Help with mom's investment

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mlombar
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue May 16, 2017 10:06 am

Help with mom's investment

Post by mlombar »

So first, please forgive me if I don't provide the correct terms and numbers here, as I am myself just starting to understand and learn about investing. My father past away last year and he was the finance man :) So we're both learning on the go here. She just rolled over her 401K account(127k) to an IRA and this is what leads me to this post. She was asking me how she should invest that money so it's not just sitting there. And while I've done my research and done my homework, doesn't hurt to come here as well and see what the bogleheads think!

67 yrs old. Retired.
This is the info she's given me:
The rollover IRA with Merrill Edge: 127k
Valic 457 plan: 157k
Valic IRA: 32k
American Century Mutual Fund: 29k
Columbia Threadneedle Customer Rollover IRA: 13k
NYS Deferred Compensation 457 Plan w/ International, Large Cap, and Short term: 59k
Individual Stocks in Merrill Edge taxable: 103k
Individual Savings account: 219k
Escrow Account: 56k
Checking: 98k

Equity Loan: 170k

Income:
About 90k/yr between pension and SS. She lives just fine on that she says.
mega317
Posts: 5705
Joined: Tue Apr 19, 2016 10:55 am

Re: Help with mom's investment

Post by mega317 »

First of all I am sorry you lost your father, and I commend you for picking up this responsibility.

It would be helpful to have a more complete picture, although we can piece together most of it from your post. See if you can add more detail to conform to the format in this post:
viewtopic.php?t=6212

First impressions, things to consider:
- Roll all tax-deferred plans into one custodian with reasonable costs. Merrill Edge is fine if you are using commission-free ETFs. I don't know what other options there are.
- Move out of individual stocks and into something like a three fund portfolio. I would need more information on all of her current holdings to advise further.
- Pay off the loan

If the pension and SS cover her expenses then she has a lot of options on what to do with this ~900k. It would be reasonable to invest very conservatively, with a good portion of TIPS to hedge inflation. It would also be appropriate to think of it mostly as others' money (heirs and charities) and invest more aggressively, and gift and donate. She is probably a little young to fully go that route.
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