Last week, I was a guest on the Bogleheads podcast with Rick Ferri. We know each other for a long time (he was a MiB guest in our very first year; we also spoke in 2019 at the RWM offices). We spoke for several hours over the course of a few sessions. Rick had the unenviable task of editing this down to under >60 minutes.
We discuss everything from crypto to tactical portfolios to active investing to behavioral finance. It is worth an hour of your time to check out.
Because we went on for so long, lots of things we went into did not make the final cut. In particular, fees. I saw some pushback and I’d like to expand upon RWM’s fee structure.
First, we have created a low-cost automated advisor called Liftoff: We teamed up with Betterment, created our own portfolios, and provide a dedicated advisor to clients. We go far beyond the usual roboadvisor; fees for this are 50 bps.
Second, for other clients, we offer full-service investing and planning advice (including estate, tax, and insurance planning and reviews). These typically run far below the theoretical maximum fee we are obligated to reference in our SEC disclosures.
Third, we are very proud of our Milestone Rewards program. We provide a permanent fee reduction for clients who create and maintain their financial plan for 3 years and avoid bad financial behaviors (you may have read about those here). All in, we average far below typical high fees which gives Bogleheads offense.
Finally, consider free: In these pages, I have long advocated that anyone can invest for themselves if they put the time and effort, and manage their own behaviors. To assist anyone who wants to be a DYI investor, my team creates some of the very best and most informative content — print, video and, podcasts — to help investors do just that. This is not something new or recent; we have been publishing helpful investing advice for many years before RWM launched.
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I hope you find our conversation informative.
