Hey everyone! Can anyone give me a recommendation for a financial advisor in College Station or Austin? I have a 401k from an old employer that I'm trying to know what to do with. I am very investment illiterate and wanting to learn more.

Thanks a lot!

I moved the bulk or 95% my retirement to Edward Jones when I changed jobs. Very conservative approach but I valued family time as an investment and my job was a load all to itself. I had no time to myself as it was. I also wanted someone established and an actual person I could call.

Now that I have climbed the ladder and have an empty nest, the bulk of my retirement is still with EJ but I have a stack of cash I play the market but I like outside activities more than I like analyzing charts so I day trade maybe a few times a month and when not trading, I park it in an index fund.

A few smart dudes in here are generous enough to share their picks and they are usually right more than they are wrong.

Thanks for the advice! I appreciate it.

Hoyt Ag said:

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Move the money to Fidelity.
Invest it in VTI, VOO or a low cost S&P/Total Market fund.
Let it cook till retirement.

Free advice. You don't need someone to invest for you, to be honest.

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You do not need a financial advisor.

They are a scam and a waste of money.

Just follow Hoty Ag's suggestion and you will be fine.

Assuming you have a 401k with your current job and it has good low fee investment options there is an argument to roll it into your current plan if they allow it.

Doing this will preserve your ability to back door Roth without paying taxes on the future and also allow your access to more of your pre tax money of you retire at 55.

Rolling it into a rollover ira will give you more investment options and more control over your fees, but makes doing a backdoor Roth in the future likely not with it due to some tax rules.

Nothing wrong with getting an advisor. But you are prob better buying a few personal finance books on Amazon.

My only recommendation is if you do opt for an advisor, ask a lot of questions regarding their investment philosophies.

I was assigned an advisor when I was with Schwab, and it turned out to be a terrible experience. While I wanted to leave a legacy for my daughters, he wanted to die broke, meaning he wanted to spend it all and leave nothing to his heirs. While I was all about beating the S&P 500, he felt beating the S&P would be a disservice to his clients. I am not knocking advisors...just make sure you're comfortable with the individual that will handle your money.

Rob Putz '83, Merrill. 979-695-3006
Been there forever, costs nothing to talk to him.

My wife is a wealth manager at Schneider Downs and has clients all over the country. She has her CFP and about $200mil AUM. She's amazing at what she does. Downside is we are located in Pittsburgh, PA.

YouBet said:

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SF2004 said:

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Hoyt Ag said:

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Move the money to Fidelity.
Invest it in VTI, VOO or a low cost S&P/Total Market fund.
Let it cook till retirement.

Free advice. You don't need someone to invest for you, to be honest.

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You do not need a financial advisor.

They are a scam and a waste of money.

Just follow Hoty Ag's suggestion and you will be fine.

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Hoyt is correct here in that you don't need an advisor for this particular decision, but flat out stating FAs are a scam and waste of money is short sighted and false.

Some of us have complicated situations and do not have the time to stay on top of it all as much as we would like.

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Yep, They certainly have their place and I use one for hourly consultations but not on where to invest my money.

ToddyHill said:

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My only recommendation is if you do opt for an advisor, ask a lot of questions regarding their investment philosophies.

I was assigned an advisor when I was with Schwab, and it turned out to be a terrible experience. While I wanted to leave a legacy for my daughters, he wanted to die broke, meaning he wanted to spend it all and leave nothing to his heirs. While I was all about beating the S&P 500, he felt beating the S&P would be a disservice to his clients. I am not knocking advisors...just make sure you're comfortable with the individual that will handle your money.

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I was with you until I read this part. The advisor was right here. Most advisors cant beat the S&P 500, and if they say they can, run the other way.

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I was with you until I read this part. The advisor was right here. Most advisors cant beat the S&P 500, and if they say they can, run the other way.

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I now agree that most advisors can't beat the S&P 500. That really surprised me, and for the life of me, I don't understand why they can not. Then again, I now understand that many investors don't want their money invested aggressively. I'm not in that boat, and it's why I no longer have an advisor.

I know I think differently, but if I don't beat the S&P I feel that I've had a bad year.

I'm not in a pro or a con on financial advisors (I think they serve a purpose if you have a complicated financial situation), but I hate when phrases get thrown out and seem to get morphed over time like "they won't beat the S&P 500 so whats the point?"

Long-term, your financial advisor is likely not going to beat the S&P 500.

Over a smaller timeframe, they may.

A financial advisor doing your long-term planning is also going (hopefully) have you in more risk-averse investments as you age and a lot more diversified. So comparing your overall returns with the S&P 500 isn't really fair. Everyone dumping money into the S&P 500 the last 10 years has no reason to believe in any other method - it's not until you hit a true bear market that it dawns on many people that diversification is key.

If they are offering additional value-add and are within a half a percentage point of the S&P over a long stint, it's hard to say you haven't gotten your money's worth.

Personally I have a family advisor that doesn't charge AUM but I throw him enough bones on my fixed investments that it's worth it to him. If I'm going to buy a CD at 4.25% through my brokerage account, I shoot him a message and if he can get me that same rate or better at his firm (with him getting a little nibble in fees), then I go that route.

Since OP didn't give us any more details like how old they are, what their financial situation and goals are, it's hard to know exactly what they should do with this. If they are only interested in a simple rollover of a 401K I think they can follow the simple advice here. It could be a very basic transaction.

To me, the value of an advisor would really come in when you're shifting away from just growing the portfolio (simple index fund will do that just fine), towards making decisions around maintaining the portfolio thru market swings and supporting spending needs and optimizing taxes.

SF2004 said:

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Hoyt Ag said:

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Move the money to Fidelity.
Invest it in VTI, VOO or a low cost S&P/Total Market fund.
Let it cook till retirement.

Free advice. You don't need someone to invest for you, to be honest.

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You do not need a financial advisor.

They are a scam and a waste of money.

Just follow Hoty Ag's suggestion and you will be fine.

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Hoyts advice is good. But your blanket assessment leaves a lot of assumptions and we don't know the details of OPs situation.

Personal finance is absolutely not one size fits all. A good FA will recognize that. There's good time for many to set it and forget it. There's also a good time for many to take a relationship with their finances too the next level

lancer_75701 said:

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Hey everyone! Can anyone give me a recommendation for a financial advisor in College Station or Austin? I have a 401k from an old employer that I'm trying to know what to do with. I am very investment illiterate and wanting to learn more.

Become very investment literate. You don't need a financial advisor.

Thanks a lot!

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Baby Billy said:

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The ignorance on these threads is always so amusing

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How so?

Holistic Planning said:

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Your options are to do what the folks here say and set up a fidelity/robinhood/vanguard/schwab account and buy STRV/VOO/VTI and close your eyes and come check on it later and be pleased with the results. You'll get minimal education from them but there's fun in teaching yourself too.

There's nothing we know that you can't learn yourself.

I met with a TexAgs person not long ago that was really knowledgeable. Probably more so than 80% of financial advisors.

But if you want to have help with becoming educated or just want to be more of a delegator then you need to find a fee only fiduciary to help you.

No commissions. Just paid to advise you.

And preferably they'd have a built in tax arm to give you tax advice as well and do your return if you needed.

Check us out at www.holisticplanning.com and watch our client testimonial video. We're based in Nacogdoches but service clients literally around the country.

And we're the title sponsor for the TexAgs kickoff next week. We'll be there if you'd like to say hello!

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Do yourself a favor OP and don't check them out. What a bunch of HS

How so?

Kenneth_2003 said:

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Calling a Board Sponsor HS, telling the OP to"just become better at investing/finance, and then questioning why sometime would call things here laughable has got to be one of the more impressive trolls on this board.

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He's always been a joke. Plenty of stories if anyone wants to know

lancer_75701 said:

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Hey everyone! Can anyone give me a recommendation for a financial advisor in College Station or Austin? I have a 401k from an old employer that I'm trying to know what to do with. I am very investment illiterate and wanting to learn more.

Thanks a lot!

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I manage my own investing, taxes, estate planning, etc.; it's my hobby and I have done very well for 3 decades plus including early retirement, BUT I think most people should go to a financial advisor. If you're asking the question, you should go to a financial advisor regardless of the well intentioned advice from other posters to do it yourself. I don't know who to recommend but definitely suggest you use one on a fee basis (not percentage basis).

Baby Billy said:

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Kenneth_2003 said:

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Calling a Board Sponsor HS, telling the OP to"just become better at investing/finance, and then questioning why sometime would call things here laughable has got to be one of the more impressive trolls on this board.

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He's always been a joke. Plenty of stories if anyone wants to know

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You can call me all the names you want. The less dependent you are on others the better. I wish someone told me that when I was young.

Ask yourself what you would want your spouse to do if she/he were the primary breadwinner and did the finances themselves, essentially in a vacuum. And your family finances were a mystery to you and your spouse was getting old and a bit addle-brained. A decent FA to me is for succession and to question any dumb ideas I may come up with.
https://www.wsj.com/finance/regulation/banks-pig-butchering-fight-fraud-92c06642?st=xCu8pV&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Pacifico said:

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Baby Billy said:

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Kenneth_2003 said:

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Calling a Board Sponsor HS, telling the OP to"just become better at investing/finance, and then questioning why sometime would call things here laughable has got to be one of the more impressive trolls on this board.

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He's always been a joke. Plenty of stories if anyone wants to know

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You can call me all the names you want. The less dependent you are on others the better. I wish someone told me that when I was young.

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Wasn't talking about you.

FA currently 9% for the year, not aggressive but not risky either.


My smaller personal account I trade is 13%


I like the buffer , but my personal account is quickly catching up to my FA account ( I've been pouring more in during April and may)

I'm wading into this a little late, but I'd offer a couple of points to consider.

First, it is unlikely that a financial advisor of any sort will outperform a non-advised portfolio, all things being equal. That is simply due to the fact that an advised portfolio is almost certainly more expensive than a self-managed, non-advised portfolio.

However, all things aren't always equal. An investing forum on the internet is highly tilted to self-directed investors that enjoy spending the time and effort discussing, researching, and making their own investment decisions. Individuals who lack the time, interest, or discipline to invest prudently can experience widely varying outcomes. These individuals may benefit from delegating their investment management to a professional.

That being said, everybody can benefit from having a financial plan. Portfolio management is only one component (investment planning) of a comprehensive plan. Retirement, Tax, Insurance, Estate, and Education are also part of a comprehensive plan. Many times, someone thinks they have an investment question when, in fact, they should be stepping back to look at impacts on other elements of their financial lives.

So, while I agree that not everyone is likely to benefit from hiring someone to manage their portfolio, I strongly believe that nearly everyone can benefit from having a sound plan. YMMV.

Quacked said:

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FA currently 9% for the year, not aggressive but not risky either.


My smaller personal account I trade is 13%


I like the buffer , but my personal account is quickly catching up to my FA account ( I've been pouring more in during April and may)

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If this is the case, then why even have an FA? Sounds like you are doing a better job at managing your investments than they are.