Assuming you use credit cards, have employer sponsored retirement plans, get healthcare in the US (and probably many other places), have ever bought or leased anything that wasn't sold directly from the factory, you are already dealing with middleman.. That's how a lot of organizations work.1) You understand the problem, as evidenced by your statement about HMBradley, but Fidelity gets a pass? Why? You either are ok with your money being shuffled to middleman companies or not, but to selectively apply it when it’s convenient is a bit disingenuous.
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You may not "see" them, but they are there...
Do you think every company runs their own call center, with full time employees of the company? Do you think that the majority of organizations haven't outsourced some aspect of their operations at this point? Would that mean that a bank which uses anything "cloud" or anything they didn't fully develop internally is a "fintech" because they rely on some aspect of "technology" from someone else?
To be clear, I'm not saying the risk is zero. I'm not saying that my preference is for organizations to outsource things to others. But that's the reality that we live in.
And I'm just not sure - in your mind - what a "safer" alternative is supposed to be. Again, I'm convinced that the majority of "financial institutions" out there outsource something.
I accept that this is how organizations work. And I choose to work with them - or not - based on the "big picture". I'm not dissuaded by unsubstantiated FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt). Especially when - in my opinion - they aren't even specific to Fidelity (the scope of this thread) and could be equally applied to a whole range of other situations.
As an example, if you are calling out the "broader industry trend", and including other targets like Apple Cash who has outsourced with Goldman Sachs, at least you'd be consistent... But trying to call out Fidelity as somehow being a "risk" for doing something that nearly every other business does - feels misleading...
Not saying you have to like it. Not saying you should use Fidelity, you have lots of options. But I fail to see what anyone gains by dwelling on generic things like "outsourcing bad", or "companies don't always handle customer service perfectly and to the customers satisfaction". Tell me something I don't already know...
Statistics: Posted by SnowBog — Fri Jun 07, 2024 5:13 pm