Edward Jones or independent personal planer?

[5 Alive]

I have an Edward Jones account with a mixture of mutual funds and retirement accounts. I also have a handful of mutual funds on my own. Once a year my EJ advisor calls me and after some small talk says all my accounts fall in the little shaded area aligning with my risk tolerance and that's it. Now that covid this mostly out of the way and my small business is doing well I want to get back to investing. My EJ fees are low but am I missing out not having someone more, say aggressive, with moving money around to take advantage of opportunities? Or do I just put money into what has been doing just okay and keep my fees low?

Unfortunately we are dealing with around $300,000 and not millions if that tips the scales either way.

[TampaJim]

I'd place you in an automated investment plan (risk assessed) with Schwab, Vanguard, etc.
At $300k, I don't see any need for a planner, none. Drop it into a robo system and let it fly.
Of course, everyone is different. If you feel a need for a personal contact, keep on trucking.

[5 Alive]

Completely understand and agree but now that I'm back in a position to start contributing and want to grow to were I NEED a personal planner is automated going to get me there? Also I'm not interested enough to track it on my own. I'd rather be working of fishing.

[boneil]

If you give your money to someone else to be more aggressive, you'll just pay more fees, and may or may not get better returns. You could review the holdings of the funds you are in, and maybe allocate differently. You could do it yourself and pay no fees, but that can be extremely risky.

I have 2 main accounts. 1 account is through the wife's work, and everything goes into a handful of funds holding the stocks I like. As market conditions change I adjust which funds we are adding to. In the other account, it's an Etrade account that I buy and sell as I feel. Zero commissions. the only costs are time spent reviewing earnings, listening to calls and watching charts.

[NitroZ7]

I think you could tailor your own mix of ETF's to get the results you want. If you want to tilt to a more aggressive strategy you could buy a small cap etf, a growth etf, a dividend growth etf, and a value etf and just allocate more to growth. I always think it is good to have a mix because at times some certain ones will perform better than others. You can go to Morningstar and see what etfs they rank high in terms of performance and fees.

[CatFan]

Edward Jones is about the biggest scam there is for investments. They have fees for everything and they are high. Fees to buy, fees to sell, fees if you die. Get an account with an online broker and use their advisors.

[TexomaDan]

I have Vanguard that I manage myself. Just picked out a range of funds based on historic performance. I also have a managed account. They perform about the same. At $300k, you could go Vanguard and do well.

recommend you evaluate Edward Jones compared to market performance. If it is performing well, you can continue with them.

[5 Alive]

Edward Jones is about the biggest scam there is for investments. They have fees for everything and they are high. Fees to buy, fees to sell, fees if you die. Get an account with an online broker and use their advisors.

Very true. Seeing that my advisor just lets me stuff sit I haven't encountered the high fees yet.

[Bassin08]

Edward Jones loves to sell American Funds. If you look at each fund you will see that they cross over from fund to fund, so you aren’t really diversifying as much as you think. They also have high front end load and ongoing high expense ratios. I’m moving to Schwab next week after much deliberation.

[Charles Prestridge]

I was glad Edward Jones fired me several years ago.

When our Mother passed, we split her Edward Jones Funds. She had a few stocks and other funds they had recommended. Each year, my wife and I would convert the maximum amount to our Roth IRA’s, but we never added any new investments. After a few years, the agent transferred us to another Edward Jones office/agent, since his commissions were not that much.

New agent, called me while I was at work wanting to review everything. I told him I was at work and did not have time right then. I also told him I did not want to make any changes and did not see the need to have a lengthy review.

Next week, got a letter indicating I had 8 weeks to close my account, since I refused to meet with agent. If I did not close account by the date given, Edward Jones would sell everything and send me check for value of account.

I called T Rowe Price (work 401k and other IRA’s were with them) and rolled everything over.

[Jeff La]

I had Ameriprise and just changed to an independent advisor. I looked hard at Edward Jones and they basically have the same fees as Ameriprise. I went with the independent advisor and cut my fees by over 1% annually. We'll see how this works out.

[procraftokie]

I’d suggest a low fee self investment firm as said above (Vanguard, etc.). I’d put it in an index fund (S&P 500, Dow etc.) or mix thereof and let it go. Earn 8 to 12% over the life of the investment.

[kmanbear]

Edward Jones has a lot of hidden fees. They are sneaky about what their “service” costs you. I would use vanguard or Schwab and very inexpensive index funds. Even if your only paying a advisor 1%, over the course of your investing life it will add up to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, that could have been yours. If you need advice, find a fiduciary, and pay them $300/hour to advise you. You will be big money ahead.

[IMhooked]

No one will manage or care for your money and wealth better than you! Educate yourself on money and investing and make it a priority. Your future self will be glad you did.

BTW: It doesn't have to be complicated at all! Investing isn't the hard part. Being intentional with your savings rate curbing consumer behavior and emotional spending while being exposed to constant marketing is the hard part.

Spend less than you earn and invest the difference.