I’ve had a call from a ‘counselor’ from Amex wanting to meet with me to discuss financial management and ‘help’ me with future planning. I have set up an aptmt for thurs. to follow up. I presume this is a sales call where he is there to sell me investments or set up some sort of account to let them handle more of my money, looking towards retirement.
Anybody know anything about how they work or want to share any information about this service with me?
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Excellence is its own reward!
Excellence is its own reward!
Replies
You got it, Piff, that's what it is. There are literally thousands of those guys around the country. Not a bad thing, just trust your judgement. AMEX is a great company, but a lot of these guys are just cutting their teeth. Make sure he's been at it for longer than 6 weeks, and I'd ask him what he PERSONALLY made last year using his own investment advice. A good FA can be worth their weight in gold, but choose wisely.
_____________________________
HomeBase
________ Kitchen & Bath Builders, LLC
Brian Roberts, Manager
AMEX as a Great Company?
I did a job for Amex Equipment Leasing and didn't get paid for over a year. Had to file liens against the building.
In my opinion, they are flakes.
Boris
"Sir, I may be drunk, but you're crazy, and I'll be sober tomorrow" -- WC Fields, "Its a Gift" 1927
I did the AMEX Financial Services thing a few years back to help figure out retirement and educational financial planning.
I had an experienced person, and he was very good at helping us identify and isolate expenses, and project this into the future. Not a cheap service, though - it was about $400 for the entire service.
Didn't completely follow through with the advice, though - this gentleman's method of ensuring my spouse's continuing financial security was to be $350/mo of life insurance.
I was expecting investment advice, and for that fee, was rather suprised at his solution. This meeting was BEFORE the dot-com run-up.
So, as with anything, ask questions, and know what you are paying for.
good luck,
-TJ
thanks, homebase, I do analyse everything pretty close. He could be wasting his time to buy me lunch.
Boris,
I know that the name applies to a multitude of businesses under a diversity of management structures but it could be that the same ethics pervaade the company. That's why I'm asking.
TJ,
You come closest to providing the kind of answer I am looking for. I have asked three times over the phone what kind of service he intends to offer and how he gets paid for providing it. He has sidestepped that answer.
From you, it sounds like they are fee-based up front, but that they also sell product.
I would expect him to either sell service for a fee or sell product for a percentage. I don't expect to pay him to advise me to buy his product. That would be a double whammy for fools to pay. Thanks for the hint.
.
Excellence is its own reward!
I worked with a financial planner from IDS- American Express back in the '80s. (I'm assuming that's the same as Amex). He managed to sell me into a monthly investment plan in one of their funds. And what a front-end load! ....5%.. But it was only 5% if you held the plan for the full 14 years. It went like this..... the first three years the load was 12%. The next six was something like 7%. The remaining five was like 2%.
I bought a house and cashed out a little before the crash of '87.
and I'm 99% sure they offer comission free trading if you open up a brokerage acct with 100 grand.
Many of the same concepts spoken on these boards apply to your question. Excuse my rambling here, but I thinking as I type.
Are the Am Express Financial Guys any good? Depends.
Depends upon you and what you want to achieve from the guy.
The "You" part is defined as just how knowledgable you are about finances as well as your personal reactions and expectations.
The "What you want to achieve" part depends on where you are in your retirement preparation (as well as other financial exposures) and your level of desire to participate in the management of those financial assets.
First, the company. They've been around a long time. As someone said, under a couple of different names. Many of their offices are staffed with just a few guys. Others may be bigger. The company itself has a bit of different means of compensating their "advisors" from other large firms. As I understand things, they offer a bigger payout of commissions, but the "advisors" must pick up much of their own expenses (including all of their training and licensing costs - other firms pay for these). Some feel this creates pressures to generate larger commissions, others disagree. For what it's worth, this same criticism is often made of younger "advisors" in about every firm, not just AMEX. There seems to be something in the AMEX compensation structure that encourages "packaged products" as opposed to individual securities like stocks and bonds. One of my buddies that is an "advisor" there compared commission schedules with me one day regarding the purchase of x shares of abc stock. According to what he told me, he does not even get paid on such business unless he is able to generate a minimum commision about twice of my firm's.
Depending on what you need, this company may offer something. Unfortunately, most people are not able to make that differentiation until later. This firm commonly is not included among the big brokerages on Wall Street. That may be good, depending on you and what you want. But it also means that more original research and strategists are found at other companies. If all you need is to be coached into a systematic saving plan via mutual funds, this may be OK. If you need more in depth services (trust work, option writing strategies, a full palette of investment choices such as managed money and futures), you may be better served elsewhere.
The "What you want to achieve" issue is more of "What you KNOW what you want to achieve." This $400 mentioned earlier is commonly the fee for a financial plan. The plan is supposed to tell you what you need to worry about. If you know that your primary goal is retirement, then all you need are financial calculations determining how much more you need to save at some assumed rate of return, not the whole plan.
Not all financial plans are created equal nor are all financial planners. AMEX "advisors" and others like to refer to themselves as "financial planners." There is a fair amount of issue being taken in the industry about people calling themselves, "financial planners." Now I don't know what levels of continuing education are required of the "advisors" at AMEX (this is a question to ask of your man), but the governing body of the Certified Financial Planners has strict requirements of the number of hours as well as the type that need to be taken regularly. It is highly recommended by many that individuals should seek out the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) for assurance of knowledge and ethics expected. You have every right to ask your man for proof if he is so certified. This is a very similar situation to Bob Walker's ASHI credentialling issue.
But what to expect:
Your lunch meeting is more to leave you with the impression that he is a nice guy and he wants to be trusted by you. He will suggest doing a financial plan to "discover areas of concern" (your grandkids education). Commonly some attempt to find what financial area causes you an emotional response (fear, love, greed). He'll focus on that.
If you agree to the financial plan, these areas will (or should) be covered:
An inventory of your financial assets and liabilities, personal information, insurance policies, and such.
A net worth presentation.
A mathmatical calculation and narrative addressing college education funding.
An illustration showing how your present assets and savings will grow to so much in your later years.
A calculation determing how much life insurance is needed.
A calculation forecasting your net worth into the future and how much will be taken by estate taxes.
Do you need this? What's it worth to you? What does the competition charge? Is the competition better served to address your particular needs? Can you communicate with the guy? Will your widow be able to?
Over lunch, you need to decide if the guy has the experience and knowledge to see your problems from your point of view as well as will he treat them as you would want.
Hey Pif...
U want me to check and see if the wife's boss can work your area?
That's who she worked for...a financial planner....only guy in the area that can sell a certain line of stuff.....don't ask me..I just know he's the top dog around here. Harry Dent ...does something with that system.
Harry Dents the system guy...not the boss.
BTW....I'm picking up that investing in life ins is the way to go now days.
I get all those calls from AmEx too.....but just tell them I'm thinking my bill would go down if they stop sending me all the sh!t they wanna sell. Sometime I can't find my bill thru all the plies of extra crap they stuff into the envelope!
I think we have a meeting with the wife's boss this Fri.
Like I said....email me if U want me to check up on things and give you the referal.
Later,
Jeff
Buck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Fine Carpentery.....While U Waite
I'm in Maine and you are in Calif aren't you? Not likely he handles my area is it?
I'll email.
Excellence is its own reward!
Piffin:
A friend of mine in Phoenix works for AmEx doing this gig. Here is some info I have found out from him:
1) The advisor will get paid from you for doing the "analysis". Like someone else mentioned, this will help to indentify what you've got and any areas where they see problems.
2) He will also get paid on a commission basis for anything he sells to you, ranging from Annuities to Life Insurance to plain old Mutual Funds.
3) The commissions can be paid in a multitude of ways, including a fee up front (loaded funds), or an ongoing management fee. These ongoing management fees are lumped into the operating costs of the fund, and usually go down somewhat after 5-7 years.
Jamie
Hey Jeff. I saw your BTW on investing in life insurance. Just a quick note of caution, alot of people have been pushing insurance viaticles lately. The deal on these is that people with whole life policies and terminal illnesses are approached and offered a lump sum, usually 50% or less of their death benefit. They in turn sign their policy over to the purchaser who lumps all the purchased policies together, then remarkets them as an investment with larger returns in a short period. The emotional hook here is that you are providing funds to some poor destitute person who only has this asset left and needs the funds to pay bills, not lose the house etc... because all their money was used to pay for their illness.
The scam is that a number of the people purchasing the policies have used shills to purchase the whole life policies. The bundled policies are sold and the insurance carriers decline the coverage after finding out about that the shills have pre-existing conditions which invalidate the policies. The investor is then out the money because the purchaser has paid off the shill and spend the rest on "expenses".
I know you have a pretty good BS detector, but just wanted to give you a heads up. Other than that, just make sure that if you invest in life insurance, it is giving you opportunities you would not get elsewhere (ie. pre-paid college funds, regular investments, mutual funds etc.) Good luck Frank
good point.....
about the scams...and preying on anyone terminal....
but I doubt the planners we're talking about here.....like AMEX and the like....would do such things.
But...a word of caution to the wise never hurts.
JeffBuck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Fine Carpentery.....While U Waite
Thanks Jeff and everyoneelse.
IO met with today and did sign up for his report and analysis. I have ninety days to reject it and the plan that goes with it and full refund of the fee. Is fee based advice front end plus front end loads on any products I choose to buy.
The key to my heart was that he was pretty sure he could find disability insurance for me. We''' see...
He was a tad older than me and in finacial all his life. I asked some hard ones and he had good enough answers. He started out with the old "baffle 'm with BS - Amex...millions...Amex....billions...prize winning..." I told him that I had handled millions too and please cut the BS down to what can he do for me. he took off his mask and cape and we got down to real just that quick. I asked what his target client was, his typical profile for a customer, how long he was at Amex, etc.
One thing became apparent too, They have two kinds of presenters, both traained by AMEX, but some are permanently employed by AMEX and working from the office while other's are self employed working more on a commision type basis. my dude is a permanent fixture there with less motivation to push trash. Again, We'll see.
He asked me a few harder questions too - which made me have to do some research into my own financial picture to find the answers. Just forcing my focus like that has been good. I've always been less concerned with my money than with other things. Got a little investment and a little debt but no real plan. This past year and all the medical bills have backed me up against the wall and made me pay more attention. I could probably learn it all on my own but I believe that his expertise is worth something to me just like mine is worth something to my customers when I do consult for them or inspect a house.
Excellence is its own reward!