Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

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investingdad
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Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by investingdad »

It's complementary through my employer since Fidelity does our 401k stuff. It's a chance to discuss my goals, objectives, and retirement plans and concerns with Fidelity on our office campus.

I'm looking forward to getting his opinion on my 3.25% planned SWR based on retirement at 55, if he agrees with escalating expenses at 2.5% a year between now and then, and also his thoughts oh what tax rate I should assume in retirement.

I also want to run through my spreadsheet projections with him.

How much do you think I should charge him for my time? :D
Silk McCue
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by Silk McCue »

Please video and post for us. :)
jf89
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by jf89 »

The salesmen my past 401k providers have sent for these "advisory" sessions would be staring blankly at you if you started talking about these things. I have no experience with Fidelity, but I wish you the best of luck anyway.
"Save as much as you can, diversify diversify diversify, and you can't go wrong with tech stocks" | -First investing advice I recall from my parents in the 90's (two outta three ain't bad)
sport
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by sport »

When I met with the "advisor" for my 401k plan, she thanked me for the education.
student
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by student »

I think the answer to your questions can mostly be answered (implicitly or explicitly) from Fidelity Retirement Analysis that is available online. I think the advisor will probably just run the program on his computer and show you the result. Have you tried it?
pyld76
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by pyld76 »

student wrote:I think the answer to your questions can mostly be answered (implicitly or explicitly) from Fidelity Retirement Analysis that is available online. I think the advisor will probably just run the program on his computer and show you the result. Have you tried it?
This is exactly what happened with the CFA who Fido sent to MyMegaCorp. He did try ( in vain) to explain to me what the "efficient frontier" made the 11 fund active crud portfolio the tool spit out was superior to the 7 index funds I held at that time.
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Cyclesafe
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by Cyclesafe »

A Boglehead, competent within his own situation, will absolutely shred a professional but generalist financial advisor regardless of competence or experience. Go easy on him. When hunting for birds, it's bad form to shoot them on the ground
"Plans are useless; planning is indispensable.” (Dwight Eisenhower) | "Man plans, God laughs" (Yiddish proverb)
student
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by student »

pyld76 wrote:
student wrote:I think the answer to your questions can mostly be answered (implicitly or explicitly) from Fidelity Retirement Analysis that is available online. I think the advisor will probably just run the program on his computer and show you the result. Have you tried it?
This is exactly what happened with the CFA who Fido sent to MyMegaCorp. He did try ( in vain) to explain to me what the "efficient frontier" made the 11 fund active crud portfolio the tool spit out was superior to the 7 index funds I held at that time.
I remember the first time I sat with an advisor from TIAA about 18 years ago. The advisor did not have a Monte Carlo simulation based program. She simply entered the assumptions of the rate of return and the rate of inflation. I did not say anything but I said to myself "I am in math. I know how to sum a geometric series." I did not go back until several years ago with a different advisor. He was knowledgeable in answering my questions regarding TIAA offerings. He said my portfolio is reasonable and he did not give any suggestions.
pkcrafter
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by pkcrafter »

investingdad wrote:It's complementary through my employer since Fidelity does our 401k stuff. It's a chance to discuss my goals, objectives, and retirement plans and concerns with Fidelity on our office campus.

I'm looking forward to getting his opinion on my 3.25% planned SWR based on retirement at 55, if he agrees with escalating expenses at 2.5% a year between now and then, and also his thoughts oh what tax rate I should assume in retirement.

I also want to run through my spreadsheet projections with him.

How much do you think I should charge him for my time? :D
The advisor's slant will be directed at how all this can be achieved through his and Fidelity's help. Please let us know how it goes.

Paul
When times are good, investors tend to forget about risk and focus on opportunity. When times are bad, investors tend to forget about opportunity and focus on risk.
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AndrewXnn
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by AndrewXnn »

The tax rate to assume in retirement will be a function of how much you have in taxable accounts and how long off you put starting pension and SS payments.

Ideally, you could be in the 10% bracket initially.
Of course at age 70.5, you have to start RMD's and SS.

So, there is more than 1 degree of retirement.

Before age 70.5 and after.
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House Blend
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by House Blend »

investingdad wrote:How much do you think I should charge him for my time? :D
What's the point? Sounds like maybe you do realize that you will get nothing useful out of the conversation.

Life is too short to engage in meaningless ego-boost competitions.
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goingup
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by goingup »

investingdad wrote:I'm looking forward to getting his opinion on my 3.25% planned SWR based on retirement at 55, if he agrees with escalating expenses at 2.5% a year between now and then, and also his thoughts oh what tax rate I should assume in retirement.

I also want to run through my spreadsheet projections with him.
If you have an email address for him you may want to give him a heads-up on your queries. This will give him the chance to either prepare for your meeting or to cancel due to illness. :D
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investingdad
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by investingdad »

Joking aside, I met with them on this topic...two or three years ago, I think?

One bit they got me thinking about was how I was going to fund the bridge between early retirement and when I could access tax advantaged accounts. As a result, I put more focus on taxable accounts. I think I've got it addressed at this point, that was actually quite helpful.

Who knows...maybe there will be a nugget of insight this time as well.
dcabler
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by dcabler »

I get the occasional voicemail message from administrative assistant of the local rep assigned to me. I never return the call. I run RIP on Fidelity's website from time to time to see where it thinks I am - the information is probably just as valuable and I don't have to get out of my jammies and drive across town to do it. :D
LeeMKE
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by LeeMKE »

I occasionally go into the Fidelity office and have them run through my entries in the Retirement Income Planner (RIP) as a double check to be sure I'm not doing something wrong. Each time, they've found something to tweak. Some were big errors (like when I added an income stream for the LTC insurance coverage) and most were small tweaks.

It's been a pretty even exchange. Sometimes they teach me more (they explained "The Hump" that showed up in the RIP, and how to fix it), sometimes I teach them something (like my IPS which they really liked). And sometimes they bring up issues I hadn't given as much weight as I should (like moderating my AA would actually improve my success rate in the RIP).

Hope the OP has the same experience!
The mightiest Oak is just a nut who stayed the course.
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investingdad
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by investingdad »

So I met with the advisor today and she was knowledgeable enough. But the tool we looked at was the one I'd already used many times on the site.

The sorta amusing bit was when she inquired as to the goals I wanted to discuss, retirement naturally. I gave her my timing and income expectations to which her body language said, "Sure, but maybe we could come back down to reality for a moment".

After I gave her all the data plus my detailed assumptions, however, the tone was a little different. In the end, Fidelity agrees that retiring at 55 is real, with my income requirements being met under pessimistic market conditions.

Annuities came up but the rep, I think, knew that I probably have a handle on how much of this should work and selling me on products or services wasn't really a topic worth discussing. We concluded by her telling me I was doing an exceptional job and was in a better place than most of the people she'll talk to.

In other words, about average for this site.
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CyclingDuo
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by CyclingDuo »

investingdad wrote:So I met with the advisor today and she was knowledgeable enough. But the tool we looked at was the one I'd already used many times on the site.

The sorta amusing bit was when she inquired as to the goals I wanted to discuss, retirement naturally. I gave her my timing and income expectations to which her body language said, "Sure, but maybe we could come back down to reality for a moment".

After I gave her all the data plus my detailed assumptions, however, the tone was a little different. In the end, Fidelity agrees that retiring at 55 is real, with my income requirements being met under pessimistic market conditions.

Annuities came up but the rep, I think, knew that I probably have a handle on how much of this should work and selling me on products or services wasn't really a topic worth discussing. We concluded by her telling me I was doing an exceptional job and was in a better place than most of the people she'll talk to.

In other words, about average for this site.
Sounds like it went well. Fidelity is already an excellent DIY site with all of the tools, help over the phone with any questions, and investment products. They just like to "appoint" an advisor on accounts over a certain $ amount.
"Save like a pessimist, invest like an optimist." - Morgan Housel | "Pick a bushel, save a peck!" - Grandpa
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SmileyFace
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by SmileyFace »

investingdad wrote:So I met with the advisor today and she was knowledgeable enough. But the tool we looked at was the one I'd already used many times on the site.

The sorta amusing bit was when she inquired as to the goals I wanted to discuss, retirement naturally. I gave her my timing and income expectations to which her body language said, "Sure, but maybe we could come back down to reality for a moment".

After I gave her all the data plus my detailed assumptions, however, the tone was a little different. In the end, Fidelity agrees that retiring at 55 is real, with my income requirements being met under pessimistic market conditions.

Annuities came up but the rep, I think, knew that I probably have a handle on how much of this should work and selling me on products or services wasn't really a topic worth discussing. We concluded by her telling me I was doing an exceptional job and was in a better place than most of the people she'll talk to.

In other words, about average for this site.
I appreciate you reporting back on this. If I may ask a couple of questions:
Are you glad you went for some confirmation on your thinking or did you feel it a waste of time? When Annuities came up was it a tough or annoying sales pitch? I keep getting email offers from both Fidelity and Schwab that I should be taking advantage of my free consultation (Just got another email yesterday "As your Financial Consultant, I'm writing to remind you to take advantage of the complimentary retirement consultation that's available to you.") and wondering if I should at some point just to see what they have to say....(I have accounts at Fidelity, Schwab, and Vanguard - and have told none about the other 2 so I'm sure that's the first things I'd have to do so they could assess my full picture).
TSR
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by TSR »

I realize that you've already had the conversation, so I'm not offering you any responsive assistance, but here's my Fidelity advisor anecdote:

When I moved from a private employer to the federal government, I let my old Fidelity 401k hang around for a while. I finally got clued into the noble eightfold path of the bogleheads, so I decided to roll my 401k into my TSP. When I went through that process, I got escalated to an "advisor" whose presumptive job was to talk me out of it. He asked why I wanted to move, and I told him the expense ratio for the TSP was .029% (or whatever it was at the time). He told me he had never heard of someone so interested in expense ratios, but got the hint pretty quickly that he was not going to dissuade me. I note that Fidelity very quickly thereafter began to compete aggressively with Vanguard on ERs, so I assume that I was not the first person to complain about expense ratios.
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investingdad
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by investingdad »

Not sales pitchy at all. The annuity stuff was a bit of gentle probing, but that was it. I think the advisor figured out quickly that I knew what I was doing and we'd not be in the position we are if I didn't.

Once the data was on the table and I shared my assumptions and she realized I knew what I was talking about, the conversation was straight forward. I think because this was at my office campus, it was even more focused on non BS.

My sense was that we could have gone full sales mode if I was clueless. As it was, not the case.

In the end, this was a nice sense check. Sort of a confirmation that I hadn't made any blatant flubs in my work and forecasts to date. She confirmed my thinking. Frankly, I'm having a hard time digesting the upside potential as "real" because it's much higher than anything I'd seriously considered possible.
EdB
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by EdB »

Cyclesafe wrote:A Boglehead, competent within his own situation, will absolutely shred a professional but generalist financial advisor regardless of competence or experience. Go easy on him. When hunting for birds, it's bad form to shoot them on the ground
I began to question the competence of my ML/SB financial adviser when she had to use a calculator to multiply 12 times 7.
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sometimesinvestor
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by sometimesinvestor »

Fidelity is not edward jones or vanguard. You have a decent chance for good advice.
runner3081
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Re: Sitting down with Fidelity advisor next week

Post by runner3081 »

I have met with Fidelity reps a few times over the years. For me, no matter what, there is always something to learn from the conversation. Even if it is something NOT to do, there is something to learn.

The rep at my new company last year asked what my goals were, I told him about retiring at 50 and he sort of smirked. Ran the numbers and it came up in the green on their calculator thing.

We then chatted about diversification and holdings. He had some interesting takes on index funds and we talked about Vanguard funds most of the time!

Highly valuable? No. On the same hand, it wasn't a waste of time or ego booster either.
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