An elderly relative needs an outside opinion on his EJ investment account. I'm not familiar with these funds so any advice would be appreciated.
1. American Cap Inc Builder A
2. American Inc Fund of American A
3. JH US Global Leaders Growth A

Thanks

This is about 5% of the information needed for anyone to tell you whether these were/are good for your elderly friend to hold.

Yeah I was afraid of that. Relative doesn't currently need to withdrawal any funds and probably never will need to. But he is concerned being down 10 percent this year.

Luckily I'm personally currently 90 percent in cash and real estate investments and just not current on equities/funds.
Was really hoping an EJ rep would comment on the specific funds they would currently recommend going forward today.

Mas89 said:

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Yeah I was afraid of that. Relative doesn't currently need to withdrawal any funds and probably never will need to. But he is concerned being down 10 percent this year.

Luckily I'm personally currently 90 percent in cash and real estate investments and just not current on equities/funds.
Was really hoping an EJ rep would comment on the specific funds they would currently recommend going forward today.

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Most people are down a lot more than 10% for the year, the S&P is down 17%.

I own both Cap Income Builder and Income Fund of America. Both traditionally pay good dividends and hold up decent in down markets. Those 2 and American Balanced are what my daughter's 529 funds are in. If your relative stays invested both these funds while not getting the top most aggressive returns they will serve your relative well long-term.

Stive said:

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This is about 5% of the information needed for anyone to tell you whether these were/are good for your elderly friend to hold.

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Speaking of 5%, those front loads… woof… absolutely zero reason to pay that…

Not a fan of AF, my 401k is with them

Mas89 said:

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Yeah I was afraid of that. Relative doesn't currently need to withdrawal any funds and probably never will need to. But he is concerned being down 10 percent this year.

Luckily I'm personally currently 90 percent in cash and real estate investments and just not current on equities/funds.
Was really hoping an EJ rep would comment on the specific funds they would currently recommend going forward today.

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I'm with EJ. Impossible to tell if those are suitable or not, but everyone is down this year. There are 100% fixed income portfolios that are down 10% this year.

TriAg2010 said:

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Speaking of 5%, those front loads… woof… absolutely zero reason to pay that…

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Not true at all. However, no reason to pay that 1 time load if you don't feel comfortable having this discussion with the advisor it was paid to and instead look for answers on Texags from strangers.

cjsag94 said:

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TriAg2010 said:

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Speaking of 5%, those front loads… woof… absolutely zero reason to pay that…

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Not true at all. However, no reason to pay that 1 time load if you don't feel comfortable having this discussion with the advisor it was paid to and instead look for answers on Texags from strangers.

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Plenty of great funds to recommend without a worthless 5% load.

People in here talking about the load not knowing the investment amount, where the account is positioned, whether it was a one time buy or an ongoing DCA, how long ago the buy was made, what the time horizon was, whether these were the original buys or if they were in something else originally, etc.

EJ clearly has a marketing problem in the 21st century. People google the funds and see 5% loads and the resident advisors assure us that is wrong, but will only tell us the real fees if we are willing to meet with them and hear their pitch. Almost every other bank can tell you fees up front so it's weird EJ can't.

I would love to only be down 10% YTD

hypeiv said:

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EJ clearly has a marketing problem in the 21st century. People google the funds and see 5% loads and the resident advisors assure us that is wrong, but will only tell us the real fees if we are willing to meet with them and hear their pitch. Almost every other bank can tell you fees up front so it's weird EJ can't.

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It's very very easy to find out what the costs are at EJ. Its on their website plain as day, so not sure what you're talking about.

Some people paid a 5% sales charge on American funds 15+ years ago and have paid nothing except the internal expenses since then. Say what you want about whether it's worth it today to pay the internal expense of 0.60% or whatever it is on those specific funds, but 10-15 years ago A share mutual funds were extremely popular.

I know know a crap ton of EJ advisors, very rarely do I come across someone that still uses A shares and it's been that way for almost 10 years now. You will find a bunch of EJ clients with old A shares from the mid-2000's that have been happy with the performance over that timeframe and don't want to change anything, but that's about it.

Every advisor charges fees, every advisor, you just need to understand that when you go with one. If you buy funds on your own you also will pay, you just need to know how to find out how much. The advantage to having an advisor is supposed to be assistance with identifying specific investments, some advisors are good at it, some aren't. If you can't tell whether a specific American Funds investment is any good or not I think you need advice. You can't buy American Funds without going thru an advisor, and some of their funds have great track records, loads and fees included.
Bottom line is investing has no 1 stop solution. I spent 28 years as an FA and pay a fee for some guy to manage my money now. There are lots of reasons why I do that but performance is far from the #1 reason.

hypeiv said:

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EJ clearly has a marketing problem in the 21st century. People google the funds and see 5% loads and the resident advisors assure us that is wrong, but will only tell us the real fees if we are willing to meet with them and hear their pitch. Almost every other bank can tell you fees up front so it's weird EJ can't.

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Fyi, Edward Jones doesn't have funds (outside of 1 of their fee based platforms - no loads). For funds such as American, the fees, loads, breakpoints, etc. per share class and per specific fund are laid out by the fund companies in their prospectus. So, if you want to know the costs to buy A share mutual funds, the answer is it depends on which fund family,
portfolio construction, and how much you invest. This isn't a number you can put on a website, you'd either have to review with an advisor what you wanted to invest and build out a portfolio (different loads depends on which fund), or you can read all the prospectuses and figure it out.

Unfortunately, for those who think paying an advisor adds zero value, the time spent answering that question is done for free.

Stive said:

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This is about 5% of the information needed for anyone to tell you whether these were/are good for your elderly friend to hold.

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This

hypeiv said:

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EJ clearly has a marketing problem in the 21st century. People google the funds and see 5% loads and the resident advisors assure us that is wrong, but will only tell us the real fees if we are willing to meet with them and hear their pitch. Almost every other bank can tell you fees up front so it's weird EJ can't.

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Agreed, marketing and other commentary surrounding the entire industry has demonized paying for financial advice in general.

But then there's the Fisher Investments marketing. They have some of the highest fees I've come across in the industry, yet they've marketed themselves as the boy scouts doing it cheaper and with integrity not seen anywhere else. Right up until their founder starts running his mouth.