re: Edward Jones - Get out ---> Vanguard is the way to go!!!

quote:

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I'm not sure that risk is the issue as much as fees. It's not too late.

Multiply your entire portfolio by .0125
You probably paid at least that in fees last year from your portfolio.

Now multiply your portfolio by .0015
That's what you'll pay in fees to vanguard.

The difference gets to be substantial over the years. Think if you had saved/reinvested the difference every year.

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An easy way to think of this is the expected real return on her portfolio, ie net of costs and inflation. If she is paying 1.25% in annual fees be they fund, 12b-1, wrap, etc at EJ she could even go with a mix of target date and actively managed funds and be below .25% costs, plus no commission fees. The extra 1% expense doesn't sound like much to many, but if the real expected return should be 4% long term, they are giving up 25% due to the excessive drag of the broker costs. Takes a shite load more savings to make that up. She can pay a Vanguard advisor the first year or so to get the account set up to meet their criteria for very low cost, then exit the service once it's done. Inertia can be a bitch, but I don't know how it gets any easier to keep more of the returns one should be making. Someone pays for the extravagant free trips EJ brokers go on. Hmmm, who could that be???