Dear Scott,
I have a question concerning a recommendation from our “First Command” financial agent. Both my wife and I are retired military officers in our 50’s. Currently, she is a school teacher and I sell real estate. We have 2 teenage daughters and our gross income last year was $205,000.00. Both my wife and I have Traditional and Roth IRA’s totaling about $210,000.00. In addition we have about $400,000.00 in other investments, i.e. bonds, CD’s and tax exempt money market.
Our current home is appraised at $492,000.00 and we have a rental house in Austin, Texas that is paid off. Financially, we feel we are comfortable. My wife’s IRA’s are with “Fidelity Destiny 1” worth about $165,000.00 and mine are with USAA Growth Fund worth about $50,000.00.
Over the last several years we have been disappointed with the performance of Fidelity Destiny 1 and want to move out of it and into another financial vehicle. Our financial agent recommends we put the IRAs and other money totaling over $250,000.00 into a “First Command” Select Investor Program (SIP), where our account will be managed by a professional money manager. The kicker is the 1% management fee per year with no guarantee of positive results. I am a little worried about paying this high fee with no guarantee. Is this a good deal or should we try another alternative? Thank you for your time in this matter.
