Complaint Review: The Mutual Fund Store - Nationwide

I do not know anything about The Mutual Find Store. If a person does not want to pay for professional advice they can always open a brokerage account and decide for themselves what they want to invest in. By in effect hiring an advisor or firm to provide advice you want to gauge the quality of the advice given, and there are simply ways to do that. As an Advisor I give detailed information about how investments are chosen for a client and why we charge the fees we do. Seems to me that a firm that will not tell a client what they are doing and why they are doing it really has little of value to provide the client. The old saying is "Wall Streets biggest scam is convincing people that luck is skill ". Wish you a successful investment experience.

I am not a customer of the mutual fund store, but I have contacted them for information about their services.  I note that their fees are NOT prominently displayed on their web site--often a bad sign.

In my cursory investigation, I was contacted by a "Senior Investment Advisor" with a CFS designation. Looking up the CFS designation, I find that it is a "Certified Fund Specialist"--a designation from the Institute of Business and Finance.  To get this impressive sounding designation, the training consists of a 60 hour self study program.  The course has a final exam administered by the National Association of Securities Dealers and has an open book final exam.

With this in mind, I inquired as to the fees, and I found that the fees are equal to those of a Certified Financial Planner--between 1% for very large accounts and 1.5% for smaller accounts.

Now, which would you prefer to pay for financial guidance--at the same rate--a Certified Financial Planner, or a Certified Fund Specialist, who has under his training belt a 60 hours self study course?

Well, I decided to pass on this opportunity to work with the Mutual Fund Store.

The difference seems to be that after a year or two if the Mutual Fund Store doesnt produce sufficient income to pay for their fee plus a decent return on my investment, I can leave and go elsewhere.   An Annuity requires that I stay invested for 7 to 10 years even though I may be losing my principal balance.  Thats a big difference.

Jerry, you need to brush up on your math, especially if you're going to report someone to Ripoff Report.

"Let's look at what happens if you invested $100,000...If your account makes no money nor loses no money for the ten years your balance at the end of ten years would be less than $85000."

Um...no.  If your account makes no money nor loses no money for ten years, your balance at the end is $100,000.  It's true that you would have generated $15,000 (1.5% x 100,000 x 10) in fees for TMFS.

Now, if you mean there's no change in your account balance each year for 10 years, and  TMFS takes out their 1.5%, you've forgotten that as the balance goes down, so does the commission -- the 2nd year, they'd be taking 1.5% of $98,500, etc.  Figured that way (i.e., correctly), your ending balance would be over $85,900, and TMFS's commissions would be the remainder, $14,100.

But if your account does that for 10 years, what is every other investment vehicle doing?  The real question is:  Is my annual return, minus the 1.5% TMFS charges, more than I could have gotten on my own or with another advisor?  That's an open question, but simply charging 1.5%/yr. certainly doesn't qualify as a ripoff IMO.

BTW, everything I've read about annuities (cf. fool.com, marketwatch.com, etc.) leads me to believe they are a ripoff for the consumer and a big commission generator for the broker.

It depends on the fund on how management fees are structured.  A shares have a front end load which means the fund charges a percentage right off the top once the shares are purchased.  B shares have a back end sales load which means that you are not charged a percentage up front but the management fees are higher annually.  And no load funds charge an even higher management fee or 12b-1 fees on the fund.  Most brokerage firms will purchase A shares if the amount you are spending is less than 50K.  If it is more than 50K it is normally a no load fund or B shares.  I am not sure how this company charges but normally the fund says there is a maximum amount they can charge depending on what shares you buy.  A shares normally are around 5%.

The fees charged by Adam Bold are only a rip-off if the returns are worse than you could have done on your own, or at least cannot out-earn the overall market. So where is the actual proof of a rip-off here? Also, commissioned brokers only will sell you something that will earn them a commission. If there is a better fund for you, they won't sell it to you if they cannot make money off the sale. They do not provide any advice.

The fees charged by Adam Bold are only a rip-off if the returns are worse than you could have done on your own, or at least cannot out-earn the overall market. So where is the actual proof of a rip-off here? Also, commissioned brokers only will sell you something that will earn them a commission. If there is a better fund for you, they won't sell it to you if they cannot make money off the sale. They do not provide any advice.

The fees charged by Adam Bold are only a rip-off if the returns are worse than you could have done on your own, or at least cannot out-earn the overall market. So where is the actual proof of a rip-off here? Also, commissioned brokers only will sell you something that will earn them a commission. If there is a better fund for you, they won't sell it to you if they cannot make money off the sale. They do not provide any advice.

The fees charged by Adam Bold are only a rip-off if the returns are worse than you could have done on your own, or at least cannot out-earn the overall market. So where is the actual proof of a rip-off here? Also, commissioned brokers only will sell you something that will earn them a commission. If there is a better fund for you, they won't sell it to you if they cannot make money off the sale. They do not provide any advice.

They apparently rip you off with excessive brokerage fees. There is a certain radio station in Austin,Texas where an brokerage outfit with the same name wants to talk to you IF you have $50,000 worth of investments.... I am wondering if this is some sort of franchise. I don't mind paying them REASONABLE management fees, but IF, as you imply here, the management fees soon begin to eat up the interest on my dividends and then start munching on my principal, I DO NOT NEED TO PUT MY MONEY THERE! I don't have $50,000 but was going to call them anyway and think about turning over some funds I managed to save to see if they could grow them for me in the wonderful way they CLAIM to increase your portfolio's worth in their radio commercials.... Come to think about it, since the Yuppie -Greed GENERATED NIGHTMARE ON WALL STREET, I haven't heard those wonderful, down-to-business commercials so I will keep my money to myself. I DO NOT WANT THE WALL STREETER TRASH TO GAMBLE MY MONEY AWAY! Thank you for posting your warning. I ALMOST believed those overpriced ( expletive deleteds). Whatever happened to the old-fashioned brokerage firm where you,asa SMALL investor, could invest your money and they took pride in MAKING MONEY for YOU and thus, THEMSELVES. Again, THANKS for the warning!

They apparently rip you off with excessive brokerage fees. There is a certain radio station in Austin,Texas where an brokerage outfit with the same name wants to talk to you IF you have $50,000 worth of investments.... I am wondering if this is some sort of franchise. I don't mind paying them REASONABLE management fees, but IF, as you imply here, the management fees soon begin to eat up the interest on my dividends and then start munching on my principal, I DO NOT NEED TO PUT MY MONEY THERE! I don't have $50,000 but was going to call them anyway and think about turning over some funds I managed to save to see if they could grow them for me in the wonderful way they CLAIM to increase your portfolio's worth in their radio commercials.... Come to think about it, since the Yuppie -Greed GENERATED NIGHTMARE ON WALL STREET, I haven't heard those wonderful, down-to-business commercials so I will keep my money to myself. I DO NOT WANT THE WALL STREETER TRASH TO GAMBLE MY MONEY AWAY! Thank you for posting your warning. I ALMOST believed those overpriced ( expletive deleteds). Whatever happened to the old-fashioned brokerage firm where you,asa SMALL investor, could invest your money and they took pride in MAKING MONEY for YOU and thus, THEMSELVES. Again, THANKS for the warning!

They apparently rip you off with excessive brokerage fees. There is a certain radio station in Austin,Texas where an brokerage outfit with the same name wants to talk to you IF you have $50,000 worth of investments.... I am wondering if this is some sort of franchise. I don't mind paying them REASONABLE management fees, but IF, as you imply here, the management fees soon begin to eat up the interest on my dividends and then start munching on my principal, I DO NOT NEED TO PUT MY MONEY THERE! I don't have $50,000 but was going to call them anyway and think about turning over some funds I managed to save to see if they could grow them for me in the wonderful way they CLAIM to increase your portfolio's worth in their radio commercials.... Come to think about it, since the Yuppie -Greed GENERATED NIGHTMARE ON WALL STREET, I haven't heard those wonderful, down-to-business commercials so I will keep my money to myself. I DO NOT WANT THE WALL STREETER TRASH TO GAMBLE MY MONEY AWAY! Thank you for posting your warning. I ALMOST believed those overpriced ( expletive deleteds). Whatever happened to the old-fashioned brokerage firm where you,asa SMALL investor, could invest your money and they took pride in MAKING MONEY for YOU and thus, THEMSELVES. Again, THANKS for the warning!

They apparently rip you off with excessive brokerage fees. There is a certain radio station in Austin,Texas where an brokerage outfit with the same name wants to talk to you IF you have $50,000 worth of investments.... I am wondering if this is some sort of franchise. I don't mind paying them REASONABLE management fees, but IF, as you imply here, the management fees soon begin to eat up the interest on my dividends and then start munching on my principal, I DO NOT NEED TO PUT MY MONEY THERE! I don't have $50,000 but was going to call them anyway and think about turning over some funds I managed to save to see if they could grow them for me in the wonderful way they CLAIM to increase your portfolio's worth in their radio commercials.... Come to think about it, since the Yuppie -Greed GENERATED NIGHTMARE ON WALL STREET, I haven't heard those wonderful, down-to-business commercials so I will keep my money to myself. I DO NOT WANT THE WALL STREETER TRASH TO GAMBLE MY MONEY AWAY! Thank you for posting your warning. I ALMOST believed those overpriced ( expletive deleteds). Whatever happened to the old-fashioned brokerage firm where you,asa SMALL investor, could invest your money and they took pride in MAKING MONEY for YOU and thus, THEMSELVES. Again, THANKS for the warning!