usctrojan24 said:So, I keep seeing these target retirement funds. I am a financial planner, the only advantage I see is that it allows you to forget about the money. Are the fees lower? b/c i use annuities that give 3-5% bumps and lock in the principal amount, so you can't lose money plus i can be aggressive. I'm up 49% this year. I have not seen returns over 20%.

Please advise.If you are selling annuities, you are not a financial planner. You are a salesman. Also, I call BS to your alleged performance. You would have to be doing something very risky for your entire portfolio to be up that much.

theman2 said:usctrojan24 said:So, I keep seeing these target retirement funds. I am a financial planner, the only advantage I see is that it allows you to forget about the money. Are the fees lower? b/c i use annuities that give 3-5% bumps and lock in the principal amount, so you can't lose money plus i can be aggressive. I'm up 49% this year. I have not seen returns over 20%.

Please advise.If you are selling annuities, you are not a financial planner. You are a salesman. Also, I call BS to your alleged performance. You would have to be doing something very risky for your entire portfolio to be up that much.

Wow. Crazy how people see annuities and label you as a saleman. I some annities work great for the right people. As far as the performance, could be true. I own a MF (AACFX) which is up around 70% YTD, so who knows....lol

usctrojan24 said:So, I keep seeing these target retirement funds. I am a financial planner, the only advantage I see is that it allows you to forget about the money.

I have no clue what you mean about forgetting bout the money.

Are the fees lower?

You're a financial planner. You should tell that to us.

b/c i use annuities that give 3-5% bumps and lock in the principal amount

I'm sorry, but I don't know what a "bump" is, nor a principal lock.

so you can't lose money

I get scared whenever I read this.

plus i can be aggressive. I'm up 49% this year.

Very impressive. Care to share your investment philosophy. Is it simply buying overseas and betting that the dollar will weaken?

I have not seen returns over 20%.

I assume that this is a typo for not seeing returns under 20%. If you made that mistake, then I join with theman2 in calling BS. Otherwise, I would say that you have issues with numbers.

Please advise.

Above.

Personally I think that target retirement funds are great for people that either aren't interested or unable to manage their own retirement.

Target retirement funds are also good for people who do not have a lot of money to invest up front. Most of the low-cost mutual funds have a relatively high minimum balance to not incur extra fees. It is a lot easier to meet the minimum balance requirement on a single fund that has a good allocation than to make your own allocation and meet the minimum balance requirement on every fund you buy. Being a poor graduate student, this is the number one reason I own a target retirement fund.

usctrojan24 said:Wow, the anger. Apparently financial planners are salesmen only, they serve no valid purpose. Thank you thursday for the response to the question. I just wanna know if i should advise my clients about any other benefits. I like that unlike annuities there is a certain amount of portability. Thursday do u still have money in there?It is not anger (at least for me). But the facts that you are asking the questions you do, disclosing that you sell annuities, and calling yourself a financial planner all at the same time just doesn't add up. You can't be a financial planner if you are unable to understand these basic issues yourself. Sorry, but someone who sells annuities without a good grasp of the financial world is a salesman, not a financial planner.

You would be surprised how little some financial planners know. I recognize there too many products and variations that knowing all of them would cause information overload. I need to know as many things as possible considering I am relatively new. When you become a planner, you are not handed every intelligent reason for and against a certain action. You just need to take classes and pass a test, the equivalent of a stock broker and taking the series 7. They don't teach you a about new funds like target funds, we barely covered ETFs.
BTW, I chose FW because I trust it and have learned a great deal in the past.

usctrojan24 said:You would be surprised how little some financial planners know. .thanks for confirming why we dont usually recomment them. if the typical reader of FWF knows more than financial planners, thats a great reason to just use them for the free steak dinners and $75 AMEX GCs

Why are we so critical of financial planners? Some people just have a need to have someone plan out their lives because they dont have the time to research it themselves. Personally I love to do my own financial work but I hate medical things. So I have a medical planner. He told me to take 3 blue pills, 1 purple pill and 2 red pills each day. I have no idea what they are but I feel great! Most of the time, but sometimes I vomit and it hurts when I pee. But hes a medical planner so I trust him and his brother, the Pharmacist that sells me the drugs.