Author Topic: Opinions on Personal Capital  (Read 2376 times)

jamesbond007

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Opinions on Personal Capital
« on: September 19, 2016, 11:39:36 AM »
I am sorry to post this as I know that this topic has been done to death here but search doesn't work here in these forums. So I thought I'd ask again.

Have any of you worked/working currently investing with Personal Capital's actively managed portfolio? I created an account past weekend and they just pitched me their idea in a 30 minute long phone call and walked me through a slide deck. They claim that their mix (with 10% approximately in Alternatives) beat the S&P ever since they started managing 5 years ago. Which is enticing but their expense ratio is 0.89%. My expense ratios at Vanguard are around 0.04%-0.05%. It is hard to believe. I am just curious on what your opinions are?


ShoulderThingThatGoesUp

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Re: Opinions on Personal Capital
« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2016, 11:43:26 AM »
I'm sure it's fine, but it can't be that much better than the 0.0X% ratios at Schwab or Vanguard.

TexasRunner

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Re: Opinions on Personal Capital
« Reply #2 on: September 19, 2016, 12:20:55 PM »
Search this way:   "site:http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ Personal Capital"

This will search only this site for the words "Personal Capital"

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fforum.mrmoneymustache.com%2F+Personal+Capital&oq=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fforum.mrmoneymustache.com%2F+Personal+Capital&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58.505j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Also, beating the market in upwards trends is "easy".  Beating the market in both upwards and downwards trends is hard.  You might have just seen the increased volatility during the upswing and have not yet seen the increased downswing numbers.  Just a thought...
« Last Edit: September 19, 2016, 12:23:02 PM by PriestTheRunner »

triangle

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Re: Opinions on Personal Capital
« Reply #3 on: September 19, 2016, 01:46:44 PM »
I hesitate to comment as I no knowing about Personal Capital which might be a fine outfit that will provide good advice and services. But I would be skeptical of any pitch of beating the S&P500 for the past five years as a reason to invest the same way today. It is very easy to construct a portfolio today that would have beat since all the results are known.

Travis

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Re: Opinions on Personal Capital
« Reply #4 on: September 19, 2016, 02:01:45 PM »
Personal Capital can only claim to have beat the market in the backwards-tested hypothetical sense.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing that way.  What hasn't been proven by their way of doing business is if they can do just as well when times are tough.  The sales pitch I got from them earlier this year is that their system is more designed for weathering the bad days than it is beating the market during the good ones.  I'll have to dig up the presentation they sent me, but I don't believe their fancy graph included the last couple years. It may have only gone up to 2011.  Their margin between returns and fees compared to the market is practically a wash (assuming their modeling is accurate).

Travis

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Re: Opinions on Personal Capital
« Reply #5 on: September 19, 2016, 02:03:05 PM »
I am sorry to post this as I know that this topic has been done to death here but search doesn't work here in these forums. So I thought I'd ask again.

There's a PC discussion on this very subforum with the last entry dated September 12th.  It's still on page one of Investor Alley.