My Financial advisor of many years is moving to LPL, not sure whether to move with them.
Looking for some advice/suggestions on how to proceed.
My advisor just privately informed me that they are leaving their current bank to become an independent advisor with LPL. Reasons for moving are that the bank is changing its fee structure and the Advisor is not happy (client fees will go up, and there is no autonomy for advisors to manage clients case by case. They often waive individual transaction fees for us, and this would, I assume, no longer be possible if we get a new advisor in the current bank.) If we move, I am assured that the fees would be the same as we currently pay (1.20% of AUM annually).
Obviously, they want me to move my portfolio. I like the Advisor; we get on well, they have been great for the last 10 years, and the money has grown just fine. We are 2 years away from retirement, and they helped get us here. But, 2-3 things are making me pause:
I had a very bad LPL experience in the past, and I am not sure I share the Advisor's rosy hopes for the future there. They say it depends on the advisor, so I may have been unlucky last time, but in addition to an MIA advisor, the website tech was awful, and the customer service was worse. 3 yrs after closing the last account, I still get quarterly 10-12 page paper statements for .02 cents on the closed account.
The current bank also has all my banking accounts (a total of about 8 accounts and a HELOC) that I use daily for personal and business for myself and an aging parent. Because of the AUM in my investments, we get a Wealth-level service with no fees and lots of perks. AUM is not huge, but it is basically all I have. All these perks would go away if we moved our funds.
If we stay at this bank, who knows if the fee structure stuff will just get worse (death by a thousand fees), and this close to retirement, it makes me nervous to make such big changes.
Am I overreacting to this situation? I would appreciate suggestions on what to do.
Potentially, I could move almost everything and keep just enough at the bank to maintain the perks, but I'm not sure that's a smart move for investing.
Finance stuff is always my Achilles heel - I am sure I make so many mistakes and would love knowledgeable advice.