The bastards finally tracked me down...

[mozar]

I have been dodging the calls from Personal Capital for 6 months. I was expecting a call from someone else and picked up when they called today. Now they are preparing a special analysis for me. Ugh. When I mentioned I wanted to retire in 6 years the call went silent for a second. :-)

[Lan Mandragoran]

Hah, I  can imagine a younger person saying that being pretty amusing. I’ve had similar irl conversations with people where just the idea of a late 30s retirement is confusing/nonsense to them

[dogboyslim]

I listened to their schpeel and then said I was uncomfortable giving trading rights to someone that doesn't have to bear the consequences of the trade.  That was the end of our chat and they haven't called back.

[SwordGuy]

I listened to their schpeel and then said I was uncomfortable giving trading rights to someone that doesn't have to bear the consequences of the trade.  That was the end of our chat and they haven't called back.

Oh, great way to put it!  I'm going to remember that!

[Valhalla]

Curious on the back story. I feel like I'm missing something here.

[Frankies Girl]

Curious on the back story. I feel like I'm missing something here.

Personal Capital's method of operation is to be hands off until they notice a customer's account enter "interesting enough amount to bother with" territory, then they start pestering them to allow them to micromanage the account for an additional fee.

[mozar]

Will the pestering continue? Should i delete the app?

[Melf]

Will the pestering continue? Should i delete the app?

Yes, the pestering will probably continue but it's not too bad.  I get a call or message a couple of times a year now trying to put me in contact with the advisor assigned to my account.  I've not had any problems avoiding them so far.  I enjoy the app for tracking all of my finances so I'll continue to put up with the pestering as long as it remains free.

Marlan

[Valhalla]

Curious on the back story. I feel like I'm missing something here.

Personal Capital's method of operation is to be hands off until they notice a customer's account enter "interesting enough amount to bother with" territory, then they start pestering them to allow them to micromanage the account for an additional fee.

Interesting, kind of reminds me of booking a Carnival Cruise.  As soon as I browse cruises with my log-in, I inevitably get a call or two from a Carnival vacation planner to follow up.

[StetsTerhune]

I did a call with an advisor personal capital a couple years ago, because why not it was free. He asked me some questions, but it was clear he was just entering data into some robo-advisor form they had - any attempts of mine to add any additional meaningful answers to his questions were met with awkward silence. We were supposed to setup a second call to get their "analysis" but I haven't answered their calls since then,so I have no idea what they would try to sell me on. There's no way it could be anything useful from the questions they asked.

[Shane]

If you get a decent financial planner, the free telephone consultation doesn't have to be that painful. My PC advisor gave a couple of reasonable suggestions on how I might alter my investment plan, and it doesn't cost anything to listen to what they have to say. You can always ignore their advice.

In the end, all they really want to know is if you will let them manage your investments. They charge .89%/year up to $1MM, and .75% of AUM over $1MM.

I was honest with the guy and told him straight up there was no way I would ever be willing to spend that much money when VTSAX only charges .05%. A few months later I got another call from a woman at PC, and I was even more direct with her. I told her that not only would I not be willing to pay PC thousands of dollars a year to manage my money, but I wouldn't even allow PC to invest my money if they paid me, because I'm not convinced that their system is better than just buying stocks based on companies' market capitalization. The woman laughed and thanked me for, "being so honest." Haven't heard back from them since, and it's been over a year. Still use their free software all the time.

[mozar]

The advisor mentioned that his initial thoughts are that i should do tax loss harvesting and be more in international stocks. What should i say to that?

[HipGnosis]

The advisor mentioned that his initial thoughts are that i should do tax loss harvesting and be more in international stocks. What should i say to that?

"I don't."

[mozar]

Lol.

[Mr Griz]

They called me regularly for a few weeks after I set up my account but then stopped trying. I wasn't necessarily trying to avoid the call but we just never connected. I actually deleted my account the other day because I really didn't see any value in it. Keeping track of our stache just isn't that hard. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to delete the account. Just a couple of clicks.

[mtriad]

Have you guys tried pockesmith? free and worked very well for me

[Shane]

The advisor mentioned that his initial thoughts are that i should do tax loss harvesting and be more in international stocks. What should i say to that?

The PC advisor I spoke with also suggested to me that one of the benefits of signing up to have them manage my money would be that they could help me do tax loss harvesting. Apparently, that's one of the standard things they tell clients. I just laughed, because I had already told the guy that we have no income, so we already pay no taxes. I said, "So, you're telling me if I pay you guys ~$8K/year in fees to manage my money, then you'll help me to pay less taxes?" He said, "Yes." So, I told him, "But we already pay $0/year in taxes. I just told you that. So, why would I possibly want to do that?" The PC rep didn't really have any good answer to my question. He also suggested that I invest more in international stocks. I thanked him for his suggestion and told him I liked my allocation of international stocks where it was, pretty close to zero.

[Digital Dogma]

The thing that struck me most about my conversation with the PC rep was that they collected a bunch of information from me initially, then called me back later to ask what my birth date was. That would seem to be critical information necessary to build any context out of my data. I was turned off by the ambiguity of figures like capital gains taxes due to their activity, and the fees ontop of fees (management fees plus individual fund fees).

I learned a few things, and because of that it was worth my time. If I had 10X more money than I do, I'd probably let them manage 20%.

[SC93]

Companies that I don't want calling rarely call me twice, as long as it's not a robo call. I start talking dirty to them and the calls seem to magically stop. I remember one time in the late 90's a company kept calling my at the time girlfriend. I got their phone number to their office and called their office about 5 times an hour for 8 hours one day and talked dirty. I told them exactly who I was and what her phone number was at the start of each call. She never got another call from them.

[partgypsy]

Companies that I don't want calling rarely call me twice, as long as it's not a robo call. I start talking dirty to them and the calls seem to magically stop. I remember one time in the late 90's a company kept calling my at the time girlfriend. I got their phone number to their office and called their office about 5 times an hour for 8 hours one day and talked dirty. I told them exactly who I was and what her phone number was at the start of each call. She never got another call from them.

Talk dirty? Like swear? Or what?

[mozar]

Whelp I'll have the call tonight, see how it goes. Thanks for the lively discussion.

[COEE]

I listened to their schpeel and then said I was uncomfortable giving trading rights to someone that doesn't have to bear the consequences of the trade.  That was the end of our chat and they haven't called back.

This is genius - I have an account with them, but I've been hesitant to use it much for two reasons: 1) I have enough invested that the badger me twice a month - but your analysis of the situation seems spot on, and 2) I'm pretty uncomfortable having one place that has all of my financial information (including passwords) available on the internet.  I assume (and hope) that they have good IT security - but it's hard for me to confirm that.

[kayvent]

The advisor mentioned that his initial thoughts are that i should do tax loss harvesting and be more in international stocks. What should i say to that?

Easiest rebuttal is to say that if you have a Couch Potato strategy, tax loss harvesting is fairly trivial.

Another thing you could say is that you have multiple accounts. When you have an account with PC and an account with another company (or manage some yourself), if PC sells a stock then another entity buys it on your behalf within 30-days, loss harvesting cannot be done on that sale's transaction. (Depending on the types of accounts involved, either the loss harvesting gets delayed into the future or is simply lost if the repurchase occurred in a traditional IRA). Basically, unless you have 100% of your assets with PC, they can't be a trusted entity to do these tax tricks. Even if they are competent, another actor can mess it up.

[SC93]

Companies that I don't want calling rarely call me twice, as long as it's not a robo call. I start talking dirty to them and the calls seem to magically stop. I remember one time in the late 90's a company kept calling my at the time girlfriend. I got their phone number to their office and called their office about 5 times an hour for 8 hours one day and talked dirty. I told them exactly who I was and what her phone number was at the start of each call. She never got another call from them.

Talk dirty? Like swear? Or what?

lol As in sex talk. Male of female, I never care. If I ever think about it I will record it and put it on the internet. lol They usually catch me off guard tough. :)

[mozar]

Another thing you could say is that you have multiple accounts. When you have an account with PC and an account with another company (or manage some yourself), if PC sells a stock then another entity buys it on your behalf within 30-days, loss harvesting cannot be done on that sale's transaction. (Depending on the types of accounts involved, either the loss harvesting gets delayed into the future or is simply lost if the repurchase occurred in a traditional IRA). Basically, unless you have 100% of your assets with PC, they can't be a trusted entity to do these tax tricks. Even if they are competent, another actor can mess it up.

I do have multiple accounts!

The adviser canceled and asked if we can reschedule. Hah!