ as your adisor?", or look for track records during the 1999-2000 period, did the advisor know the market well enough to get his clients into a protective situation before the meltdown?
Be careful of fees also, some charge a flat fee, some a sliding scale and others a percentage, make sure this is stated clearly BEFORE you commit your money.
Caveat Emptor!

Answer 4

They don't always ask high commissions. Take a look at www.quarantz.com They are offering full service and don't ask for high commissions. Several of their services are even free of charge for their customers.

Answer 5

I use a broker... I tried to 'do it myself'... lost plenty of $$. If your account is high enough, there are 'free trades'

I just factor in the cost of the intelligence of a trade into the return. It works for me.

Answer 6

WATCH OUT.

QUARANTZ INTERNATIONAL is an absolute example of a web site looking to rip you off. It was designed by teenagers & anyone that offers you 25% a month return (guranteed) is ripping you off.

As far as your question is concerned;
Read a couple of good books. UNDERSTAND "asset allocation" and make your goals based on it.

Use highly rated, no load, low fee Mutual Funds to fit this allocation & you'll do just fine. We have 35% of our stock investments in IVV (IShares (EFT) for S&P500). This is a great example of low cost, highly efficient investing.

YOU WILL DO JUST FINE BY FOLLOWING THIS ADVISE AND SAVE TEN'S OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS OVER A LIFE TIME.

Answer 7

i may be a little biased here as i am training to be a financial adviser but i do think your question depends on how much you have to invest, for example i generally only deal with clients with in excess of £50,000 to invest. although i have done some smaller cases of £7-10,000. we charge commission of 3.5% which decreases depending on how much you are investing ( for example, for £100,000 we would only take 1%)

so it all depends on how much you are willing to invest.

Answer 8

try these links perhaps u'll find more info there.

http://www.lofinance.blogspot.com