Negotiate Fees!

[gap55u]

There was a great WCI guest post about checking SEC filings for your advisor. I checked their form ADV, and found that they may negotiate fees. Nothing else hinky, and my planner had good qualifications, and they use good funds. Overall I was pleased with them, except they were pricey.

I was paying a 1% stock 0.5% bond AUM structure which was changed to 0.9% flat fee (to avoid perception of asset allocation bias).

The SEC filing showed that they negotiate fees.  So I called, and said I was thinking of leaving to do my own planning vs wondered if they do hourly rate planning. Turns out they do.  It'll likely be sub-$1000/yr (as we have several years of relationship underway).

The other thing I found out: you can only get DFA funds via an advisor.  But if you leave that advisor, you can keep your DFA funds - you just can't add to those positions.  Before learning that, taxable gains was going to potentially keep me there with the hefty AUM fee.

 

Enjoy - worth a try with whoever you use.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

Amazing how uncomfortable docs are with negotiating, isn't it? They expect you to, but are obviously pleased when you don't!

[RogueDadMD]

I negotiate just about everything except the price of a chai at Starbucks. Worst someone can do is not agree to negotiate or match my offer. If I still value it enough I'll pay (original or some hopefully negotiate deals price), and if I don't I won't.

Saved a few hundred dollars on new couches that way earlier this week. Probably could've saved more but had wife and baby with me -- you lose leverage when the baby starts fussing.

[EJ at Dads Dollars and Debts]

I wrote a article about how bad I am at negotiating and how it is worth trying to do in most activities. For services I typically get a few quotes and then go to the one I want with the lowest quote and see if they can beat it. It typically works.

[gap55u]

Honestly, until a friend got me reading WCI, I simply didn't know that I could have been asking about hourly fee based options.  Once with an advisor, I didn't keep up with Vanguard's offering for example, much less the vetted list on WCI.

 

I believe my advisor will no longer do day-to-day asset management, but I really don't need that.  They will more be involved with financial planning.  I'm also wondering if I really need that: I have their most recent predictions, we have an existing plan,  I can plug my own numbers in, etc.

[RogueDadMD]

EJ -- that qualifies as negotiating. Not as much as I would expect from someone with a brown person gene though.

We bought furniture on Monday. It's a nice store but one of those places where every item has a regular price and a marked down discounted price.

I bought two things. Asked for a discount because of the amount being spent and being a repeat customer. They came back with about 10% off. I then asked for more off and they agreed to it.

Then I found out we would be getting a floor model, so asked for more off and they knocked off a little more.

I probably could've gotten more, but I think they played me well against the fussy baby, making me wait a really long time on the offer that I accepted while they knew that my wife was ready to leave with the kid.