Self Allocated VS. Managed

[Armand P.]

Hello-

I met with a Financial Advisor from Fidelity to go over my retirement accounts. Currently, I have a Roth IRA (that I contribute monthly) and a 401K with my current employer (company matchs up to 5%). I will be transitioning to a new company and they currently do not offer company matching. I have a few options:

1) I can leave the 401K with old employer as is and not do anything

2) I can roll it over to an IRA and have more investment options to choose from (per FA)

3) I can move it to new employer and contribute more into it each pay

Currently, I am in a self allocated portfolio which means that my $ is tied to a fund that starts off aggressive and moves towards conservative based on my expected retirement age. The FA suggested I consider having a Managed Account where account managers do the research and do a 85/15 allocation (85% equities and 15% fixed).

This is my future so I want to make sure that I am in the best position to capture the highs and minimize as much risk as possible.

If someone can provide me with insight and guidance I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!

Armand.

[Trevor Ewen]

@Armand P.

I definitely recommend against the management option (read: High Fees). With a little education you can be up to snuff on allocation, or I would trust a Robo-advisor to do the same for cheaper.

Experts rarely (if ever) beat the index. When they do, they never do more than two years in a row. Get yourself invested in the IRA option. Choose low-cost, commission-free index funds with more than 50 million in assets.

Short primer, but I definitely recommend checking out The Index Card, A Random Walk Down Wall Street, and The Intelligent Asset Allocator (last one, if you get really into it).

Reach out if you have more specific questions. I do a lot of writing on this topic.