Best Financial Advisors

Vanguard offers two types of financial advising: a robo-advisor and a personal advisor. Both offer personalized management of eligible 401(k)s and IRAs. Depending on the type of advising you choose, different minimum investments and fees apply. Most accounts will also have a $20 yearly account service fee on top of advisory fees. However, this fee can be eliminated by signing up for e-delivery of statements and other Vanguard notices.

Vanguard’s robo-advisor is a 100% digital advisor account and is managed through a Vanguard Brokerage Account. You need a minimum of $3,000 to open an account. The service costs 0.20% in advisory fees on the assets you authorize Vanguard to manage on your behalf. New customers will pay no advisory fees during their first 90 days.

For the personal advisor services, investors will need at least $50,000 to enroll. But these advisors won’t work with every type of investment, such as non-Vanguard mutual funds or individual bonds. Advisory fees cost 0.35% annually for an all-ETF account and 0.4% for an ETF/mutual fund mix. With personal advisor services, you receive access to financial advisors and investment coaching. Additionally, you receive real-time goal tracking and automated tax-loss harvesting, which is the selling of an underperforming investment to reduce your taxable capital gains.

We appreciate these factors of Vanguard financial advisor accounts:

• There are no advisory fees for 90 days with the robo-advisor.
• The robo-advisor has a low account minimum.
• There are environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment options.

• There’s a high account minimum for the personal advisor services.
• Some investment typess are excluded.
• There’s a $25 account service fee for most accounts, though it can be waived.

Customers chose Vanguard because it was easy to roll over their 401(k)s or switch from a competitor’s account to Vanguard. Many are happy with the options of ETFs and stocks and how well their portfolios have performed.

One Georgia customer in their 70s felt comfortable using Vanguard for their retirement account, saying: “We have a live advisor versus a robo-advisor. … After answering his questionnaire he put us in 60/40 stocks/bonds. After one year we are up 15%.”

Many complained about the website being too clunky and not intuitive. Others felt that the customer service department had gone downhill since they first became customers, saying that they used to be able to connect to knowledgeable advisors quickly but now are redirected to a hotline of unknowledgeable service reps.

Merrill is an investment management company under Bank of America. It offers four different levels of investing: self-directed through Merrill Edge, two levels of Merrill Guided Investing and Merrill Lynch Wealth Management.

The self-directed investment program, Merrill Edge, has no account minimums, so it’s the easiest to qualify for. And it comes with unlimited $0 online stock, ETF and option trades. While Merrill does not charge a commission fee for trading stocks or ETFs, there are miscellaneous account and transaction charges you should be aware of. It does not offer futures, options on futures, foreign currency or crypto investing and trading. The first level of Merrill Guided Investing requires a $1,000 minimum investment.

The second level of Merrill Guided Investing requires a $20,000 minimum account balance and has a 0.85% AUM fee. This level allows you to work one-on-one with a Merrill Edge advisor by phone. Discounts on Merrill Guided Investing fees may be available to members of Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards program, depending on your average account balance.

Things we like about Merrill include:

• Fee discounts may be available for high account balances
• Unlimited $0 stock, ETF and options trades with self-directed investing account

The following should be considered before moving forward with Merrill:

• High AUM fees on advisor accounts
• Limited investment products

Many chose Merrill because of the free trades, saying that they saved a lot of money over competing investing sites. Others who gave positive reviews have had a Merrill account for years and felt that the reporting was simple to understand and guidance from the advisors was helpful.

A reviewer from Georgia said: “My financial advisor has been with me for over 10 years. He is attentive, responsive and always puts my needs first with an excellent plan. I trust him completely.”

A common complaint is that the customer service wait times are long, and oftentimes customer service is not helpful. Others struggled to have money transferred out, like through a 401(k) hardship withdrawal, mentioning that Merrill made the process of moving funds frustrating and long.

Ameriprise Financial has been helping individuals with investing for over 125 years, and it offers over 10,000 Ameriprise advisors to choose from. Ameriprise manages a variety of different accounts, including 401(k)s, 403(b)s and traditional and Roth IRAs. It also manages a few investment types that many other competitors don’t, such as real estate investments and UITs.

Ameriprise offers different advisory solutions, starting with its SPS Advantage account, which requires a minimum opening investment of $2,000 and for which an advisor recommends securities to invest in. Minimum investment requirements change depending on your account type/the level of management. Not all fees are disclosed, but Ameriprise does impose a wrap fee (an AUM fee combined with other annual fees) for these accounts. This fee is negotiable with your advisor, but it usually works out to about 1%.

Ameriprise is well known for its retirement savings advising. It helps clients set and reach goals through its Confident Retirement approach. The approach is designed to help individuals have enough finances to cover essentials, live the lifestyle they want, prepare for the unexpected and build enough wealth to leave a legacy. Ameriprise says that 96% of its clients felt that this program addressed their needs, based on an in-house survey conducted from July 2018 to August 2020.

Ameriprise Financial offers:

• Retirement-centered program
• Approximately 10,000 financial advisors

Make sure to pay attention to these factors:

• High fees
• Wrap fees vary by advisor

Customers chose Ameriprise because it is a trusted name, and many felt that its advisors were knowledgeable and caring. Some who transferred their investments from a competitor to Ameriprise felt that they made the right decision.

One customer from Maryland said: “When I joined Ameriprise Financial and turned over my portfolio to them; they reinvested my dividends,  which in turn bought me more stock so that when I needed money to buy my car it was there. The people at Ameriprise are very nice, professional, willing to answer any and all questions that you may have.”

Many reviewers complained about the high fees and felt that their portfolios were set up to underperform. One reviewer from Virginia summed up their experience by saying: “The end result was poor returns. While their site stated 10% to 12%, I wound up with much lower when looking at what I had given and what I ended up with. In addition, a 1% AUM fee is just the beginning. When you add their fees and the fund fees, it's over 2%.”

Established in 1946, Fidelity offers several different investment accounts, ranging from DIY investor accounts with low fees to robo-advisor accounts and advisor-managed accounts with competitive fees.

While Fidelity’s robo-advisor account, Fidelity Go, has no account minimum to open and no advisory fees until your balance reaches $25,000, Fidelity has our top pick for its Wealth Management program. You can access this account with a minimum $50,000 investment, but your one-on-one advisor benefits start when your account hits the $250,000 threshold. The gross advisory fees for a wealth management account range from 0.50% to 1.50%. This price does not include other fees, such as trading costs, transfer taxes, exchange fees, regulatory fees and more.

Fidelity’s newest offering, Fidelity Crypto, allows you to trade bitcoin and ethereum with as little as $1. This option is currently only available in 36 states.

Features we like for Fidelity include:

• No fees for some robo-advisor accounts
• Unlimited 30-minute coaching sessions with minimum account balance
• Crypto possibilities

Be mindful of the following with Fidelity:

• High fees for wealth management account
• High minimum investment requirement for dedicated financial advisor

Reviewers loved how easy Fidelity’s platform is to use and that its research tools and educational resources helped them to be better investors. Many also love that there are hundreds of no-fee mutual funds that can be added to their portfolio.

A California customer who has been with Fidelity for over 13 years said, “My favorite thing about Fidelity is that they allow an unlimited number of price alerts, which can be set up 10 at a time.”

Dissatisfied customers felt that the customer service wait times were too long and that it took too much effort to get simple questions answered. Others had difficulties transferring their accounts out of Fidelity.