Archive for March 2017
I’ve done a lot of second opinion financial reviews over the years and these fees are broadly consistent with what I’ve seen in portfolios managed by Wall Street brokerages like Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Ameriprise etc.
In comparison, my fees are 1% for the first million, 0.7% for amounts up to $5mm and 0.4% for amounts over $5mm. Most independent RIAs (registered investment advisers) are like me – our fees are about a third of those by major brokerages.
Everything else being equal, if you are paying 1.5% more a year in fees, a back-of-the-envelope calculation will tell you that in 20 years you will be 30% poorer because of those higher fees. In 30 years, you will be 45% poorer.
But everything else is not equal. There are two other major distinctions between brokers and RIAs: Read the rest of this entry »
