Just getting started

[Funk]

Hey Everybody:

I hope this is the right forum for this question.  Ive spent the last few days reading, and I feel like I am already so far behind!  You all seem to have it figured out, and I am definitely on the clueless side.  I am sure this is a very basic question that has been answered a million times, but the more threads I read the more confused I got.

I have had a roth for about 7 or 8 years now through Lincoln Financial.  It has a little less than 70,000 in the account.  I have a couple questions.  First question is how can I find out the fee I am paying.  I searched the website and couldn't find it/ figure it out.

Second Question:  Is there any possible reason I should still be with Lincoln, or should I be moving my money ASAP?  I am guessing move it ASAP, but want to make sure I am not overlooking anything.

Third and Final Question:  Vanguard, Wealthfront, or Betterment?  I've gone through old posts, old comments, and old threads.  My financial knowledge base is very limited.  If I should be moving my money out of Lincoln, where should I be moving it?

Thanks so much!!

[rubybeth]

First of all, welcome!

I am not familiar with Lincoln Financial, but the fees depend on a couple of things. What is the money in the Roth invested in? You should be looking for something called an expense ratio. For example, the index fund VTSMX has an expense ratio of 0.15%. You can see it in the listing for the fund here: https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundIntExt=INT&FundId=0085&funds_disable_redirect=true

There may be other fees, sometimes called administrative fees, for your account. If you aren't finding that info. on their website, you could call to ask.

I am not familiar with Wealthfront or Betterment, but can recommend Vanguard or Fidelity for rollover IRA options. Both are very easy to work with to do rollovers/move an IRA from one institution to either of them. I am more comfortable with Fidelity's website but my husband and I also use Vanguard and it's fine, too. It depends what funds you want to buy. I have FUSVX with Fidelity and DH has VTSMX with Vanguard. Fees are actually a tiny bit lower on FUSVX (0.035%): https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/ratings/315911701

[Rob_bob]

Do you get a statement that shows expenses and what you are invested in?  They could be using proprietary funds that you couldn't transfer but would have to sell first.  They could be selling you load funds that charge a big commission when you buy, sell, or both.  You will probably need to call them.  If you get any kind of song and dance you can figure they have nice big fees.

A robo advisor will charge a small fee, but I would be willing to bet you are paying a boatload more in fees now.  A robo advisor would be good if you don't want to make any investment decisions yourself, just hand over the cash and let them do their thing.

If you want to be more hands on, which really doesn't have to be much, the less you fiddle with it the better off you will be.  Fidelity or Vanguard are the favorites, Schwab is popular, I use TDAmeritrade myself.

[Funk]

Thank you so much for the replies and help!  It is super overwhelming trying to figure things out.  You all have a very impressive community.  I downloaded personalcapital.com to try to help me figure out my current fees.  I still havent figured them out, but im working on it haha