nosher1 wrote:Picking a firm is not much different than picking a book to follow, I suppose,
Picking a firm is harder than picking a book. Do you trust your gut, your friends, people here?
nosher1 wrote:, I suppose, but at least I can just make the decision, and not have to think about investing on a day-to-day basis.
You do not have to manage or think about investments daily. It can be as infrequent as once every other year, to "rebalance", or less.
Some time up front to make initial decisions.
Investing can be simple. The most important choice is probably the % split between stocks and Fixed Income+cash. Benjamin Graham, one of the best regarded investment advice writers and practicioners, wrote in The Intelligent Investor that stocks and FI should be between 25% and 75% each, with a default position of 50%, depending on the person and perhaps other factors. (This was using more aggressive Fixed Income than many Bogleheads prefer today. With safe FI, the default might be higher.)
You could put 50% of the money into Vanguard's Total World Stock Index. The expense ratio is a bit high, but after it grows to 5 Million, you can own the institutional shares! Every other year, on the anniversary date or whatever date you choose, you would buy or sell enough to bring it back to 50%.
The other 50% is a bit more of a challange. You might split it by %, according to a book or advice, and rebalance at the same time as above. (Such as 15% TIPS, 15% Tbills, 10%...) You could give it to an advisor, and insist it all be FI+cash, no equity. Instead of set % and rebalancing, you could be opportunistic with it, chasing the best safe yields, whereever they happen to be, such as FDIC/NCUA CDs or accounts 1/4 Million each or more if married, AAA Muni bonds, Treasury bills, Treasury Notes/Bonds, TIPS, AAA short term corporate, etc. In the "opportunistic" case, you would need to look for the best place to put money whenever a CD or bond comes due. Otherwise, every year or two, you could evaluate rates, in case anything should be sold.
If none of the 6M is tax advantaged, it might make sense to use a large % of muni bonds which could simplify the FI half.