How often do you get anything of substance from a YouTube video? We all enjoy the cute cat antics and nasty skateboarding shots, but an instructional piece from eMoney Advisor takes square aim at the argument that investors should make their own financial plans by following green lines and listening to talking babies. They’re sticking up for the advisor and the importance of professional help.
“Vanguard called, they thought it was great,” Edmond Walters sarcastically begins. “Fidelity—they always like it.”
The founder and CEO of the wealth planning and money management provider for advisors says his research shows that close to a billion dollars was spent last year by the five” big guys;” E*trade, they of the infamous talking babies; TD Ameritrade; Vanguard, Fidelity Investments, which instructs investors to “follow the green line” to investing success; and Scottrade.
“Their message is very consistent, and it is that advisors are overpaid, that you don’t need an advisor and technology will provide your solution,” he said. “It’s so easy a baby can do it. And once you come up with a plan just stay on the [green] line and everything will work out.
Noting he was an advisor for 18 years, Walters say he understands the value of an advisor and the accountability they bring.
“I see the landscape changing and I’m worried the end-user client will make enormous mistakes,” he explains. “We saw them make those mistakes with the latest correction; how they panicked and sold their portfolios and now they’re barely getting back to where they were. A good advisor could have helped navigate the client through that whole tumultuous time. No one’s standing up for the advisor and no one is talking about the value of an advisor.