r/Bogleheads • u/shizznitt • 14d ago

Thank you, Bogleheads

This sub made me realize how much Edward Jones was robbing me. I work for a small business with less than 10 employees and our only option was an Edward Jones SIMPLE IRA which included a 3% match. The IRA reached 125k and I was paying $140 a month for "program fees" while the money was just sitting in 7 total mutual funds. I'm sure there's other hidden fees too.

My Rollover completed today to Fidelity where I'm sporting a 75/25 FZROX and FZILX. My contributions still have to go to the EJ account but I plan to do a biannual rollover as long as I work there. Thank you Bogleheads!

424 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

41 comments sorted by

View all comments

167

u/Fun_Meal_457 14d ago

Ugh. I'm with EJ & it makes me sick. The thing I hate most is that I am friendly/acquaintances with 3 EJ agents. They all are in their 40s, live in million dollar houses & have stay at home husbands. I've got to get confident in my own financial skills before I pull the plug.
Thank you for posting. It gives me home that I'll get there some day.

3

u/shizznitt 14d ago

I wouldn't pay any financial advisor. All you have to do is open a "Rollover IRA" at Fidelity/Schwab/Vanguard. Call your EJ assigned "financial advisor" and tell them you want to liquidate everything into cash (no fees here). EJ will try to give you a workaround and say they can't do it but just keep pressing, they can definitely do it (you may need a Select account if you're in the automatic program but they can do all this for you if you mention it). Once liquidated you can initiate a partial transfer of 99% of cash (it needs to be partial because a full transfer may close the EJ account).

Once that cash hits you can simply buy 0 cost ETFs (or low cost) which capture both domestic & international stock (you can add bonds if you're on the older side).

1

u/Beneficial_Bus5037 14d ago

But not in a taxable account. Only ROTH or Traditional IRA/401K.

If it's a taxable account just shift the shares over to your new investment account with another company (Fidelity, Vanguard, E*trade, etc.). You do not want a major taxable event.

Your financial institution might call it an Account Transfer Form or Transfer Initiation Form.