re: Anyone familiar with Betterment or Northwestern Mutual for investing?

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You sound like you are a FA

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I am. Been doing it for 18 years. I am actually a RIA. If you paid attention you would see that I also told him this.

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Then I would consider an allocated etf and forget about it. You don’t need to pay someone for that.

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This is what you said:

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There is a reason why the market has returned around 9% and the individual investor has returned around 3%.

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This is from the article:

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The difference is especially striking over the trailing 30-year period: The average equity investor earned a hair below 4.0% a year while the S&P deliver a bit more than 10%.

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I don't know. I am going to go with these guys over your hunch. I am done here. Good luck OP.

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Those are not the same at all. The articles are saying that you should invest in funds long term and leave your money in the market.

You implied that the average investor that does not use a financial adviser returns 3%. The articles are saying that the average person that invests in individual stocks gets a return of 3% yoy on their individual stocks.

The articles are pushing long term mutual fund and etf investments, not pushing the use of financial advisers.

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The articles are pushing long term mutual fund and etf investments, not pushing the use of financial advisers.

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I agree. What I am trying to show is that if an individual makes emotional decisions when the market gets bad than they will miss a big part. That is what the chart shows. Everyone says I am in it for the long haul, but the data shows that is not the case. A FA should help the client with these knee jerk reactions. Not everyone needs a FA as I stated earlier in this thread. Ok, I am really done this time.

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Everyone says I am in it for the long haul, but the data shows that is not the case. A FA should help the client with these knee jerk reactions

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While I agree, how often do advisers actually prevent their clients from doing this? Certainly a percentage of the time, but I have a couple of financial advisers in my family and they all have to have their phone on them and check email consistently even on vacation due to their clients wanting to react to the market. I mean if advisers were truly able to prevent this, they'd be able to have a voicemail or email reply that reminded their clients there was no need to jump off the ledge and react to anything immediately.

Eta: a lot of advisers are making money off trades too. Buying and selling more often is good business. They also don't want to risk losing a client by getting into a disagreement.

Baldona, it's called the Dalbar study and they update it every year. Dalbar

There are many different types of advisors, the ones you reference that are making money off of trading are brokers and aren't "advisors". A real "advisor" will fire a client over a disagreement. Not sell all their crap to generate revenue. Real advisors don't captain sinking ships.

I would agree with the overwhelming sentiment that you should avoid insurance companies - I generally would say for any advice, but I'm also an RIA and may be biased. I think anyone who has incentive to sell a product that their company creates - any product - has a conflict of interest there. When the choice is between a higher payout or losing your job, everyone needs a whole life policy.

The difference between NWM and Betterment couldn't be larger... Also, that screenshot seems to say that's a moderate portfolio with 90% stocks (14% EM). That is by no means "moderate". That's pretty aggressive.

Eta. Maybe the OP should find a fee-based advisor and pay them for a couple hours of their time to point them in the right direction.

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he only becomes "fee-based" above $25k.

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LPL guy?

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he only becomes "fee-based" above $25k

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Sounds like an LPL or Ameriprise rep. His broker dealer won't allow a fee based account below that number. It's semi-standard. They need to make money too I suppose. I was really saying pay someone for a consultation. Not a "free" consultation. Pay for it and make sure you've expressed you only want to pay for their time.

I don't know a ton about Betterment, to be honest. I know a lot of folks use them, but if things go bad, and they will at some point, I think it's a cop-out to say it was someone else's fault (or in this case, the computer's fault). This is probably all in my head and I've gone back and forth internally on the topic. The problem with robo's is they can't talk you out of doing anything stoopid. This is the whole point of the Dalbar study and has been repeated all over this thread.

If you insist on going lowest cost available vs. paying for advice, I would suppose I don't see a ton of difference in 8 and 10 bps. Just need brass balls Les Miles circa 2007 style.

I have a buddy that pretty much does the investments for his NWM office. He is as sharp as any FA I have met. He is a CFA and a couple of other things.