Personal Capital?

[GUNDERSON]

Does anybody use their management (charged at .89%) and find it worthwhile? I imagine many people here would be very against it. I did the free consultation, which suggested I had inefficiencies especially in tax placement, that there are benefits to gain in loss harvesting, rebalancing and overexposure, etc.; their pitch is basically that the better management would pay for itself. Part of me knows I'm no investment expert and it would be nice to feel like the money is in smarter hands. Part of me doesn't want to pay a fee when indexing works well.

Also, they suggested that if I started with them and then wanted to quit, it's much easier to do than with, say Betterment -- no need to liquidate, you can just transfer accounts in kind straight to Vanguard. Can anyone confirm this?

[GUNDERSON]

Belatedly realizing that even if I transferred out, I'd have a bunch of stocks instead of index funds, so would probably want to sell anyway. Those pitches are sneaky.

[Scandium]

Part of me knows I'm no investment expert and it would be nice to feel like the money is in smarter hands.

It will work for this; you might feel the money is in better hands. I doubt it would actually be, but I suppose you would feel better. Whether that's worth say $4500 on a half mill portfolio I don't know.. I don't, but it's personal consideration. 

[Arbitrage]

I did a consultation recently, which I naively thought would include a good faith review of my investments and investing goals.  Instead, it was a hard sales pitch focused upon insulting how I was invested (even in places where it wasn't very different from PC recommendations) and attempting to induce panic. 

-Spent a lot of time insulting the S&P 500 and cap-weighted index funds, but then when the data popped up showing that I'm further away from cap weighting than their recommended portfolio, said that I'm taking on too much risk with those small caps.

-Harped on and on about how I have too much international, and too much in emerging markets.  Sure, that's a valid discussion to have, but it's a choice I've made, and I'm not about to pull out of it just because international has underperformed recently.  My developed/emerging split of international was the same as theirs, but overall I'm about 45% vs. their 30%. 

-Their big feature (aside from more mid and small caps than the market, but not as much as I have) was equal weighting the sectors.  Stated repeatedly how that's more diversified.  I don't really agree - it's concentrating in sectors that make up less of the market, and away from sectors that make up a larger part of the market.  Is it a better way to do things?  Don't know, but it's not the same as more diversification. 

-I'm already managing my taxable portfolio in a fairly efficient manner, doing my TLH.  She stated a nebulous '1% tax savings that will more than cover our fee,' that simply won't be true.  Yes, there could be more TLH opportunities with a portfolio including 90+ individual stocks and 30+ ETFs, but I'm already near the max for the year (in my first year of taxable investing). 

"Are you really going to track your own taxable losses and do your own tax returns, keeping track of them?"  Um, yes.

"Sure, even if you drop your expenses to $40k per year, you'll have to account for taxes, which mean you'll need to withdraw $60-70k."  Really?  $70k to get $40k?  A family of 4 with $40k earned income would actually pay negative federal income tax.

The FA eventually lost her composure when it became clear that I wasn't a likely source of money for her. 

I don't think they're bad, by any means, but the price is pretty high for what I feel is not really a full-service advisor.  An option for those who are not inclined to doing their own investing, and tax management, perhaps.

[Freedom2016]

I have studiously avoided every phone call and email they have sent me for the last 3+ years. They seem to be upping the ante these days; I'm getting more calls and emails and now, when I log in I am shown a picture of some dude with a "meet your financial advisor!" message on it. They must be drooling, wishing they could get their hands on my 7 figure stash. Nope.

[use2betrix]

I did a consultation as well. Glad to read all these other posts. The guy didn’t seem to have a huge concept of retiring before 65. If I kept working til 65 I’d have like 20-25 mil saved lol. “I’m good thanks.”

[confused101]

I also had a consultation. The agent was quite aggressive as others pointed out and their fees are quite steep 0.8%.  After my consultation, I asked the agent to email me her PPT presentation..I have printed it out and know which investments I have to work on- well I think..I am a newbie and with you guys support and advice.  I received an email last week for free administration/management for 6 months though....

[Scandium]

I have studiously avoided every phone call and email they have sent me for the last 3+ years. They seem to be upping the ante these days; I'm getting more calls and emails and now, when I log in I am shown a picture of some dude with a "meet your financial advisor!" message on it. They must be drooling, wishing they could get their hands on my 7 figure stash. Nope.

weird. They called me once shortly after I set it up, in 2014. Told them I'm not interested and haven't heard a thing since then (except the annoying adviser photos on the site of course)

[soccerluvof4]

They were so relentless they drove me away years back.

[appleshampooid]

They were so relentless they drove me away years back.

Yeah I'm almost to this point now. I tried out PC mostly to check out their asset allocation view (DW and I use Mint for daily transaction tracking etc.). It's okay, but mis-categorizes enough stuff that I still run my own spreadsheet. And the calls/emails are annoying enough that I will probably just close the account pretty soon.

[AlexMar]

Is there an opt-out?  Maybe that's what I did?  I never get calls or anything from PC after the initial one.  Yes, of course you see the popups when you log in, but that's expected.

[ThatGuy]

Is there an opt-out?  Maybe that's what I did?  I never get calls or anything from PC after the initial one.  Yes, of course you see the popups when you log in, but that's expected.

Same here, I don't get any calls or email/mail from them.  I just assumed I didn't have enough money for them to bother with.  The majority of my net worth is in my TSP.

[AlexMar]

Is there an opt-out?  Maybe that's what I did?  I never get calls or anything from PC after the initial one.  Yes, of course you see the popups when you log in, but that's expected.

Same here, I don't get any calls or email/mail from them.  I just assumed I didn't have enough money for them to bother with.  The majority of my net worth is in my TSP.

My Net Worth is 7 figures.  So I don't think that's the issue.  Maybe I should be insulted that they aren't hounding me?!  :)

[2Birds1Stone]

I wouldn't let them manage my money for free, let alone giving up almost 1% of assets on an annual basis.

[appleshampooid]

Is there an opt-out?  Maybe that's what I did?  I never get calls or anything from PC after the initial one.  Yes, of course you see the popups when you log in, but that's expected.

Same here, I don't get any calls or email/mail from them.  I just assumed I didn't have enough money for them to bother with.  The majority of my net worth is in my TSP.

My Net Worth is 7 figures.  So I don't think that's the issue.  Maybe I should be insulted that they aren't hounding me?!  :)

Interesting. The assets I had tracked with PC were about $500k, and I was getting lots of emails and the occasional phone call even after I was pretty impolite with one of the hucksters.

I just deleted my PC account yesterday though, after reading this thread and realizing it wasn't doing anything for me. :wipes-hands:

[Car Jack]

I also had a consultation. The agent was quite aggressive as others pointed out and their fees are quite steep 0.8%.  After my consultation, I asked the agent to email me her PPT presentation..I have printed it out and know which investments I have to work on- well I think..I am a newbie and with you guys support and advice.  I received an email last week for free administration/management for 6 months though....

I would tend to put zero faith in their recommendations without carefully vetting them all.  Figuring out what to put money into requires nothing but an ape.  It ain't hard whatsoever.  I don't bother with these kinds of meetings.  I'm a seasoned engineer with plenty of design reviews under my belt.....along with an 18 year old karate black belt.  I might be tempted to go into one of these meetings with a broad sword.  Only one of us would leave the room.  :lol:

[Fomerly known as something]

I successfully ignored their phone calls for a few months and then I blocked their number.  Yes I get e-mails, but I get about the same number of e-mails from amazon and when using the site they try to get me to set up an appointment, I just don't.

[AlexMar]

Is there an opt-out?  Maybe that's what I did?  I never get calls or anything from PC after the initial one.  Yes, of course you see the popups when you log in, but that's expected.

Same here, I don't get any calls or email/mail from them.  I just assumed I didn't have enough money for them to bother with.  The majority of my net worth is in my TSP.

My Net Worth is 7 figures.  So I don't think that's the issue.  Maybe I should be insulted that they aren't hounding me?!  :)

Interesting. The assets I had tracked with PC were about $500k, and I was getting lots of emails and the occasional phone call even after I was pretty impolite with one of the hucksters.

I just deleted my PC account yesterday though, after reading this thread and realizing it wasn't doing anything for me. :wipes-hands:

I find the tool as means of aggregation pretty useful.  Instantly track net worth and keep all my accounts accessible with the press of a button.  I like it.  As for letting them manage my money?   Not so much!

[appleshampooid]

Is there an opt-out?  Maybe that's what I did?  I never get calls or anything from PC after the initial one.  Yes, of course you see the popups when you log in, but that's expected.

Same here, I don't get any calls or email/mail from them.  I just assumed I didn't have enough money for them to bother with.  The majority of my net worth is in my TSP.

My Net Worth is 7 figures.  So I don't think that's the issue.  Maybe I should be insulted that they aren't hounding me?!  :)

Interesting. The assets I had tracked with PC were about $500k, and I was getting lots of emails and the occasional phone call even after I was pretty impolite with one of the hucksters.

I just deleted my PC account yesterday though, after reading this thread and realizing it wasn't doing anything for me. :wipes-hands:

I find the tool as means of aggregation pretty useful.  Instantly track net worth and keep all my accounts accessible with the press of a button.  I like it.  As for letting them manage my money?   Not so much!

I already use Mint for that - tried out PC to see if it was better for investment tracking (Mint is admittedly terrible at investments). It was better, but I found I was barely using it. Easy to pull the plug and still use Mint for net worth tracking (and more detailed stuff like spending by category).