Schwab advisor cold calls

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Fractalleaf
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Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by Fractalleaf »

I’ve had an account at Schwab for many years. Recently I’ve been getting calls and emails from someone who claims to be my advisor. I’ve never requested an advisor but apparently they are assigned based on location. The guy makes reference to details in my account and says I should call if he can be of assistance.

It’s a little unnerving that someone is reviewing my account unsolicited and judging my investment decisions. Then again, perhaps it’s worth hearing his recommendations. Do the assigned advisors hope their clients will sign up for paid services, or is their outreach and advice a service that is included in the brokerage fees? Do most people with Schwab accounts stay in touch with their assigned advisor? I also have an account at Fidelity and have never been contacted by them.
NancyABQ
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by NancyABQ »

I am in a similar situation. I have had a guy from the local office sending me emails for a while now. They include newsletters and notifications of various informational forums. I am not sure he ever cold-called me. If he did I just ignored him.

It may have to do with your account balance growing above a certain threshold?

I actually made use of him for the first time the other day when I was trying to see if I could get a cash bonus for moving a new account over to Schwab. This sort of bonus isn't publicly advertised, but it seems to be available for large enough balance transfers ($250K+ in my case).

Anyway, I went ahead and had a conversation with him, mainly getting the point across that I didn't particularly feel like I needed any advice. He did offer to run their fancy monte carlo simulation regarding retirement, etc.

It's never felt like a hard-sell to me, and it is easy to just ignore him. I like having the local Schwab office and have used it when I was doing transfers of Inherited IRAs, which I wanted to make sure I got done correctly.
fabdog
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by fabdog »

I have a person labeled as a financial consultant. They call once a year, ask if I have any questions or need any help. One year I was able to educate the person when they asked why I had rolled my TIra out, and I explained getting the funds into my employers 401(k) opened up the back door Roth.. he was very interested in how it worked and although he didn't seem to know about it in advance he was interested in the steps

Another year he asked what could Schwab do to get more of my assets in house? No trading fees on Vanguard Mutual funds and I'll move a large sum of money here to consolidate accounts. Done.

Only time I've reached out is when I wanted to pass along good feedback for the estate services person who did a great job helping me get accounts set up/balances moved when my Mom passed.

So I'm sure it varies by person, but after our first chat when it was clear I was self directed and would call if I had a problem, he doesn't bother me. A check in once a year to see if there is anything they can help me with is fine

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radiowave
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by radiowave »

NancyABQ wrote: Fri May 07, 2021 8:48 am I am in a similar situation. I have had a guy from the local office sending me emails for a while now. They include newsletters and notifications of various informational forums. I am not sure he ever cold-called me. If he did I just ignored him.

It may have to do with your account balance growing above a certain threshold?

I actually made use of him for the first time the other day when I was trying to see if I could get a cash bonus for moving a new account over to Schwab. This sort of bonus isn't publicly advertised, but it seems to be available for large enough balance transfers ($250K+ in my case).

Anyway, I went ahead and had a conversation with him, mainly getting the point across that I didn't particularly feel like I needed any advice. He did offer to run their fancy monte carlo simulation regarding retirement, etc.

It's never felt like a hard-sell to me, and it is easy to just ignore him. I like having the local Schwab office and have used it when I was doing transfers of Inherited IRAs, which I wanted to make sure I got done correctly.
Nancy, here is the link for the Schwab transfer bonus: https://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/n ... pect.html
Bogleheads Wiki: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Main_Page
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Fractalleaf
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by Fractalleaf »

Thank you for the input, it sounds like this is just a provided service and not a prelude to high pressure sales. I’m nearing retirement so it might be a good time to touch base and hear his recommendations.
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nisiprius
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by nisiprius »

When I had an account at Fidelity, they made similar approaches. Very roughly once a year. Sometimes by email, sometimes by phone. One or two by mail, some kind of seminar or something--but I don't think it involved a free meal. "Hi, this is XYZ at Fidelity, I was looking over our accounts and I just wanted to touch base with you and see if I can help you in any way, and was wondering if my might want to drop in at my Springfield office and look over your investments and your goals, if you haven't reviewed your portfolio in a while it might be a good to take a look at it etc. etc." Sales, yes. Low pressure. Not high pressure. They would take a politely phrased "no" for an answer and not contact me again... for a year or so.

So you are free to dislike this--I always did--but I wouldn't be worried about it. As to why it just started, I don't know.

It can't hurt to respond to those emails and calls with a polite but firm request that they stop sending them; have you done that?

(Now that I think about it, it is possible that one of the reasons I like Vanguard is that as far as I know they do not do this at all. Although with the increasing emphasis they are putting on their "personal advisory service" I would be annoyed but not surprised if they started to).
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NancyABQ
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by NancyABQ »

radiowave wrote: Fri May 07, 2021 8:57 am
NancyABQ wrote: Fri May 07, 2021 8:48 am I am in a similar situation. I have had a guy from the local office sending me emails for a while now. They include newsletters and notifications of various informational forums. I am not sure he ever cold-called me. If he did I just ignored him.

It may have to do with your account balance growing above a certain threshold?

I actually made use of him for the first time the other day when I was trying to see if I could get a cash bonus for moving a new account over to Schwab. This sort of bonus isn't publicly advertised, but it seems to be available for large enough balance transfers ($250K+ in my case).

Anyway, I went ahead and had a conversation with him, mainly getting the point across that I didn't particularly feel like I needed any advice. He did offer to run their fancy monte carlo simulation regarding retirement, etc.

It's never felt like a hard-sell to me, and it is easy to just ignore him. I like having the local Schwab office and have used it when I was doing transfers of Inherited IRAs, which I wanted to make sure I got done correctly.
Nancy, here is the link for the Schwab transfer bonus: https://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/n ... pect.html
Thanks but that transfer bonus is for new accounts referred by an existing customer. I have an existing account so it's completely different rules. I wasn't able to find any info about it online at all, so I called to check.
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Fractalleaf
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by Fractalleaf »

nisiprius wrote: Fri May 07, 2021 9:22 am When I had an account at Fidelity, they made similar approaches. Very roughly once a year. Sometimes by email, sometimes by phone. One or two by mail, some kind of seminar or something--but I don't think it involved a free meal. "Hi, this is XYZ at Fidelity, I was looking over our accounts and I just wanted to touch base with you and see if I can help you in any way, and was wondering if my might want to drop in at my Springfield office and look over your investments and your goals, if you haven't reviewed your portfolio in a while it might be a good to take a look at it etc. etc." Sales, yes. Low pressure. Not high pressure. They would take a politely phrased "no" for an answer and not contact me again... for a year or so.

So you are free to dislike this--I always did--but I wouldn't be worried about it. As to why it just started, I don't know.

It can't hurt to respond to those emails and calls with a polite but firm request that they stop sending them; have you done that?

(Now that I think about it, it is possible that one of the reasons I like Vanguard is that as far as I know they do not do this at all. Although with the increasing emphasis they are putting on their "personal advisory service" I would be annoyed but not surprised if they started to).
The message I received was almost identical to the example you gave from the Fidelity representative. I have not asked the advisor to stop contacting me because I've been on the fence about whether to hear what he has to say, especially if he can advise on retirement strategies and Roth conversions as part of a free consultation. I need to find out where the free consultation ends and the paid service begins.
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ResearchMed
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by ResearchMed »

Fractalleaf wrote: Fri May 07, 2021 8:08 am I’ve had an account at Schwab for many years. Recently I’ve been getting calls and emails from someone who claims to be my advisor. I’ve never requested an advisor but apparently they are assigned based on location. The guy makes reference to details in my account and says I should call if he can be of assistance.

It’s a little unnerving that someone is reviewing my account unsolicited and judging my investment decisions. Then again, perhaps it’s worth hearing his recommendations. Do the assigned advisors hope their clients will sign up for paid services, or is their outreach and advice a service that is included in the brokerage fees? Do most people with Schwab accounts stay in touch with their assigned advisor? I also have an account at Fidelity and have never been contacted by them.
We had this happen.

We finally told them something like, "PLEASE... do NOT call us. If we need any assistance, we'll be sure to call you."
And when they called back :annoyed , I sort of read them the riot act, reminding them that we did NOT want any unsoliticited "helpful calls", and who was the manager we should communicate with about this problem...??"

We still get an email about once or twice a year offering some new information plus an offer to meet to discuss whatever.
Those are easy to ignore. No problem, no complaint.

Indeed, when we had quite a bit of interaction with them quite a few years later, to set up MIL's trust account, they were incredibly helpful, and when it was all done, they left us alone again.
:happy

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123
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by 123 »

We've gotten these kinds of call from both Fidelity and Schwab where we hold accounts. Usually every year or two. I usually talk to them briefly saying that we're doing fine and that we will call if we have questions or need assistance.

I think one of the drivers for these calls is if you have significant cash (or default MMF) position in your account for some period of time. When MMF interest rates were much better we tended to have a lot of cash (call it an EF) spread over a couple of brokerage accounts. So we used to get calls more often until I figured out that it was likely "loose cash" that was attracting their radar. When we switched these cash holding to "purchased" MMF positions the calls dwindled to the now every year or two frequency.
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Fractalleaf
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by Fractalleaf »

123 wrote: Fri May 07, 2021 11:23 am We've gotten these kinds of call from both Fidelity and Schwab where we hold accounts. Usually every year or two. I usually talk to them briefly saying that we're doing fine and that we will call if we have questions or need assistance.

I think one of the drivers for these calls is if you have significant cash (or default MMF) position in your account for some period of time. When MMF interest rates were much better we tended to have a lot of cash (call it an EF) spread over a couple of brokerage accounts. So we used to get calls more often until I figured out that it was likely "loose cash" that was attracting their radar. When we switched these cash holding to "purchased" MMF positions the calls dwindled to the now every year or two frequency.
I think you are correct. I have a substantial cash balance that I am slowly reinvesting, and it may trigger a flag to the advisor.

After a bit of searching I found a page that attempts to explain the compensation formula for advisors. Although they claim to be transparent, I could not clearly understand the jargon they use to refer to different client relationships. At first glance it appears that the advisors are compensated based on the size of the client account regardless of the time they spend with the client.
https://www.schwab.com/legal/compensati ... mpensation

I looked at the profiles of advisors in different offices and notice quite a disparity of training and experience. My assigned advisor does not have a CFP license, whereas all of the advisors in a wealthy nearby city have this credential, as well as some MBAs. Almost all of them are "Vice Presidents", so I'm not sure how meaningful that is. Most of them who have lasted more than 15 years at the company are probably competent to run the software to calculate the best strategy for Roth IRA conversions, that's the main guidance I'd like to receive from them.
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by Hockey10 »

OP, do you have a lot more money in your Schwab account compared to your Fidelity account? (You said that Fidelity has not called).

I do not have a Schwab account, but I get a call from Fidelity about once every year or so. I had a nice chat with the Fidelity rep recently. I made it clear that I am a do it yourself type and follow the Bogle philosophy. It was a harmless call and I did not mind talking to him.
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by afan »

Schwab advisors are paid BOTH for the size of the account AND for getting customers into paid investment management deals.

That way, your advisor has an incentive to keep you happy. They also have an incentive to sell investments.

The emails do not come from the advisor, although they are set up to appear as if they do. These are robo. I found this out when I once contacted an advisor about something in an email and they had not sent me anything. After a bit of confusion, they said that those are auto-generated. Apparently based on algorithms that suggest what to send to whom.

They are also required to reach out periodically to customers to see whether anything has changed or they might have new or different needs. The answer has always been no and that is the end of it. Never really a "sell" at all for us.

The advisor themselves is a perfectly nice person and quite helpful on the rare occasions we have reached out. They know we are cap weighted index, no trading, people, so there is nothing to sell.

The contacts are rare and so unobtrusive that I have not told them to stop. I don't want them to be downgraded for failing to show attention to their customers.

I also don't care about Vanguard pushing PAS. I am never going to buy it but it does not bother me that they keep trying to sell it.

If there is any extent to which V recovers some costs of dealing with needier customers by getting them into PAS, that lets them push prices down lower on the funds I hold. All good as far as I am concerned.
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Fractalleaf
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by Fractalleaf »

Hockey10 wrote: Fri May 07, 2021 12:45 pm OP, do you have a lot more money in your Schwab account compared to your Fidelity account? (You said that Fidelity has not called).

I do not have a Schwab account, but I get a call from Fidelity about once every year or so. I had a nice chat with the Fidelity rep recently. I made it clear that I am a do it yourself type and follow the Bogle philosophy. It was a harmless call and I did not mind talking to him.
I have about the same balance at Fidelity, but it is mostly in an employer sponsored 401K so they are unable to provide advisory/management services until I retire. Fidelity used to offer one-on-one meetings with advisors coordinated with our HR department, but they have been swamped with requests over the past year due to a surge in retirements. I could kick myself for not taking advantage of the opportunity earlier.
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by Fractalleaf »

afan wrote: Fri May 07, 2021 1:07 pm Schwab advisors are paid BOTH for the size of the account AND for getting customers into paid investment management deals.

That way, your advisor has an incentive to keep you happy. They also have an incentive to sell investments.

The emails do not come from the advisor, although they are set up to appear as if they do. These are robo. I found this out when I once contacted an advisor about something in an email and they had not sent me anything. After a bit of confusion, they said that those are auto-generated. Apparently based on algorithms that suggest what to send to whom.

They are also required to reach out periodically to customers to see whether anything has changed or they might have new or different needs. The answer has always been no and that is the end of it. Never really a "sell" at all for us.

The advisor themselves is a perfectly nice person and quite helpful on the rare occasions we have reached out. They know we are cap weighted index, no trading, people, so there is nothing to sell.

The contacts are rare and so unobtrusive that I have not told them to stop. I don't want them to be downgraded for failing to show attention to their customers.

I also don't care about Vanguard pushing PAS. I am never going to buy it but it does not bother me that they keep trying to sell it.

If there is any extent to which V recovers some costs of dealing with needier customers by getting them into PAS, that lets them push prices down lower on the funds I hold. All good as far as I am concerned.
Interesting, especially about the auto-generated emails. I know the phone message was from the advisor because he made comments about my account that were specific. I will answer the call the next time he reaches out, perhaps even that is worth some "points" in their compensation system.
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by JCH10400 »

I used to get downright harassing calls from the Rancho Cucamonga TD Ameritrade office. They would call every month or two and try to sell me on their services. I had a CD ladder set up for my liquidity, and they would call a few days after every CD maturity to tell me I had a maturing CD and they could do much better for a fee. Hopefully they felt like idiots when I told them if they checked my unsettled purchases they would see I had already reinvested the proceeds. Although I asked them to stop each time they called, the calls didn't stop after several conversations with the branch manager and with TD Ameritrade customer service in New York. I finally got their attention when I started scoring that office at the lowest possible score on their customer service surveys, but the calls didn't fully stop until Schwab closed the Rancho Cucamonga branch after the merger.

I haven't heard from a Schwab rep since the merger, so hopefully they got the message.
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by LilyFleur »

I check in with my Schwab advisor once a year to update my financial plan and get a new copy. I view it as a data point. He is located in the city next to mine where lots of wealthy people live. I like being able to deposit checks in person just a ten-minute drive away. My particular advisor is not high pressure in the least.
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by Luckywon »

I have always had an assigned "Financial Consultant" at Schwab, and this has been nothing but a benefit to us. None of them have tried to sell any Schwab advisor services to me ever since I told the first that I was not interested. Some of the things they have done for us include:

-Answered questions about our accounts. Put us in touch with the right people at Schwab (like the estate department, cost basis team, Schwab Trust Services) to provide answers he did not know.
-Sent appropriate forms to us (sometimes prefilled), received them back completed from us and tracked them to ensure they were properly handled at Schwab.
-Reimbursed us travelling notary fees for some Schwab documents we needed notarized during pandemic.
-Enrolled us in brokerage incentive bonus offers.
-Arranged a video conference with a Schwab retirement planning specialist that was quite helpful and interesting. This did not include any attempt to sell any Schwab product.
-Has arranged for several fees to be waived (more common when Schwab used to charge trading fees).
-Handled a nasty ATM dispute which involved my Schwab debit card and another bank which Schwab settled in our favor.

My Etrade assigned advisor has acted in the same fashion-equally helpful and never has tried to sell any Etrade product after I told him in our first conversation I had no interest.
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by Swansea »

I was regularly getting emails from an advisor, started maybe a year age. Just clicked unsubscribe and they stopped.
UpperNwGuy
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by UpperNwGuy »

Glad to see this thread. Schwab contacted me by email earlier this week about the advantages of consolidating my accounts at Schwab. It was the first time I had heard from them in about three years, and I had been enjoying the silence. The irony is that the person whose name is on the email works at a different local office than the one i would use if I ever needed an in-person visit. My closest Schwab office is across a state line, whereas this week's contact came from an office in my state.

I have never heard from Fidelity or Vanguard, and I like it like that.
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by fourwheelcycle »

nisiprius wrote: Fri May 07, 2021 9:22 am (Now that I think about it, it is possible that one of the reasons I like Vanguard is that as far as I know they do not do this at all. Although with the increasing emphasis they are putting on their "personal advisory service" I would be annoyed but not surprised if they started to).
When I first started posting on this forum I got scolded by the moderators for a post I made about frequent marketing emails from Vanguard when they first rolled out their PAS service. I used to use their free CFP advice service every few years and when their PAS came out one of their CFP's told me "I am also a PAS advisor and I would be very interested in managing your account if you'd like to use our PAS". My post related my experience with the early PAS sales push from Vanguard and asked if others had the same experience. The mods said it was a rant and shut it down.

Now I try to be careful what I post or comment about! I am not criticizing this thread or nisiprius' comment - this all seems pretty tame and "non-rant" to me. As it turned out, Vanguard's flurry of emails about PAS died down after six months or so. Over my almost forty years with Vanguard that was the only episode of obvious email and advisor marketing I remember.
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by BabaWawa »

It doesn't qualify as a "cold call" when you have an established relationship with the firm. While you haven't taken advantage of using the person at your local office you should consider utilizing that relationship. For me, the local office has been a much easier way to have my questions answered during a time of long wait times at the national level.

Having said that, if you are comfortable with your investment plan I wouldn't open up that can of worms by inviting their input on your portfolio.
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by MikeG62 »

An unsolicited call with a simple question asking if I need anything is ok by me, if the call ends quickly after I say I am good. However, the calls I get from my "advisor" at Fidelity don't go quite this way.

More typically, it's an open ended question asking what I am doing with regard to this, that or the other thing. No matter how I respond, his response is rarely, "hey Mike that sounds good, have a great day". Rather, there is always a bunch of back and forth, with me having to lay out not only my rationale for doing what I am doing, but also trying to poke holes is what he is peddling. Quite frankly, it rubs me the wrong way when I am asked to defend my approach to how I invest my money. Part of me wants to say "I don't feel the need to defend my decisions to you and it's quite frankly none of your business", but I try and take more of a high road approach. My approach results in the calls going on longer than I'd like, but at the end of the day these calls always end with no change in my approach (and basically a waste of the advisors time).

I am certain these folks go through extensive training and role play and have heard and have an answer for every response they will hear from their client. It's not a level playing field.

I also understand this is business - he needs to check the box that he's reached out to his clients every X number of months or once a year or whatever the case may be. So, I am somewhat sympathetic to his situation - after all he is just doing his job. I'm sure he knows coming into the conversation how it's going to end (based upon past discussions). So in a way I feel bad for him. Still, I'd rather be left alone to live my life in peace.
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Doom&Gloom
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by Doom&Gloom »

I have had an account at Schwab for 30+ years. Initially I never received such calls and emails. IIRC about 15 years ago they began. They seem very dependent upon who is assigned to my account. One person called a few times until he got my message. Another person sent emails almost monthly but no phone calls. I love my current person; I think I got an initial introductory email and no further contact.

I view and treat them as I view and treat any other undesired cold calls. No more; no less.
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ResearchMed
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by ResearchMed »

MikeG62 wrote: Sat May 08, 2021 8:55 am An unsolicited call with a simple question asking if I need anything is ok by me, if the call ends quickly after I say I am good. However, the calls I get from my "advisor" at Fidelity don't go quite this way.

More typically, it's an open ended question asking what I am doing with regard to this, that or the other thing. No matter how I respond, his response is rarely, "hey Mike that sounds good, have a great day". Rather, there is always a bunch of back and forth, with me having to lay out not only my rationale for doing what I am doing, but also trying to poke holes is what he is peddling. Quite frankly, it rubs me the wrong way when I am asked to defend my approach to how I invest my money. Part of me wants to say "I don't feel the need to defend my decisions to you and it's quite frankly none of your business", but I try and take more of a high road approach. My approach results in the calls going on longer than I'd like, but at the end of the day these calls always end with no change in my approach (and basically a waste of the advisors time).

I am certain these folks go through extensive training and role play and have heard and have an answer for every response they will hear from their client. It's not a level playing field.

I also understand this is business - he needs to check the box that he's reached out to his clients every X number of months or once a year or whatever the case may be. So, I am somewhat sympathetic to his situation - after all he is just doing his job. I'm sure he knows coming into the conversation how it's going to end (based upon past discussions). So in a way I feel bad for him. Still, I'd rather be left alone to live my life in peace.
How about instead of:
"I don't feel the need to defend my decisions to you and it's quite frankly none of your business"
you say mostly the same thing phrased as something like:
"I appreciate your concern about my investments, but we a very comfortable with our decisions, and I assure you that IF we have any questions, we'll call you. Please do not call for general checks again. Thank you."

He has no doubt been trained to deal with these, too, but perhaps not the way 'we' would like to have it handled. You don't need to continue with *his* dialogue. You pay him; he doesn't pay you.

Yeah, sometimes easier said than done, but ultimately, it's *your* time/energy he's wasting...

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Fractalleaf
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by Fractalleaf »

Luckywon wrote: Sat May 08, 2021 1:54 am I have always had an assigned "Financial Consultant" at Schwab, and this has been nothing but a benefit to us. None of them have tried to sell any Schwab advisor services to me ever since I told the first that I was not interested. Some of the things they have done for us include:

-Answered questions about our accounts. Put us in touch with the right people at Schwab (like the estate department, cost basis team, Schwab Trust Services) to provide answers he did not know.
-Sent appropriate forms to us (sometimes prefilled), received them back completed from us and tracked them to ensure they were properly handled at Schwab.
-Reimbursed us travelling notary fees for some Schwab documents we needed notarized during pandemic.
-Enrolled us in brokerage incentive bonus offers.
-Arranged a video conference with a Schwab retirement planning specialist that was quite helpful and interesting. This did not include any attempt to sell any Schwab product.
-Has arranged for several fees to be waived (more common when Schwab used to charge trading fees).
-Handled a nasty ATM dispute which involved my Schwab debit card and another bank which Schwab settled in our favor.

My Etrade assigned advisor has acted in the same fashion-equally helpful and never has tried to sell any Etrade product after I told him in our first conversation I had no interest.
I hadn't realized that these types of services were offered without signing up for the paid advisory services. I've clearly been too cynical about the motivation for the calls I've received and am inclined to be more receptive after the input I've received here.
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by Katietsu »

Fractalleaf wrote: Fri May 07, 2021 11:31 am Most of them who have lasted more than 15 years at the company are probably competent to run the software to calculate the best strategy for Roth IRA conversions, that's the main guidance I'd like to receive from them.
I would not expect to get a thorough calculation of the best strategy for Roth conversions from this free service. There are too many factors involved in a good analysis of Roth conversion factors. In my experience, that is not the kind of thing that these “free” advisors can offer. Please reread the comments about some of the ways the advisor has helped other BHers. It might give you a better idea of the places that they can be helpful.
Jack FFR1846
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by Jack FFR1846 »

If you have an iPhone...

Hit recent calls. Info for that number. I think you have to hit info again. Scroll down. Block this caller. Done.
Bogle: Smart Beta is stupid
Bmac
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by Bmac »

Interesting thread. We have investments at Schwab, Fidelity and Vanguard (only retirement accounts at Fidelity) but the only “cold calls” I’ve ever received are from Personal Capital where I use their portfolio analytics, but none of their investments. It’s only about once/quarter, although I’m a little surprised they continue to persist as I always decline to arrange a time to further discuss our portfolio.
RetiredAL
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by RetiredAL »

I have been a Schwab client for 25+ years.

Until July of last year, I did not have a named "Consultant". The Investing Insights e-mail went from being from "Charle Schwab and Company" to being from "Named Consultant" at the Schwab office local to me. Nothing magical about that. Someone up the food chain at Schwab decided it would be good if certain clients, likely influenced by $ level with Schwab, should have an named person contact. I'm sure some IS person just merged a list of clients to a list of "consultants" and changed the Insights e-mail to be from this consultant.

I got one call, left on my voicemail, introducing himself to me with his number if I needed any assistance. Most likely the consultant then checked a box on his computer saying "yup, I contacted the client". I would totally expect that there was a automated script on his computer, where as the computer was dialing me, that my account info popped up on his screen, so that if he actually did chat with me on that initial call, he had a reference frame as to what I was all about by the bit's within Schwab's Data Systems.

Assigned Consultant - Checked off that I made contact.
Local office Mgr - checked off yes our consultants made contact with xx,xxxx customers this month.
VP - Checked off I enhanced the 'know your customer'.
The functional end result: It is today what is was yesterday and will be tomorrow.

Over all these years I've called Schwab's general number maybe a half dozen times and I've always got good service from the phone desk people. The most contact I've ever had with a local office was 2 years ago, that was the office where my Dad lives. I had to abruptly move my Dad's IRAs to Schwab from another administratively non-performing broker. The Schwab Admin Assistant told me how to do this, mailed me all the forms I needed, then met with us as we signed everything, so the ACATS transfer could be initiated. Poof! 3 Months of hassles and fighting the old brokerage was corrected 2 days after the forms were submitted, when the IRAs transferred.
Fired2020
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by Fired2020 »

Doom&Gloom wrote: Sat May 08, 2021 10:13 am They seem very dependent upon who is assigned to my account. One person called a few times until he got my message. Another person sent emails almost monthly but no phone calls. I love my current person; I think I got an initial introductory email and no further contact.
This has been my experience. The advisor who was previously assigned to my account would call me frequently, often when I had a CD that was maturing. He even extended dinner invitations a few times (group dinners with other Schwab clients, sales-pitches for advisory services I would imagine). He left about 5 years ago, he'd become a bit of a nuisance honestly. I get only newsletters & whatnot from the new guy, no phone calls.
UpperNwGuy
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by UpperNwGuy »

It sounds like most of you folk actually answer the phone when it rings. Unless my phone displays the name of a family member, a friend, one of my medical practitioners, or the car repair guy, I don't answer. It's really that simple. No need to defend my investing decisions to people who think they are my advisors.
MikeG62
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by MikeG62 »

UpperNwGuy wrote: Sun May 09, 2021 8:27 am It sounds like most of you folk actually answer the phone when it rings. Unless my phone displays the name of a family member, a friend, one of my medical practitioners, or the car repair guy, I don't answer. It's really that simple. No need to defend my investing decisions to people who think they are my advisors.
Fair point. However, when I get a call from Fidelity it shows as from "Fidelity Investments" when the call is ringing. Always causes me to initially wonder whether there is something going on with my account they might be trying to verify. Almost always I let it go to VM, as I can always call back if there is an urgent issue.

In my most recent experience, I got a call twice per week for several weeks in a row (as well as e-mails following those calls) from the assistant to "my advisor" (again this is not PAS or anything like that, just the guy who has been assigned to my account for the better part of the last two decades) telling me the advisor needed to reach me to discuss our accounts. Eventually, I relented and scheduled the meeting (telephone call).
Real Knowledge Comes Only From Experience
MotoTrojan
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by MotoTrojan »

fabdog wrote: Fri May 07, 2021 8:52 am
Another year he asked what could Schwab do to get more of my assets in house? No trading fees on Vanguard Mutual funds and I'll move a large sum of money here to consolidate accounts. Done.
Interesting. What advantage do they get out of having this capital in-house? I guess they can call it AUM and make their financials look better? I can't imagine it generates any revenue for them to hold VG mutual funds.
Carol88888
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Re: Schwab advisor cold calls

Post by Carol88888 »

I get these calls from time to time from Schwab's guy at the local office. He has invited me to investing seminars and chocolate tastings and movie screenings and I always refuse.

But when I get phone calls I am furious and I don't care what his quota is or what happens to his compensation. This is very intrusive so I just said, "This is not a good time. I don't want any phone calls."

I see him as a salesperson. And in fact once when I was depositing a check he started telling me about some private placement real estate deal I could buy. This was probably because he saw that I had REITs in my account.

Look, the friendly broker is not your friend. Be on guard and stay away.
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