Quote:
Originally Posted by smilinpretty
I have been doing business with Edward Jones for the last 9 years. The new counselor has ripped me off so much she made more money than I did. I want to take over my own investments. How does one go about doing this.?? We have so many different investments with them.
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Here's the basic procedure:
1) Shop for a new broker, presumably a discount broker that provides no advice. The major players with some brick-and-mortar presence are Infidelity, TD Outhouse, Scotttrade and Squab. I'd see which one you like best.
2) Take your list of holdings at Ed and see how many of them your new broker cannot accept (some mutual funds would be possible). You will have to bust those to cash before you move your assets.
3) Set up a new account with your new broker and fill out the form (with associated documents) that says in effect "I authorize and order you to go to Ed with this paper in hand and get my shares." Ed has a length of time to do this. Expect Ed to drag his feet, like any jilted lover. Expect bad Ed.
4) Keep an eye on the progress and if need be, call up Ed and tell him that if his people don't move their butox, you will write a review on Epinions or somewhere that makes Ed sound like the second coming of Satan. He will tell you he has until such and such a date to do it, essentially blowing you off. Tell him he has his problems and you have yours, and that if he doesn't do it by the legal deadline you'll write a letter to the SEC, but if he wants you not to tell the whole Internet that he's a spiteful jackanapes, he could move things along like an actual professional in appreciation of the handsome fees you have been paying him. (That about the SEC would not actually do one bit of good--they don't exist to protect your interest in any way--but it may convince him that it's easier and safer to just obey you, as it might theoretically get Ed audited. I have been through an SEC audit and it is a nuisance akin to dog hair in your food.)
6) Make one last check to make sure you are no longer getting Ed, once it's all over, and formally close your account so they can't somehow stick some charge on you. The unpleasant scenario here is a dividend coming in with an ex-date before your transfer but paying after it. That would mean a low account balance, probably, and some form of petty crap about it. Just make sure the account is really dead. If not, stake it, sew the mouth shut around holy wafers (Catholics should have some), and pitch it in a river.
Have fun. It isn't too bad. I've canned several brokerages in my life and other than their sullen resentment that you left, it usually goes okay.
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