I am a proponent of this idea as well, wish I could say that I came up with it myself but I have to give credit to the late James Stowers who mentioned the idea of test driving an Advisory service while both spouses were living in one of his books. Much better to have an Advisor in place rather than the widow running to Edward Jones or Ameriprise. There is a lot to do when somebody passes and a time of grief isn't the optimal time to make important financial decisions. I am glad that Rick addressed this issue.Thanks for the reality check. Personally, I have been trying to get my wife involved but she seems mostly unmotivated. I have also tried to get my mom involved for decades and was totally unsuccessful. I feel that if I pass away, she might be at a lost on what to do. I can leave instructions, but I am not entirely convince that the instructions will be followed. I will continue to try, but I am probably not the only person with this issue.Here is reality. Unless a professional successor is already in place to run your portfolio before you died or become incapacitated, it will not go to the adviser you want. It will probably go to a good friend’s “adviser” at one of the commission firms like Wells Fargo, Mass Mutual, etc, and your uninterested spouse will likely get a complicated portfolio with high fees.
You can write down instructions to your spouse to follow, but most of the time it will be ignored because they were never directly involved and never really understood that your told them. That’s just the way it is. If you want to avoid this, make them get involved staring now.
I wonder if I am unable to involved my spouse, my only option is to have an full-time advisor attached to the account. Obviously we would need to use someone with not too high of a fee. For example, Vanguard is charging 0.35% for PAS. I set my mom up with an advisor who's charging about 0.25%.
Statistics: Posted by nedsaid — Sat Jun 29, 2024 8:59 pm