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Myles
Myles (@guest_983958)
May 20, 2020 23:48

Note that before the last round of tax reform, these “advisory fees”were tax deductible which made them slightly more tolerable.

Also note it’s not uncommon for senior management in publicly traded organizations, to receive reimbursement for “advisory fees” as an employee benefit, for themselves and potentially “extended” family. I suspect this is because it’s better for corporate officers to completely avoid trading in the markets with personal or family money.

Janice
Janice (@guest_983832)
May 20, 2020 18:55

This doesn’t seem to rival Bank of America’s program in the least.

Just $100K parked in cheap index funds at Merrill can get you 2.625% back on every day spend with Preferred Rewards.

Compare that to $2MM at Fidelity with a management fee, just to get back 3% on a card?

BofA/Merrill for the win. Not even close.

N
N (@guest_983896)
May 20, 2020 21:20

but you don’t get unlimited option trading for free at BOA /s

Janice
Janice (@guest_983978)
May 21, 2020 00:32
  N

Lol

People who care about trading options aren’t going to use Fidelity regardless.

calwatch
calwatch (@guest_983979)
May 21, 2020 00:34
  N

Honestly, a $6,600 annual fee to play with unlimited options in a “beer money” account, while also paying for professionals to maximize fake losses to offset gains elsewhere sounds intriguing. But I don’t have $2 million taxable to invest, and for that level of speculation why wouldn’t you go to IB with its sub-1% margin interest rate?

calwatch
calwatch (@guest_983648)
May 20, 2020 13:44

You could participate in the Separately Managed Accounts and qualify. It’s basically rolling your own actively managed mutual fund, and the expense ratios are lower than the comparable actively managed Fidelity funds.
https://www.fidelity.com/managed-accounts/separately-managed-accounts/overview
https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060_www_fidelity_com/documents/SD-program-fundamentals.pdf

For example, the Separately Managed bond strategy has an expense ratio of 0.40% (up to $3 million). The Fidelity bond ETF (FBND), which is actively managed, has an ER of 0.36%. https://screener.fidelity.com/ftgw/etf/goto/snapshot/snapshot.jhtml?symbols=FBND

For $2 million in the Separately Managed Tax Managed Equity strategy, the net fee after tiers is $6,600 (0.33%). While FNILX (the Fidelity large cap index zero fund) is obviously 0% fee maybe the ability to generate phantom losses through tax management is worth $6,600 to someone with $2 million in assets. I don’t know. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/26/tax-efficient-customizable-investments-try-a-private-portfolio.html

P
P (@guest_983617)
May 20, 2020 12:48

“ The big catch here – aside from the actual money requirement – is that there is an annual advisory fee of .5%-1.25%; on $2M it would amount to around $20,000 per year. It’s highly unlikely to be worth a $20,000 annual fee in order to get the extra 1% cashback on the credit card and some free options trading.”

Fidelity can’t be stupid. They must expect rich people to pay this amount right?

RAM
RAM (@guest_983588)
May 20, 2020 11:49

I wonder who in the marketing team decided the 75$ bonus would do the trick for someone willing to let go of 250k to their hands, just to then add an amazon purchase requirement to it

N
N (@guest_983898)
May 20, 2020 21:24

maybe it is (partially) paid by amazon

Frank
Frank (@guest_983547)
May 20, 2020 11:01

I’m not sure I understand why they’d even bother with this. Do people with 250k-2m+ of *actively managed* assets really care about 1% extra on the fidelity credit card? The higher yield is worthless and at 2m of assets, my option trades better be free. I’m not even going to bother commenting on the ID protection

Kevin
Kevin (@guest_983571)
May 20, 2020 11:30

This. I mean, I understand someone with that much money is probably a big spender so the extra 1% would be “significant” (sort of) to an average person, but it wouldn’t be significant to them at all.

Fred
Fred (@guest_983592)
May 20, 2020 11:55

I’m sure there’s a lot of people with $2m of assets who don’t care about an extra 1%, just as there are people with little to no assets who don’t. But at what point do you think someone who does (i.e., the sort of people who read this) would stop? For better or worse, I doubt I’ll ever get to the point where I say “I have enough money, I don’t care about cash back anymore.”

Frank
Frank (@guest_983605)
May 20, 2020 12:28

The people who read this aren’t going to have $2m *in actively managed accounts with fidelity*. It’s not about “enough”, it’s about caring about 1% extra credit card cashback AND paying .5%+ for someone to buy index funds.

lenin1991
lenin1991 (@guest_983618)
May 20, 2020 12:49

> paying .5%+ for someone to buy index funds

If someone is a sucker enough to pay that overhead, I’m sure they’ll be steered to actively managed funds as well.

Chucks
Chucks (@guest_983733)
May 20, 2020 16:11

I don’t not care about cashback anymore, but I am at the point where I’ve stopped caring about putting in tons of effort for marginal gains. I often don’t care about Discover/Chase 5% categories because the effort to put some handful of purchases on it just isn’t worth my time.

With the Priceline rewards visa I’m at basically 3.5%+ back on everything, 3x Citi AT&T access more card on online purchases, 4x Amex Gold for grocery/restaurants, Altitude Reserve for 4.5% on remote pay and gas/hotels… extra gains are kind of minimal.

RoyalGreen
RoyalGreen (@guest_983820)
May 20, 2020 18:23

How do you get 3.5%+ with Priceline VISA card? Even if you redeem them for travels they’re worth around 1.9% ish.

LAG
LAG (@guest_983609)
May 20, 2020 12:30

You’re looking at this all wrong; this isn’t being marketed to us.

It is mostly a marketing gimmick… the managed funds fees they charge are competitive with what other brokers are charging, so this helps them stand out from their peers and can serve as the one additional benefit that engages that new customer where they might have otherwise used a competitor.

Also, many wealthy individuals don’t necessarily “penny pinch”, but they’re often still frugal, so when they hear about things that are “best in class” offers, they typically will consider them. Being frugal is often how many become wealthy in the first place.

OyVey
OyVey (@guest_983625)
May 20, 2020 12:58

It also adds to the stickiness of the client. Just another reason for them to stay.

Kafka
Kafka (@guest_983678)
May 20, 2020 14:36

Look at it another way: If you were trusting them to manage $2m, wouldn’t you expect the best cash back rate in the market? If you’re paying $20k a year to have them manage your money so you don’t have to, would you be pleased about needing to shop around for a better card and log in to multiple banks? Would you want to screw with travel rewards points to squeeze out a couple extra percent, or would you just want the best no-hassle cash back?

N
N (@guest_983902)
May 20, 2020 21:34

2mm is a halfway-ish number.

Still far from anything that actually has ‘private’ in the name (minimal is usually 10mm) but quite a bit beyond ‘cheaper’ options like CPC, BOA’s “Preferred Rewards” or Citi gold.

Fido is essentially creating a more granular tier in their product line to cater for those with more than 250k but less than 10mm invest-able assets, I assume other banks/brokers will follow suit soon.

“Do they care about 1%?” One answer maybe as there’s little other options, even when the other options pop up they gonna be quite similar, so why say no to another 1%?

Chucks
Chucks (@guest_983539)
May 20, 2020 10:51

Ooof, yeah the fee is a killer. Thought I could park money in Fidelity’s zero fee FZROX and reap additional rewards…

Grant
Grant (@guest_983546)
May 20, 2020 11:00

Yep, I really should just start reading “Our Verdict” first. Love how Chuck and William give it to us straight.

JG
JG (@guest_983590)
May 20, 2020 11:53

Grant that’s exactly what I do, skip straight to the Verdict. It’s the original TLDR, or BLUF for those in the know.

Medallion Joe
Medallion Joe (@guest_983538)
May 20, 2020 10:50

Have the funds with them and the card, but no way with that 0.5% fee (at least $1250 a year), and that’s if their “professionals” don’t lose any of your money…

SeeJay
SeeJay (@guest_983656)
May 20, 2020 14:01

Same. It’s bad enough they use Elan to manage the credit card.

Mr Blonde
Mr Blonde (@guest_983535)
May 20, 2020 10:44

And the at least .5% fee is only for Funds/Assets after $5 million

Average Daily Assets Annual Gross Advisory Fee
First $500,000 1.25%
Next $500,000 1.10%
Next $1,000,000 0.90%
Next $3,000,000 0.70%
More than $5,000,000 0.50%

David
David (@guest_983694)
May 20, 2020 15:12

Yeah, you pay 1.25% on the first $500,000. Then from $500,001-$1,000,000 you pay 1.10%. So even if you have $10 million you would be paying 1.25% on the first $500,000 of it.