Who is YOUR advisor?
Do you manage your own money and financial planning, or do you have someone else do it?
I recently gave my family’s accounts to another advisor, mainly to get another perspective and to have somebody to talk to.
It’s not a great solution, because this guy is like most advisors – busy building his business giving generic advice. But it’s one less thing I have to do and at this point I don’t have a lot of money anyway. Certainly later I will want to get better help.
If you do have an outside advisor, do you want somebody who really follows markets and has strong, informed opinions on what you should do? Or somebody who will take you to lunch every now and then and makes sure you stay the course?
Huh? I’m very confused. You don’t trust yourself enough to advise your own family? I doubt most people on this board are giving their family’s accounts to another advisor.
OMG. Do you tell your clients that you don’t even manage your own money?
Hmmm, didn’t think it was that crazy an idea. Sure I trust myself, but like I said I want somebody to discuss my situation with me and my wife. I might be missing something, I might want more ideas.
Also, I am under no illusion that I know how to run money. Jones didn’t hire any of us because we were well versed in investing. There are many guys on the board – including you, Ice – that know a lot more. Why wouldn’t I look around and find somebody with strengths that I lack.
What’s the old saying, that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client.
[quote=etj4588]OMG. Do you tell your clients that you don’t even manage your own money?
[/quote]
No, I tell my clients I keep a close eye on their investments. Bullsh*t, of course, since I’m too busy cold calling and cold walking.
Buy - I have thought about this as well from an emotional standpoint. I find myself taking too much risk from time to time with my own money that I’d never take with my clients. Don’t think it’s so far fetched.
Are you using a Jones guy? In town? How did you choose this guy?
[quote=voltmoie]
Buy - I have thought about this as well from an emotional standpoint. I find myself taking too much risk from time to time with my own money that I’d never take with my clients. Don’t think it’s so far fetched.
Are you using a Jones guy? In town? How did you choose this guy?
[/quote]
I’m using a Jones guy for now, but will probably find somebody else longterm. For one thing, it’s been helpful sitting down with my wife and an advisor, just to make sure that if I get capped by an angry client there is somebody there to help her invest the life insurance money.
B&H- I don’t think it’s a bad idea, especially being newer. I’m not doing exactly the same thing, but I am taking advantage of free advice from my legacy host FA in regards to my money. It is nice to have an objective, non-emotional opinion.
[quote=buyandhold]
[quote=voltmoie]
Buy - I have thought about this as well from an emotional standpoint. I find myself taking too much risk from time to time with my own money that I’d never take with my clients. Don’t think it’s so far fetched. Are you using a Jones guy? In town? How did you choose this guy?[/quote]I’m using a Jones guy for now, but will probably find somebody else longterm. For one thing, it’s been helpful sitting down with my wife and an advisor, just to make sure that if I get capped by an angry client there is somebody there to help her invest the life insurance money.[/quote]
That is an excellent point, especially since this is the same point we make to DIY-er prospects.
B & H - you make good points. Especially given that you may be advising people that have different goals than you do. Creating an asset allocation plan for someone with $50k in an IRA is a lot different than a Jones broker who has the ability (after some time) to put away a lot of money.
I also admire the fact that you are under no illusions about how you have chosen to structure your practice.
I think this will allow you to put away more and have a better life than those of us who make the attempt to do everything.
Bravo.
[quote=etj4588] OMG. Do you tell your clients that you don’t even manage your own money?
[/quote]
Yeah I would be suspect if my advisor paid another advisor… I think you are an idiot for doing so. Hope that doesn’t get out of the bag… I would nail you for it… If you don’t have the confidence in your self find a 3rdparty money manager…
Do you want his or the advisor who manages his money…
Personally, I think it’s pretty weak to be an advisor and hire another broker to manage your money. That being said, a collegue of mine almost moved over 500k to me to manage because he was making alot of bad decisions buying penny stocks and stupid sh*t where he would NEVER recomend doing this with a clients dollars. Now, he just calls me to ask what stocks I’d buy and does it himself. Whatever.
B&H - there’s a simple solution here, that doesn’t involve handing your money to another advisor. Just have someone do an annual review for you. Take a fellow FA to lunch with you and your wife and have him review your accounts. Pay him $100 if it makes you feel better. Just keep the assets in your own office. It’s not a horrible idea to have someone who isn’t emotionally involved in your family situation look at your holdings and give you some objective advice. I would hesitate, though, to actually give someone else control over my portfolio.
Just FYI, I don't believe Jones will let you establish accounts with someone at a different firm.[quote=Spaceman Spiff] B&H - there’s a simple solution here, that doesn’t involve handing your money to another advisor. Just have someone do an annual review for you. Take a fellow FA to lunch with you and your wife and have him review your accounts. Pay him $100 if it makes you feel better. Just keep the assets in your own office. It’s not a horrible idea to have someone who isn’t emotionally involved in your family situation look at your holdings and give you some objective advice. I would hesitate, though, to actually give someone else control over my portfolio.
Just FYI, I don’t believe Jones will let you establish accounts with someone at a different firm. [/quote]
I think Spiff is right. It would be hard to get another advisor from another firm while working at Jones. So, when are you leaving?
Spiff makes a good point though. I’m not sure you can pay a Jones FA $100 to look over your accounts though. That would make that advisor unethical.
Fantastic! buyandhold is my adviser.
His reasoning makes sense to me. Ecspecially if something happend to me, my wife would be clueless with what to do and would be a terrible person to trust with picking a financial adviser.If you're wife is clueless you should set up a trust that, upon your untimely demise, is run by a corporate trustee. That way she can continue to be clueless, but yet have someone looking after the large chunk of money she is now going to be living off of. You run it during your life, but let someone who knows more than her run it after you're gone.
I've given my wife specific instructions as to who she should go to if I should die. She'll have a big chunk of money from my life insurance, but it will have to be handled well in order to last as long as necessary. I've picked someone I'm comfortable with that I know won't try to take advantage of a rich young widow. Perhaps you should do the same.I think I’ll avoid the trust route for now, but may consider FAs to my wife in the event of my demise. She’ll have a good insurance check as well and would probably due something stupid like put it towards the kids’ educations instead of her retirement / living. Ofcourse, if I go soon, she’ll still be young enough and hot enough to find another suitor.
If that is the case, then I need to have a FA in place who will honor my request to hide the assets and not give them a dime.I was managing my own money but I dint like my advisor or the firm so I moved it to another firm…
Think about how much energy you may have exerted trying to convert tire kickers or other prospects who really just wanted a second opinion, but are not delegators.
Professionals shouldn't have to chase people, and don't once established and confident. Having someone else advise you might be a good exercise in delegating and feeling what it takes to trust someone else as your advisor, and that could be useful in building relationships with prospects. Of course, if you're delegating after you're established, how much confidence do you have in yourself? I never delegated, but did partner with seniors on some new client cases. That taught me a lot. It also took a long time to just buy and hold and rebalance for my own account. With the obvious exception of loading up on stocks after events like 9/11 and holding a good cash reserve. How complicated is investing? http://www.milyunair.com/[quote=Wet_Blanket]I think I’ll avoid the trust route for now, but may consider FAs to my wife in the event of my demise. She’ll have a good insurance check as well and would probably due something stupid like put it towards the kids’ educations instead of her retirement / living. Ofcourse, if I go soon, she’ll still be young enough and hot enough to find another suitor.
If that is the case, then I need to have a FA in place who will honor my request to hide the assets and not give them a dime.[/quote] Or...you could set up a trust that only allows her to spend a certain amount of money every year. You could put your house, cars, etc into the trust with directions to the trustee the become her payor on all of those items. The only thing she would receive would be a monthly stipend for things like groceries, clothes, etc. The trust could also ensure that if she were to die that the money goes directly to your kids and not to the new hubby. How pissed off will your wife's boyfriend be when he finds out he can't bump her off too and take all the money?I think you are missing something here, B & H said his family's accounts not his accounts. I see way too many people in the biz who go out and get Mom and Dads, sister and brothers accounts and then a year or two they are out of the business. Your success or failure will not be determined by the family accounts you have but rather by accounts outside your family. Now if I have misunderstood and we are talking about the advisers own accounts then disregard please.Do you manage your own money and financial planning, or do you have someone else do it?
I recently gave my family’s accounts to another advisor, mainly to get another perspective and to have somebody to talk to.
It’s not a great solution, because this guy is like most advisors – busy building his business giving generic advice. But it’s one less thing I have to do and at this point I don’t have a lot of money anyway. Certainly later I will want to get better help.
If you do have an outside advisor, do you want somebody who really follows markets and has strong, informed opinions on what you should do? Or somebody who will take you to lunch every now and then and makes sure you stay the course?
I listen to Jeff Kleintop, Burt White and company through LPL. Kleintop & co made the call to buy preferreds early this year and diversified glabal natural resources more recently, both of which have done well for me. No question in my mind I’m better at investing since I began listening to their daily market call in the am.
I think you are missing something here, B & H said his family's accounts not his accounts. I see way too many people in the biz who go out and get Mom and Dads, sister and brothers accounts and then a year or two they are out of the business. Your success or failure will not be determined by the family accounts you have but rather by accounts outside your family. Now if I have misunderstood and we are talking about the advisers own accounts then disregard please.[/quote] Sure about that?[quote=buyandhold]Do you manage your own money and financial planning, or do you have someone else do it?
I recently gave my family’s accounts to another advisor, mainly to get another perspective and to have somebody to talk to.
It’s not a great solution, because this guy is like most advisors – busy building his business giving generic advice. But it’s one less thing I have to do and at this point I don’t have a lot of money anyway. Certainly later I will want to get better help.
If you do have an outside advisor, do you want somebody who really follows markets and has strong, informed opinions on what you should do? Or somebody who will take you to lunch every now and then and makes sure you stay the course?
Never trust a skinny chef…
I think you are missing something here, B & H said his family's accounts not his accounts. I see way too many people in the biz who go out and get Mom and Dads, sister and brothers accounts and then a year or two they are out of the business. Your success or failure will not be determined by the family accounts you have but rather by accounts outside your family. Now if I have misunderstood and we are talking about the advisers own accounts then disregard please.[/quote] Sure about that?[/quote] My bad, disregard my thoughts, please.[quote=noggin][quote=buyandhold]Do you manage your own money and financial planning, or do you have someone else do it?
I recently gave my family’s accounts to another advisor, mainly to get another perspective and to have somebody to talk to.
It’s not a great solution, because this guy is like most advisors – busy building his business giving generic advice. But it’s one less thing I have to do and at this point I don’t have a lot of money anyway. Certainly later I will want to get better help.
If you do have an outside advisor, do you want somebody who really follows markets and has strong, informed opinions on what you should do? Or somebody who will take you to lunch every now and then and makes sure you stay the course?
I think that we should handle managing our own money and financial plannning. However, it's probably smart to get help. My suggestion would be to find someone to review what you are doing and you do the same for that person. They may have a suggestion or two that might be helpful and they'll understand what you are trying to accomplish for your family if something happens to you.Do you manage your own money and financial planning, or do you have someone else do it?
I recently gave my family’s accounts to another advisor, mainly to get another perspective and to have somebody to talk to.
It’s not a great solution, because this guy is like most advisors – busy building his business giving generic advice. But it’s one less thing I have to do and at this point I don’t have a lot of money anyway. Certainly later I will want to get better help.
If you do have an outside advisor, do you want somebody who really follows markets and has strong, informed opinions on what you should do? Or somebody who will take you to lunch every now and then and makes sure you stay the course?
[quote=Wet_Blanket]I think I’ll avoid the trust route for now, but may consider FAs to my wife in the event of my demise. She’ll have a good insurance check as well and would probably due something stupid like put it towards the kids’ educations instead of her retirement / living. Ofcourse, if I go soon, she’ll still be young enough and hot enough to find another suitor.
If that is the case, then I need to have a FA in place who will honor my request to hide the assets and not give them a dime.[/quote] Wet_Blanket, you need a good advisor. This is the kind of stuff that we hear from prospects trying to avoid buying the proper amount of life insurance. Why should your wife have to choose between retirement and educating the kids? If you are alive, aren't you going to do both? A hot, young wife is no longer a hot, young wife once she has a kid and is a widow. She is seriously damaged goods. Who wants to date someone with this kind of baggage unless they are full of their own baggage? When I was dating, there was no way that I would date someone with kids. When you die, they aren't your assets. Put things in place now so that the money gets handled properly. Don't try to control a spouse from the grave. I'm going to leave my wife plenty of money. I don't ever want her to be in a position that she has to find someone for financial reasons.[quote=anonymous]
Wet_Blanket, you need a good advisor. This is the kind of stuff that we hear from prospects trying to avoid buying the proper amount of life insurance. Why should your wife have to choose between retirement and educating the kids? If you are alive, aren't you going to do both? A hot, young wife is no longer a hot, young wife once she has a kid and is a widow. She is seriously damaged goods. Who wants to date someone with this kind of baggage unless they are full of their own baggage? When I was dating, there was no way that I would date someone with kids. When you die, they aren't your assets. Put things in place now so that the money gets handled properly. Don't try to control a spouse from the grave. I'm going to leave my wife plenty of money. I don't ever want her to be in a position that she has to find someone for financial reasons. [/quote] I was kidding about leaving my family in shambles - but it is probably time to reevaluate my insurance since I recently changed jobs for a large pay increase. But I will need to get a good advisor for when I pass. Probably could use one now for the insurance aspect.[quote=anonymous] [quote=Wet_Blanket]I think I’ll avoid the trust route for now, but may consider FAs to my wife in the event of my demise. She’ll have a good insurance check as well and would probably due something stupid like put it towards the kids’ educations instead of her retirement / living. Ofcourse, if I go soon, she’ll still be young enough and hot enough to find another suitor.
If that is the case, then I need to have a FA in place who will honor my request to hide the assets and not give them a dime.[/quote]
Wet_Blanket, you need a good advisor. This is the kind of stuff that we hear from prospects trying to avoid buying the proper amount of life insurance.
Why should your wife have to choose between retirement and educating the kids? If you are alive, aren’t you going to do both?
A hot, young wife is no longer a hot, young wife once she has a kid and is a widow. She is seriously damaged goods. Who wants to date someone with this kind of baggage unless they are full of their own baggage? When I was dating, there was no way that I would date someone with kids.
When you die, they aren’t your assets. Put things in place now so that the money gets handled properly. Don’t try to control a spouse from the grave.
I’m going to leave my wife plenty of money. I don’t ever want her to be in a position that she has to find someone for financial reasons. [/quote]
+1
I don’t see myself as a money manager.
Pretty much like Morean said, I help working couples allocate their old 401ks (asset allocation models) and get insurance, and new retirees set up their IRAs into some kind of income stream (bond/stock mixes and annuities.) That’s my business.
Those people want education, they want somebody they can trust, they need to have somebody sit down and referee the money conversation between husband and wife. I tell them up front, I’m here to help you manage your goals and make good choices.
Right now my FA helps me do that. It’s a relationship thing. Later, when I have more assets I would be be looking forsomebody like a Morean or an ice or gaddock and to give me advice.
Even if it turned out that I could do exactly the same job as my FA, I would still like somebody doing the grunt work for me.
Btw, if it sounds like I’m knocking my acumen, I’m not. I do a great job for my clients. And maybe I will someday have the time to really run money.
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