Issue with Financial Planner--looking for thoughts/input

[wabbott]

If/when you decide to change advisors, tell them upfront why. And also tell them that you will periodically "audit" their performance and attention to detail. Make a phone call every so often with a couple of innocent questions just to let them know you are watching.

I can understand being unhappy at paying someone to handle things and then finding they're not worth the expense. Sooner or later, you will have the skills and self-confidence to do everything yourselves and save the money.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Part of the issue with handling things ourselves is, frankly, DH can't. He's a smart guy, but he has no short-term memory (he has an actual diagnosis). He doesn't care about money--things get lost and forgotten when he handles them. That's why I took over the finances soon after we were married (almost 37 years ago). Him handling our finances would also put my money anxiety through the roof--he would do worse than our current financial advisor! Even now, when I pay the bills, we've had problems with bills addressed to him not getting paid. I don't open his mail--all he has to do is put them in my bill holder on top of the desk. sometimes, even that doesn't happen.

Meanwhile, our money has many moving parts--various trusts, assorted IRAs, a couple different brokerage accounts. I could probably handle them, BUT--and this is huge to me--this money all came down from my MIL. I don't know if I feel comfortable being the main money handler. It's probably way bigger to me than it is to my husband, but there you have it. Having advisors say "sell this stock" or "rebalance this" adds an additional layer of separation. I completely recognize that this is my issue.

I'm going to have a talk with DH and see what he's thinking. He was in a meeting and missed out on the whole debacle this morning, but I told him about it.

 

[mylilnikita]

I’d never let someone mess my money up twice, including myself.


Cut ties with the company and move on.

 

[wabbott]

Part of the issue with handling things ourselves is, frankly, DH can't. He's a smart guy, but he has no short-term memory (he has an actual diagnosis). He doesn't care about money--things get lost and forgotten when he handles them. That's why I took over the finances soon after we were married (almost 37 years ago). Him handling our finances would also put my money anxiety through the roof--he would do worse than our current financial advisor! Even now, when I pay the bills, we've had problems with bills addressed to him not getting paid. I don't open his mail--all he has to do is put them in my bill holder on top of the desk. sometimes, even that doesn't happen.

Meanwhile, our money has many moving parts--various trusts, assorted IRAs, a couple different brokerage accounts. I could probably handle them, BUT--and this is huge to me--this money all came down from my MIL. I don't know if I feel comfortable being the main money handler. It's probably way bigger to me than it is to my husband, but there you have it. Having advisors say "sell this stock" or "rebalance this" adds an additional layer of separation. I completely recognize that this is my issue.

I'm going to have a talk with DH and see what he's thinking. He was in a meeting and missed out on the whole debacle this morning, but I told him about it.

IMO, you're making progress. The fact that you caught this issue early and that you on your own discovered the Roth errors proves that.

 

[QueenIsabella]

DH and I talked last night. No firm decision, as we want to take time to consider our options. He's in favor of switching advisors and sticking with the same financial company. That makes sense to me--the issues we've had have involved errors/lack of oversight on the part of the office, not so much the company.

On a better note, the money was back in my checking account as of 6am.

 

[Hisgirl]

So glad the money is back!!

You say you don't like online banking.....

It's very important that you realize that all, and I mean ALL of your banking is online.

And everybody can see it online.

Everyone but you.

By not embracing and learning how to safeguard yourselves, you are opening yourself up to fraud.

I'm not criticizing...just wanting to point out a very scary fact you shared. And I'm sympathetic with what you described. I'm glad you caught the errors!

Please, please, I beg you. find a way to get on board and 'see' your finances online. That is where they are. That is where they live.
Online. On a screen in bright digital glowing numbers.

There are rules the banks go by which can or cannot be in your favor in regards to fraud.

Should money disappear from your account, it is something that needs to be brought to their attention, the sooner the better.
Waiting to see a monthly statement is putting your finances at risk.

I think it's great you still keep a paper accounting of your finances. I have always kept a paper budget book. I'm a financial counselor, have a masters degree in financial planning and have helped folks with their personal finances for over 30 years and in this day, having an online presence you check daily is of the utmost importance.

Set alerts so you get a text or email if more than $100 is deducted from your acct. Set up other alert parameters. The bad actors out there already have your personal information on the dark web and it's up to you and me to do everything we can to protect our money.

I hope this gets resolved to your liking soon!

 

[Hisgirl]

And....

If you want to stay all paper and not do banking online, maybe consider just getting daily balance emails every morning? I'm with what others said, maybe it's time to look elsewhere for a FP. That's a huge error.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Actually, I do some online banking. I also have the bank's app, and check my balances almost daily. I say almost because I didn't check first thing Tuesday morning, because my Monday blew up and I was too distraught to sleep well, causing me to wake up late.

In fact, I recently got foreign currency online, for 2 of my kids who are traveling this summer. There was a minor glitch--it would only take money out of my son's savings account versus my checking account. So, I got the currency, then turned right around and transferred $400 to DS18's savings account--no harm, no foul. Currency was delivered by Fedex a few days later.

It will take some time for me to get more comfortable with online banking, for sure. But, I'm taking baby steps and working on it. I will also say that I have a lot fo confidence in Wells Fargo, as they've been very responsive and helpful throughout all of this.