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My wife's retirement plan from her employer was through Fidelity. She got advice from them on managing the account. When she retired, we met with an adviser and he helped re-balance her portfolio. The guy was very good, better than any other financial guys I had done business with over many years.
I think Fidelity is a very good company. Maybe not all of there advisers are as good as ours, but I bet they are all well trained and do a good job. Their web site has a ton of information and once you get an account set up, you can see and do a lot on your own. Their phone service help has been excellent too.
The problem I have seen with Fidelity - at least with one high net worth person I know - is the approach is cookie cutter (almost) 100% mutual fund based. Which isn't tax efficient. Because the timing of gains/distributions is almost totally out of your control. If you're planning to hold something "for the long run" - why invest in something that trades a lot and can generate lots of long/short term capital gains (even in years when the fund price has gone down!).
On the flip side - tax loss selling can make sense for certain people at certain times. And I'm not sure Fidelity advisors (or any advisors for that matter) do a decent job of analyzing this.
An additional consideration is fees. Especially on the bond side. For example - this Fidelity muni fund - with a current SEC yield of 2.19% - has expenses of .46%. That's about 20% of your total yield (a big chunk of change)!:
Perhaps a person with $100k needs mutual funds to achieve adequate diversification in certain investment areas. But many people with (lots) more money don't. Robyn
Most of fidelity's fund business is in 401k retirement plans or tax deferred accounts.
on the flip side is we are private access clients and they do try to steer the equity's in to deferred accounts and keep the low yielding income stuff today , in the taxable accounts. even as much as a 2% dividend over many years eats a way at the tax advantage in a taxable account unless you qualify for zero capital gains brackets. fund turnover is a factor too as far as where to place that fund .
I think your mother needs a financial adviser if she is not able to pick good investments. Fidelity is not the reason for the loss.
+1
Fidelity is a reputable company, as is Vanguard, and market conditions (coupled with the specific funds in which the OP's mother has invested) are the reason for her capital loss.
I have a friend who invested a lot of money in one of Fidelity's funds a couple of decades ago, and occasionally he will say that he is disappointed in the performance of that fund. However, when I ask him which fund he is invested in, he hasn't a clue regarding the name of that Fidelity fund, or even what segment of the market it is invested in.
Every time that have I asked him when was the last time that he contemplated re-balancing and/or diversifying his Fidelity investment, he always says something along the lines of...Yeah, I guess that I should do that. Unfortunately, he has not done it for at least 15 years. It seems that he would rather sit on the sidelines, wring his hands, and complain about the performance of that one (unknown) fund, rather than choosing new options for his investment.
That being said, a few studies over the years have concluded that some firms seem to consistently produce better overall results than others. I hold funds from Vanguard, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, Matthews Asian Funds, as well as a couple of smaller entities, and--overall--I am happiest with the performance of my funds at T. Rowe Price.
Most of fidelity's fund business is in 401k retirement plans or tax deferred accounts.
on the flip side is we are private access clients and they do try to steer the equity's in to deferred accounts and keep the low yielding income stuff today , in the taxable accounts. even as much as a 2% dividend over many years eats a way at the tax advantage in a taxable account unless you qualify for zero capital gains brackets. fund turnover is a factor too as far as where to place that fund .
If "most" = > 50% - you're right. But not by that much. It's 61%:
When it comes to taxes - well all taxpayers are different. Some - like my high net worth friend - have very large non-retirement accounts. Which require more attention in terms of tax planning than retirement accounts.
Also - fees are fees. No matter what kind of account you're talking about. FWIW - I have a friend who's a RIA. Say he charges 50 bp a year in management fees (which is what he charges on some accounts). His fees are tax-deductible (which reduces their net cost). I'm not aware that mutual fund expenses are similarly tax-deductible. Robyn
I think it depends on what you are looking for. Fidelity has awesome customer service but the fees are a bit higher, they do have some great managed funds. Vanguard is the best as far as fees, T Rowe and Schwab fall somewhere in between, the good thing with Schwab is you have a lot of variety as they carry no fee funds from some other brokerages, so you can have a Fidelity and Vanguard fund for example possibly under one Schwab account.
Thank you. I just retired and I'm trying to decide what to do with my investments. Partially in fidelity and the rest in TSP. Kept some in Fidelity when I went to work for the Feds, because I like the choices and their customer service.
I think it depends on what you are looking for. Fidelity has awesome customer service but the fees are a bit higher, they do have some great managed funds. Vanguard is the best as far as fees, T Rowe and Schwab fall somewhere in between, the good thing with Schwab is you have a lot of variety as they carry no fee funds from some other brokerages, so you can have a Fidelity and Vanguard fund for example possibly under one Schwab account.
There is no appreciable difference between Fidelity and Schwab with regard to the matters you mentioned: Fidelity has a lot of variety, and carry no-fee (or fee-waived) funds from other fund families, including my favorite, Artisan Partners. T Rowe has some advantages and disadvantages, enough of the latter to put it squarely "less than" Fidelity and Schwab for most, though not all, people.
I just checked Schwab's website. Although they do offer 101 Vanguard funds, Schwab indicates that there is a Transaction Fee for each one. (See attached.)
"We have fidelity managed mathematically via algorithms (by way of a financial advisor) to keep us from any large declines in asset value"
seeriously --
I'm curious, how did the mathematical algorithms react during the last August/September time frame ?? Did they trigger any move to safety ?? Did they flash a sell signal to lighten up equities at that point ??
Yes. When the formulas project that the downslide is going to continue, they shift to defensive positions in bond funds so you don't lose 50 to 60% of your stock investments like in 2008. We're in bonds right now based on the last few weeks.
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