The Mutual Fund Store
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[quote=Borker Boy][quote=iceco1d]Borker,
I must be missing something here. Can't you guys transfer directly into your Advisory platform? Then tweak what you want, liquidate, hold, rebalance, whatever it is that you want to recommend? Furthermore, do you see a problem with that? Hell, what if you leave 90% of the portfolio where it is, but the client wants to come to you because you'll help them with X, Y, Z also...whats the problem there? Maybe I'm missing something. [/quote] Without knowing what the MFS clients own, I can't comment as to whether they'll transfer. But if 90% of the funds would transfer in kind, then that's obviously a totally different situation. (And in the future, please refer to me as Oh Wise One.) [/quote] Here's what one of the clients owns: MDDVX,UMBIX,FBRVX,KSCVX,WWNPX,LAALX,EXEYX,FMIEX,BHYSX,NEFZX,OIBAX,OPSIX The bolded ones can't be held in firm name. They represent 35% of the holdings. In theory we could transfer the rest in-kind and petition the Advisory Solutions people to let us use them in place of a similar fund in the lineup. I've not done that yet, so I don't know how open they are to that idea.
[quote=iceco1d]Borker,
I must be missing something here. Can't you guys transfer directly into your Advisory platform? Then tweak what you want, liquidate, hold, rebalance, whatever it is that you want to recommend? [/quote] Only cash -- not funds -- can go into Advisory Solutions. And there's no tweaking, liquidating, rebalancing done by the FA. It's done by the Advisory Solutions committee.
That is not exactly true. The broker can do some tweaking in advisory solutions. We can replace a fund we don’t like with one we do. I believe only cash can go into advisory.
[quote=buyandhold][quote=iceco1d]Borker,
I must be missing something here. Can't you guys transfer directly into your Advisory platform? Then tweak what you want, liquidate, hold, rebalance, whatever it is that you want to recommend? [/quote] Only cash -- not funds -- can go into Advisory Solutions. And there's no tweaking, liquidating, rebalancing done by the FA. It's done by the Advisory Solutions committee. [/quote] How convenient.
[quote=buyandhold][quote=iceco1d]Borker,
I must be missing something here. Can't you guys transfer directly into your Advisory platform? Then tweak what you want, liquidate, hold, rebalance, whatever it is that you want to recommend? [/quote] Only cash -- not funds -- can go into Advisory Solutions. And there's no tweaking, liquidating, rebalancing done by the FA. It's done by the Advisory Solutions committee. [/quote] Wrong again. If there are funds held by the client elsewhere, that are part of our advisory program, we can bring them directly into the advisory account. And if we choose to do a custom model (versus a Jones model), then you can do what you want with them. If you use the Jones model, they will auto-rebalance to whatever their asset allocation is.
[quote=Borker Boy][quote=buyandhold][quote=iceco1d]Borker,
I must be missing something here. Can't you guys transfer directly into your Advisory platform? Then tweak what you want, liquidate, hold, rebalance, whatever it is that you want to recommend? [/quote] Only cash -- not funds -- can go into Advisory Solutions. And there's no tweaking, liquidating, rebalancing done by the FA. It's done by the Advisory Solutions committee. [/quote] How convenient.[/quote] It doesn't matter whether you bring cash or securities into an advisory account. You still get paid the same thing. There's no incentive to either lquidate or not liquidate.
Why not focus on the ETF portfolio you offer and compare management fees to etf costs.
Geez. Has anyone transferred funds “in kind” into Advisory Solutions? Noone seems to have a clue about the exact protocol.
I know there are a ton of old A shares going in, but that's a whole other animal.Do tell us about this whole other animal. I'm curious. After all of those years in A shares, why is it better for them now? Not trying to be an a**, just want to hear how it is explained to the client.
Jesus Borker. There’s like 13,000 Jones FA’s out there, and like 5 of them post on this board. WTF do you expect? Why don’t you either jsut look it up or call STL and ask. It’s pretty freakin simple. If the fund is one that is in the program, you can transfer it in. If not, you have to liquidate and move the cash in, then use the program funds.
ICE, we have a list of about 160 funds/ETF’s. If you chose a custom portfolio, you can use whatever funds you want, but you have to stay within general allocation guidelines. Since they are trying to maintain this as a true Advisory/Asset Allocation program, they want to make sure that people are using a reasonable methodology to come up with their recommendations. It’s supposed to be more than a wrap account with whatever you feel like putting in it. Right or wrong, it’s brand new, and like most things they do, they are trying to maintain some control over it. I would love to be able to do it my own way, and use allocation funds (i.e. First Eagle, Blackrock,etc.) with satellite funds around it. However, they are currently focusing on pretty strict asset allocation . I think their biggest fear is liability for recommendations within an “advisory” platform. It’s not perfect, but it’s a great start. And the funds they have screened into the program are very good.
As far as the asset allocation, there is some flexibility. First, they have many different AA models. But the guidelines are pretty “high level” - X% in Growth, X% in G&I, X% in Income, etc. But within those categories, you can allocate (for example) to small cap, mid cap, large cap, int’l, domestic, Commodities, etc. based on your discretion. You also have maximums you can allocate to any one fund (like 40% I think?).
It’s a better program than knuckleheads like Borker think.
I’ve said nothing derogatory about the quality of the program…or you, for that matter.
You're doing what's right and you know what you're doing. That's obvious.Wow a whole 160 funds to choose from.......I could get lost in all those choices myself.....how could I ever decide......If you knew what the platforms are outside in the real world you would understand how limited you are......Jesus Borker. There’s like 13,000 Jones FA’s out there, and like 5 of them post on this board. WTF do you expect? Why don’t you either jsut look it up or call STL and ask. It’s pretty freakin simple. If the fund is one that is in the program, you can transfer it in. If not, you have to liquidate and move the cash in, then use the program funds.
ICE, we have a list of about 160 funds/ETF’s. If you chose a custom portfolio, you can use whatever funds you want, but you have to stay within general allocation guidelines. Since they are trying to maintain this as a true Advisory/Asset Allocation program, they want to make sure that people are using a reasonable methodology to come up with their recommendations. It’s supposed to be more than a wrap account with whatever you feel like putting in it. Right or wrong, it’s brand new, and like most things they do, they are trying to maintain some control over it. I would love to be able to do it my own way, and use allocation funds (i.e. First Eagle, Blackrock,etc.) with satellite funds around it. However, they are currently focusing on pretty strict asset allocation . I think their biggest fear is liability for recommendations within an “advisory” platform. It’s not perfect, but it’s a great start. And the funds they have screened into the program are very good.
As far as the asset allocation, there is some flexibility. First, they have many different AA models. But the guidelines are pretty “high level” - X% in Growth, X% in G&I, X% in Income, etc. But within those categories, you can allocate (for example) to small cap, mid cap, large cap, int’l, domestic, Commodities, etc. based on your discretion. You also have maximums you can allocate to any one fund (like 40% I think?).
It’s a better program than knuckleheads like Borker think.
Guys, I’m not disagreeing. I made the statement that it was a good start. It’s a long way from where we were. It bugs the crap out of me that we only have 160 funds. See, I explained in my post that there were things about it I didn’t like, such as lack of choices. But here we go with the “If you knew what you don’t know crap”. I AM familiar with other platforms. I KNOW that most of them are “open architecture”. I was simply explaining to ICE how it worked, since he asked. Get over it, Noggin.
Yes, ICE, you can use both the Advisory platform and SMA platform with NQ money. You have no say over re-balancing. It is threshold based. Once you decide the allocation, it will rebalance once the portfolio gets outside a certain threshold of the original allocation (in order to minimize transactions for obvious reasons).Ice, bottom line is the management knows the quality of shit they put in the offices, so they HAVE to control the access or they will have a bunch of car mechanics blowing up grandmas portfolio and then wash out and go back to mechanican…
It is rebalanced on a variation from the target allocation basis. If say the Growth and Income section gets more than 4% away from the target they will rebalance the whole portfolio back to the target. So, it could be once a quarter, once a month, or once a year. And yes we can do fee based for NQ money.
My question for you all, not just ice in particular, is who does the due diligence on those 1800 funds or however many funds you have in your platform? What process do they use to screen what funds they put in the platform? What guidelines do they give for asset allocation? It would have been pretty easy for Jones to just say they'll throw in all 120 firm name eligible fund families, plus allow any ETF or index funds and let the FAs do the fund research to figure out where to go from there. But they didn't. Like B24 said, it's not perfect, but it's a tremenous start.You do remember that they put YOU in one of the offices, don't you? Oh, wait. When you left and moved your office down the street you instantly became a financial wizard. You must have been the execption to the rule. Sorry, my bad.Ice, bottom line is the management knows the quality of shit they put in the offices, so they HAVE to control the access or they will have a bunch of car mechanics blowing up grandmas portfolio and then wash out and go back to mechanican…
[quote=Spaceman Spiff]It is rebalanced on a variation from the target allocation basis. If say the Growth and Income section gets more than 4% away from the target they will rebalance the whole portfolio back to the target. So, it could be once a quarter, once a month, or once a year. And yes we can do fee based for NQ money.
My question for you all, not just ice in particular, is who does the due diligence on those 1800 funds or however many funds you have in your platform? What process do they use to screen what funds they put in the platform? What guidelines do they give for asset allocation? It would have been pretty easy for Jones to just say they'll throw in all 120 firm name eligible fund families, plus allow any ETF or index funds and let the FAs do the fund research to figure out where to go from there. But they didn't. Like B24 said, it's not perfect, but it's a tremenous start. [/quote] Shouldn't you being doing that? So you blatantly trust the Jones team to pick which are the best funds(Putnam, Van kampen??) And not worry about "pay to play" coming into the equation. "This fund doesn't exactly measure up but they gave us $5 million to use so we will throw it in there" I had a Calamos guy tell me that if they want to be part of the preferred funds there was an upfront payment required(millions) What do you do? Besides " I will take allocation number 3" and can Jones stop using Growth & Income as a category, it looks stupid when EDJ clients bring in the portfolio print out and the funds are in a "made-up" category.Spiff, It took me a few years to look around and come out of my trance and understand the culture and lack of professionalism engrained in my region.
Squash...are you telling us that EDJ wants money upfront to allow access? THAT IS SO HARD FOR ME TO BELIEVE. THE HOLIER THAN THOUGH COMPANY TAKING MONEY TO PUT, MAYBE INFERIOR PRODUCTS, IN THE ADVISORY ACCTS. I WONDER WHY PUTNAM WAS DROPPED..COULD IT BE THAT THEY DIDN'T WANT TO PAY UP? HMMM...I guess Lipper should stop using Growth and Income as a category too. I’ll let Weddle know the next time I see him.
Revenue sharing doesn't come into play with Advisory Solutions. In fact if there is a preferred fund in the mix any revenue sharing dollars get rebated to the client. That's right, money that the client would never have seen to begin with gets used to offset fees in the client's account. As far as should I be doing that or do I trust EDJ to do it for me, yes on both. I don't have time to be a mutual fund analyst. I don't have the time, nor the ability, to go visit the money managers at Calamos or AllianceBernstein and ask about manager tenure, stock selection, style drift, etc. But the CFAs at Jones do. I don't have the time to sift through 7000 mutual funds to pick the best ones and to build an asset allocation model based on those. Now, I do have time to double check the work that the CFAs do and make sure that I'm OK with the recommendations they make. If I am, I can go with their choices. If I'm not or I want more control, I do it myself. So, I can either choose to spend my evening with my family or on the phone talking with prospects and clients or with my nose getting cooked by the rays from my computer monitor. Morningstar doesn't make me any money.