What to do and how?

[Bassin08]

I have been really looking close at our investments. My wife and I are both 75 years old. We have a basket of funds that we are invested in. These funds have expense ratios of 1.11 to 1.87, plus they all show minimal returns. Actually the fund company’s are earning more than we are. I know that if I move to a different investment company it will cost me money, plus a lot of work.

This leads me to a point where I am thinking of just selling everything and putting it all in laddered CD’s. We don’t use any of these investments for daily living and it will probably go to our children when we die.

I know this is a bass fishing forum, but what would you do? I watch American Greed on TV, so I am somewhat fearful of small investment companies.

[WisconsinF]

Call Vanguard...Good folks. I also believe they are a non-profit.

Vanguard is essentially a non-profit, because it is owned by the investors in its funds. Therefore any profits it earns are returned to the investors in its fund in the form of lower fees.May 23, 2017

[Bsktball55]

I have most of my money in vanguard funds. The two I am invested in right now are returning over 10%. I bought mine with my tdameritrade account so it cost me $7 to buy and no yearly fees.

[Charles Prestridge]

Since you do not need funds for daily expenses, some type of index fund seems to be a good choice.

By not needing the funds in the short-term, you can let the funds rise and fall with the market.

Good luck. Spend some of the money on you and your wife. I am grateful for what my parents left my (5) siblings and I, when they passed.

However, we wanted them to do more things for themselves. They always would say, “one day, we want to do this or that”. But, they grew up during the depression and spending money on themselves was hard to do.

[boneil]

First, celebrate being 75 yrs old and not needing to use your investments for daily living by doing something. There are many brokerages like Fidelity, Etrade, TD Ameritrade and others that you can open accounts with and put the money into different kinds of funds. It's very easy and they can walk you through many options.

[NitroZ7]

if you are planning on leaving the assets in this account to your kids then you may want to consider equities for long term growth. Also when a person inherits stock holdings they get a stepped up basis so they do not have to pay capital gains on the unrealized gains (if any) on the date of death. I would consult you financial advisor and see what makes sense long term.

[TampaJim]

Please see a CFP and a tax attorney. Get the very best advice on this matter.
You'll want to limit your exposure/costs along with the kids, if it ends up there.
A trust is one way to be certain of your wishes and cover the bases.