How to change financial planners

[gamecock43]

This may be a silly question...but I am thinking of changing financial planners. The one I have now seems to be very quiet with my money and I get a feeling I'm not a big priority to him. Plus I have asked him to go over my statements with me and he brushes it off like it will go over my head. My husbands father is heavily (professionally)involved in the markets and suggests I either hire a collegue whom he trusts, or he will do it. I already recognize a potential confict that could arise involving a family member with my money...but logistically, if $ is all in stocks, how do you change planners?
What does one say to the old planner? and how does the process change over? And does it make a difference that my current planner is in another state, and my future planner will also be in another (diffferent state)?

[LuckyJB]

financial planners are old now...the amount of them is decreasing...educate yourself. But im sure someone else has better opinion than mine he he goodluck

[gamecock43]

I am trying to educate myself. Im here. on this site. Asking elementry school questions. I give up asking the MBA guys what my statements are saying and how to read them, they give me BS till my eyes glaze over.

[humandraydel]

"Logistically, if all money is in stocks, how do you change planners"? In a lot of cases you can just transfer the shares of stock/mutual fund/ETF to a new brokerage. That way you don't have to sell, which would trigger taxes. In some cases though, if the new brokerage doesn't offer your funds (usually because the funds are special shares of 401k funds), you might have to sell everything first. All you have to do is ask the brokerage if you can transfer "in kind."

"What do you say?" I'm not sure it matters. It's your money, you can do whatever you want with it.

"How does the process work?" You'll have to fill out some paperwork, but once you do, electrons will fly from one brokerage to the next and your money will appear in the new brokerage! It sounds silly, but it's really the truth.

"Does it matter what state?" Nope.

[gamecock43]

ok. its just doing an official 'brokerage firm' name change on the top of my statements. And if some stocks dont transfer then I must sell them, pay tax and buy into the new firms stocks. If thats all it is then I guess it is an easy process. The language on my statements intimidate me. Makes me believe that everything is complicated when I have a voice screaming in my head that it cant be as complicated as it looks.

[humandraydel]

Originally Posted by gamecock43

And if some stocks dont transfer then I must sell them, pay tax and buy into the new firms stocks.

Just be aware of what the commissions are for purchasing stocks/funds. Are you picking your own investments or is a financial advisor making recommendations? Be aware that their recommendations are not always the best investments - usually they just pay a higher commission to the broker for recommending it, costing you more than you need to pay for investments. Really, the best way is to manage your investments yourself by investing in simple index funds.

[gamecock43]

ohhh...it gets more complicated. ok. i can keep up. now, when my advisor recommends that I sell one stock and he will reinvest it in another, am I paying a commission to him? he only advised me to do this once, one reason I wonder how involved he is with my account...but maybe its a good thing he is not switching things around regularly?

[humandraydel]

Originally Posted by gamecock43

ohhh...it gets more complicated. ok. i can keep up. now, when my advisor recommends that I sell one stock and he will reinvest it in another, am I paying a commission to him? he only advised me to do this once, one reason I wonder how involved he is with my account...but maybe its a good thing he is not switching things around regularly?

My point really is just that there ARE fees associated with investing and some of those fees can be expensive. But there are ways around it, like managing your own investments. Whenever you buy and sell stocks, there is some sort of commission. This is true even if you buy your own stocks using an online brokerage like Schwab. You also need to be aware of something like "advisory fees" - that is, your broker might be charging you 1-2% of your money every year to "advise" you. There is also something called a "load" that you pay for certain mutual funds - sometimes they charge you up to 5% of the purchase price as a fee. So, for every $100 you contribute, they are taking $5 of it! But there are "no load" mutual funds that you can purchase through companies like Vanguard, T. Rowe Price, and Fidelity.

The bottom line is that you should be aware of the fees you are paying, look at cheaper options, and if you are comfortable managing your own investments, you can save a lot of money in fees. And honestly, it's not hard managing your own investments.

[HNorton]

Try to find a "fee only" financial planner. They usually charge about 1% of whatever your total asset level is. It is tough finding a broker that has your best interest in mind because commissions is how they make a living. If you find one and you are comfortable with them just be sure they give you a breakdown of how they get paid and make sure you let them know of your need/desire to keep costs low.

[gamecock43]

Yes, my planner does charge me 1% of my assets. now im wondering if he also makes the "load" commission off changes that we make.

[noppenbd]

If the funds have sales or 12b-1 fees, a portion usually goes to the broker/advisor/planner. Management fees go to the fund company

[gamecock43]

ok. im slowly understanding all this. thank you guys.

[maat55]

I like to play the field, thats why I use DisneySteve, Jim Ohio, Scanner and sweeps among others. They come very cheap also.