Amerprise? Try Frankenprise!

[giza]

Between service that has gone downhill from my financial adviser[1], and a web-site that is slow and sub-par, I think it's time I parted ways with Ameriprise. They were good to me in terms of getting me set up with my Roth and Traditional IRAs, but I want to take a more active role in managing my assets, and I do not think they are the right

Comments

[eddiddiums]

Do you happen to know what other opportunity Dave left for? I know it is not a very uncommon name or anything but we have a manager for the mortgage division who goes by that name and you got me curious.

[giza]

I know he left for some kind of management opprotunity, but that's it.

I believe he lives in either Eastern PA or Western NJ.

[greenreaper]

I have not used any brokerages, as I do not trade individual stocks. I use Vanguard for my IRAs, my non-retirement stock investments (all in Vanguard funds), and my money market account.

I'm not sure they're exactly what you're looking for, but they could provide part of it. At heart, they're very much a mutual funds provider rather than a full-blown financial services firm. They certainly are very self-service, tending towards "here's all the data, why not buy one of our (admittedly pretty darn good) mutual funds

[greenreaper]

Man, my spelling sucks when I've had four hours of sleep and twelve hours of work . . .

Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention - they're based in Valley Forge, PA, not New York or LA. Their funds actually own themselves, so they have self-interest in keeping their costs down. :-)

[thppbt]

hehehe...you beat me to it. Good advice.

[giza]

Awesome. Thanks for the info!

Valley Forge... that's within PhillyCarShare-and-a-baseball-bat distance if things would ever go south with them. :-)

[thppbt]

Have you considered The Vanguard Group? They offer all but #2. Vanguard has always been a strong self-service financial company, with top-rated funds. If you are concerned with investment fees, which you should be, Vanguard's funds are very low cost.

Vanguard's brokerage service fees depend on how much you have invested at Vanguard. It's not the cheapest service, but if you are interested in more than brokerage, it's a good value added service.

Vanguard's goal is to educate you to be a more confident investor. But if you feel like you need a personalized financial plan, Vanguard can offer you that as well.

The best part about Vanguard is that they are client-owned. Vanguard's sole purpose is to make money for it's clients.

[greenreaper]

Education is right. Now I think about it, they're really a lot like SYMS, which I buy clothes at now and then. They offer top-quality brands at cut prices, without advertising. They're for the educated consumer who knows what they want and isn't going to do anything stupid like trying on ten different suits one after the other.

[giza]

I checked them out last night, and these guys ain't that bad! Thanks for the pointer.

[sirfox]

if you haven't bought property yet... a Roth IRA (last i knew) could be withdrawn from without penalty to help pay for a first home.
*tosses in $0.02*

[greenreaper]

Yeah . . . but unlike a 401k loan, you can't put the money back in, and so you lose the capital gains tax-sheltered status which is the best part of it. I feel it's better to get a real loan; at least you can deduct the interest (and on average the interest on that is likely to be lower than the return on investment on the money you'd otherwise have to spend).

Besides, it's good to save up for a house outside of your regular retirement savings. Shows you can afford it. You don't want to have to stop your retirement savings to pay for it, after all . . . suspect a lot of people have done that and regretted it recently when the market collapsed.

[giza]

That would be robbing from Peter to pay Paul.

Whoever thought it would be a good idea to have that particular tax rule needs to be put to sleep.

[greenreaper]

Well . . . I wouldn't go that far. Rules are rarely put in without a good reason. Perhaps what it is most useful for is encouraging investment for people who are concerned that they might want to make use of it in the future, even if they ultimately do not. The fear of tying your money up for 30 years or so is a big issue with investing in an IRA for some people.

In some cases, it may even make sense to use these features. For example, if you're 55 and have managed to build up a million dollars in savings, but no longer have a high-earning job, and want to withdraw $5,000 or so of your contributions to help your children buy a new house without incurring extra-high rates, that may not be a truly terrible idea. It's the same as the 401k loan - there are defined situations in which it makes sense. There are just rather rare. :-)

[moonfires]

I have Vanguard for my Vanguard-only funds, but my brokerage-based IRA is at Fidelity. They have significantly more No Transaction Fee funds available than Vanguard, and more importantly, don't require you to have $1 million in assets before they start waiving annual fees.