Didn't I say I was going to stop getting mad? liar liar pants on fire

[susandennis]

Last week, I tried to get a hold of the guy who has been my financial advisor for many years. No answer to email. No answer to phone. No answer to voicemail. I tried his assistant. Same. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Nothing.

Sunday night I get an email message from him saying he'd been gone and he didn't know why his assistant didn't respond. And whining about having to work on a Sunday. He did give me the answer I'd ask him for on Wednesday.

I responded that I had made the decision without him (and differently than he advised). It was a done deal and he didn't need to call.

He responded that he would call anyway and then blamed the SteveTheLawyer for not giving him enough time.

No no no. You do not get to disappear totally for four days and then reappear and start blaming. This guy has control of a giant pile of my money. And I pay him pretty big bucks for handling it. And being closed for business with no warning or information at all for 3 days in a row is not what I pay for.

I replied that I'd really rather he not call and that I'd be in touch when I needed him.

And then I spent a very long time after I turned the lights out last night, considering it all. Was I being unreasonable? What were the ramifications of my changing our relationship? Was I cutting off my nose to spite my face?

I decided that no. He'd pissed me off before - more than once - and this was really, truly, not an acceptable way to do this kind of business.

So we won't be chummy. BFD. 1. He's not the only finance adviser around. 2. He's done a good job with my money so he can just continue what he's done and he does not need that much input from me anyway. and if not, see #1.

And I really do not want to talk to him. I don't want to hear how busy he is. Or how busy his assistant is, for that matter.

I finally get to sleep and then Julio knocks over the big, full, tumbler of ice water on my night stand. So I get up and mop that up.

It was not a restful night. But, no big deal and, anyway, my sleep trackers say it was more restful than I thought.

I think I might walk over to the Japanese grocery later this morning. I need the steps and there's a Thai food vendor in the food court that I haven't visited in a long while. Today seems like a good day to fix that.

Comments

Finance people

[bill_schubert]

I've got my money, such as it is, stationed with TD Ameritrade. If I had a bunch more I don't think things would change much. There is an algorithm making the decisions. I pay for the algorithm and so far it has done better than average at keeping me from losing as much as a straight up S&P or DIA or any other investment fund. After a couple of years I became a believer. I see the trades come and go because I get some proxy to read as is required by law. As if.
Otherwise If I need to make a change (which is usually pulling money out) I go onto their web site and do it. I once had a q and just called their customer service line and got the best service and advice and immediate action while we were on the phone. As if the guy was my own advisor.
I'm not saying you should change but I no longer believe that individual investment advisors have much of a place in the world. Other than keeping people from doing something that would generate big amounts of tax I'm not sure what they do (and anyone other than the CPA I was using can do that). The software has been running everything for years now.
I have (or had) a guy close by who I thought was important to me. But the way TD is set up it kind of pushes me away from having a personal relationship and, after some annoyance, I became good with that. As I said previous, if I had more money, a lot more, they might be calling me to pull me back in. But I'm not sure I would care having gotten used to depending on the institution and the software.

Re: Finance people

[susandennis]

Interesting perspective. In the beginning, having an advisor was critical to me and over the years, it's been very good and beneficial. BUT, since I am no longer looking for my money to enable me to retire early, things have changed. I'm still fine with what he does - balance it all out and make sure it's fine - and until the past year, I've made a solid profit of sometimes as much as 11% so I'm hoping I won't have to pull my money out and move it.

BUT, going forward, your TD Ameritrade model might work pretty well for other cash I want to keep close and ready. Thanks!

[desdemonaspace]

Wow. If he were my financial advisor, I'd have been curt with him.

You dun good.

[spiffikins]

I don't want to hear how busy he is. Or how busy his assistant is, for that matter.

EXACTLY. Why should you shoulder the emotional and social burden of him wanting to talk to you to make excuses when you have already moved on? He is going to be looking to YOU to make *him* feel better by accepting/understanding his issues.

Meh. Unnecessary and I totally understand why you are like "I don't WANT to talk to you at this point"

You *might* - if he pings you again, wanting to talk - reply back with a request for "if neither you nor your assistant are available, who is your manager/superior, that I can reach out to in your absence, for time-critical issues?"

Wouldn't hurt to get another contact there, up the chain, in case this happens again?

[susandennis]

Their firm is part of Ameriprise so it really isn't a Bernie Madoff situation. I could have called Ameriprise if it had been an I NEED MY MONEY now situation. And that's really the main reason I'm only mad and not in a wild panic :)

[spiffikins]

Heh, that's good :D

[thestainlesssteelrat]

How difficult is it to set an out of office?! Particularly when his role should be all about customer service.

[susandennis]

I just got an email from his assistant "oh I don't work on Fridays"

WELL you think maybe you could change your now 2+year old voice mail message to say that??????

Yeah. I'm thinking customer service isn't on their list of things to do.

[cdayzee]

I totally think you're justified in how you're feeling!

I don't have a ton of experience with finance people but I have noticed that it's the money they love & not the people. It may be difficult to find someone who actually cares more about you as a person [vs your money]. Also, I think customer service in general has gone out the window. Just today my husband was attempting to get some answers regarding travel reimbursement checks that were mailed to him that he never received. I suspect someone who works in the PO is stealing & cashing them. No one wanted to provide any answers. He kept being given another number to call. The last 2, no one ever picked up. So thus, the situation still hasn't been resolved.

The Japanese grocery & Thai food vendor sound like wise choices!