Reluctant investors can consider managed portfolios

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Oct 15, 2006

AS I SAID on Friday, I heartily recommend that you learn to invest on your own because no one is going to care more about your money than you yourself.

But a solo flight is not everyone's cup of tea, so let me note thatinvestorswho find comfort and earn good returns in the popular stock and bond mutual funds of families like Fidelity, Vanguard and T. Rowe Price might be interested in knowing that these companies also offer separate personalized advisory services. You can set up a fee-based, managed portfolio with them, comprising stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other investments.

Going this route means you're not treading on unfamiliar ground, but are letting professionals with proven experience manage your money without a lot of hassle on your part.

Fidelity Investments offers its Portfolio Advisory Service on accounts of $50,000 or more for an annual management fee of 1.1 percent -- with that fee gradually declining on larger accounts. Your assigned professional will examine your specific objectives, risk tolerance and investment time frame and will implement an appropriate asset allocation strategy and mutual fund mix in an effort to make sure that your retirement assets will "last a lifetime." Along the way, the management team will reassess your portfolio and adjust your assets as your needs change.

Fidelity, which has 120,000 service clients holding $40 billion in assets, offers a quarterly review summarizing your account activity and performance plus an annual strategic review. If you wish, you can set up your account for withdrawals on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis. For more on Fidelity Portfolio Advisory Service, call (800) 544-937.

T. Rowe Price offers two investment management services. One is designed for wealthy investors, calling for a minimum asset level of $3 million. Each client is assigned an investment counselor who fits them into a mixture of stocks, bonds and mutual funds based on their investment needs and objectives.

A separate asset allocation program, just started, is designed for accounts of $250 or above. This also provides for a mixture of investment vehicles with a regular overview. The company doesn't reveal the annual fees charged, but spokesman Steven E. Norwitz says the charges are in line with mutual fund annual expenses. At T. Rowe Price, this level is well under 1 percent, while many regular money managers charge 1 percent or more.

When T. Rowe Price was founded in 1937 its original business was an investment advisory service, and it didn't get into mutual funds until 1950. For more information of the company's advisory service, call (800) 638-5660.

Vanguard offers two advisory plans, the Vanguard Financial Planning Services (VFPS), launched just this year for clients with at least $100,000 invested with Vanguard and the Vanguard Asset Management Services (VAMS), which has been serving investors for 10 years and is designed for clients with $600,000 or more in assets.

The VFPS is broken down into a number of categories; and the fees, all reasonable, depend on the size of the portfolio, ranging from $100,000 up to $1 million of more. Most of the plans can be set up on a complimentary basis. Some include an annual check-up and some do not.

The VAMS is designed for portfolios carrying $500,000 or more. The annual fee starts out a 0.75 and declines to 0.20 in larger accounts. It's not surprising that Vanguard charges the lowest management fees on large accounts, given its reputation for low fees on its mutual funds.

Call Vanguard at (800) 337-8476 for more information.

If you already own the mutual funds of one of these companies, you might want to set up your account there. If you don't have money in any of them, you might want to shop around by obtaining information from all three.

Next Friday: Quizzing a would-be financial planner.

Cliff Pletschet's Personal Finance column appears Friday and Sunday. Send general-interest questions to him at P.O. Box 28147, Oakland, CA 94604; or phone (510) 531-5620. Give your name, city and the question in brief form. Also, visit http://www.investment- educator.com.