Our investment manager flew the coop

[hdrider]

Well he wasn't actually a "flew the coop" thing but he got an advancement in Edward Jones and went to work at he Corp. level. He was able to hand pick a different adviser that is in our home town for our account but dang. What have you guys done in situations like this? I guess just leave things be for now.

We did just get the word of this 2 weeks ago and did just today have a chance to speak with her because I had a trade I wanted to have happen today and she seemed easy to work with on at least this one occasion and seemed to be like minded.

We are fulltime so really don't have a place we HAVE to have an investor sitting but we do go back and visit normally once a year so I told her we would at least want a sit down in June when we plan to revisit the area.

 

[Kirk W]

I haven't had that experience so can't say what I'd do. Our previous adviser did leave the business some years ago and advised all of his clients to shift to the person we now use. The new fellow is far better than or previous one so it was a good thing.

[NJTroy]

If you approached this the way we did back when we started with our advisor, we interviewed several before committing. If I were in your position, I would approach this the same way just as though I were starting again. Being comfortable and confident in an advisor is critical.

[FULLTIMEWANABE]

One thing we've noticed over time, is everyone has different comfort levels with their investments Dave. Some prefer to be with an advisor but still want to have more input based on their research/learnings, and be listened to by their advisors, many others just want an advisor to handle it all in the hope of getting the desired results and others prefer to self direct their investments into low cost index/etfs etc. Within any of those some folks like to have their finger on the pulse every day/week/month, others once a quarter or half year is as much as they want to see where their investments land. Depending on what you fall into and assuming you are in the funds before he just left you want to be for a fair time frame goal, you might want to let sleeping dogs lie so to speak for now, and see how she compares assuming your investments keep going in the right direction based on market conditions etc.

 

Unfortunately, till now we've never had the opportunity to source an advisor that's instilled the confidence in us to perform better than ourselves, direct buying our own low MER funds getting a better return - sure wish we could as we'd really like to become more hands off at this stage in our lives. Tried many years ago for a 3, 5 and 7 year period with manulife rep, standard life rep and major bank, and the results were dismal compared to just buying a broad stock index and a couple of industry specific indexes. I'm an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" type, so as long as it's working for you and your expectations maybe see how it all unfolds over time. Wouldn't hurt though to interview a handful of other advisors to have a possible back up ready just in case.

[Smitty77_7]

OP - I'd suggest you follow thru with your meeting with replacement advisor. Go over your goals, and more important your comfort zones on risk, as well as any firm guidelines on items to restrict, or to only focus on. See how your chemistry is with this advisor. And as mentioned, no problem doing due diligence and researching from scratch, especially if you do not seem to be a good fit with the replacement advisor.

 

Another thing can do, as you mentioned it yourself, is network around and stop in at different Edward Jones as you travel. Interview a few as you are on your travels. Edward Jones should welcome you doing this, and choosing an advisor that you can easily get with on your time schedule, in any city, I would not thing would be a problem.

 

I quoted this post, as I found I was nodding my head as I was reading it. We can all come at this financial advising thing differently:)! Until we started the final planning for retirement, I had handled all of our 401K's, IRA's, ROTH IRA's and Trading Accounts. My wife does not enjoy this stuff, and it actually frightens her some. So one of our needs was to protect my wife from needing to do 'hands on investing', if something were to happen with me.' For this reason, we went thru the process to find a Financial Advisor to work with. We placed the bulk of our retirement funds with him, and did a mix of different annuity vehicles, cash accumulating life insurance, fixed investments, etc. About 50% of our retirement funds, are not doing anything glamorous as far as 'investing' - but, they are as safe as we could make them, with guaranteed returns, and that 50% is enough for us to get along with comfortably. Add the cash accumulating 15 year life insurance policy on me - she should be as safe as both myself and our Financial Advisor could make things for her, just in case.

 

I retain amount in our trading accounts, and use gains from those investments for the modifications/upgrades to our coach, as we continue to make it 'our's'. If it takes 8 months to make that happen, so be it. If it is 3 months, great!

 

One of my hardest transitions since retiring, is not being as 'hand's on' in our maintenance. I usually do a monthly review, but while traveling this can sometimes stretch into two months:)!

 

As pointe out in this quote post by FT Wannabe - lots different angles on how a person/coupe may want to approach their relationship with a Financial Advisor.

 

I do recommend doing due diligence, working with a FA that has Fiduciary Responsibility, and proper training. Obtaining references, and clearly understanding how the Financial Advisor is compensated, is very important. Fee only, percent of invested funds, performance based upon returns with laddered thresholds, etc.

 

Sometimes the 'cheapest costs' of a FA, will yield the 'cheapest returns':)! So sometimes a higher costing advisor, can really be a bargain. The secret, is knowing which is which... And that is where research and ongoing interactions and sit downs can help.

 

Best of luck to the OP on this shift!

Smitty