• Smarter Investing

    Excellent Seeking Alpha ETF investment guide

    We are going to post this directly from the full article because it is such a great piece about Financial advisors fees.

    "Brokers, Financial Advisors, & Investing for the Wealthy

    • The
      traditional broker-client relationship is crippled by a fundamental
      conflict of interest: the broker is not directly compensated for giving
      objective advice, and is incentivized to maximize fees (My Broker's an Honest Fox).
    • Asset-based-fees
      go some way to reducing brokers’ conflicts of interest. But they don’t
      solve all conflicts of interest, they incentivize the broker to spend
      too much time prospecting for new accounts, and they take a sizable
      chunk out of clients’ investment returns (Asset-Based Fees to the Rescue).
    • Asset-based-fees could cut investor returns by 25% based on current market forecasts (But What if You Saved $275k Annually?).
    • Many
      independent financial advisors also charge-asset based-fees. If you
      need to consult a financial advisor, it’s generally better to negotiate
      an hourly fee instead (Financial Advisors).
    • Commoditization
      of financial products - particularly of index funds and online
      brokerage services - has steadily driven costs down and improved
      product quality. Fees for less commoditized financial products, such as
      managed accounts and actively managed mutual funds, have actually
      risen. As a result, wealthy investors shMe, Use an Online Broker? But
      I'm Rich!).
    • Separately managed accounts are the darling of
      the investment industry because they attract wealthy clients and charge
      hefty recurring fees. But the overall underperformance of investment
      managers versus their index benchmarks (Why You Shouldn’t Buy Mutual Funds) and the crippling impact of high fees (But What if You Saved $275k Annually?) means that separately managed accounts are generally a bad deal for investors (Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs)).
    • Most wealthy investors over-estimate their need for investment advice. Management of a portfolio of eight to twelve ETFs (A Core ETF Portfolio) in an online account (Which Brokerages Come Out Best?)
      is easy and not time consuming, and likely provides better
      diversification and overall performance than most High Net (financial)
      Worth financial services using individual stocks and mutual funds (What Not To Do).
    • For
      a $10 million account, a basket of ETFs managed in an online brokerage
      account should outperform an asset-based-fee account targeted at
      wealthy individuals by about $275,000 per year, by my estimate (But What if You Saved $275k Annually?).
    • If
      you need customized advice and products, split your assets between an
      active manager and an online brokerage to minimize fees. Use the online
      brokerage to manage the majority of your assets in ETFs. Ensure that
      the active manager is directly compensated for objective advice, fully
      discloses all fees, and provides a fully documented track record (What to Do With What's Left?)."

    Covestor on 31 May 2007

    3 Comments

    1. Great Post!, real estate investing is a proven method to build wealth. Most americans net worth is based on real estate, more so than other forms of investments. However, with todays real estate market and current lending standards is difficult to investin real estate and find profitable opportunities.
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    2. Hi,
      Global economies are feeling pain due to USA recession and now major outcomes are coming to prevent slowdown. Still USA is a hub of financial services and most of the banks in USA are bank corrupt now which is effecting every country.
      Indian stock market is trading at the almost same levels where it was 2 years back. All gains of 2 years are now washed out in few months. Most of the Indian stocks are trading at there 52 weeks low.
      Now investors are thinking that this is the right time to invest there valuable money for value buying still we suggest investors to stay away from market for few more days as still market is in bearish trend and we may witness more downfall before recovery.
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    3. Do you have a viable business but lack the necessary finances to get it off it’s feet?


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