POON WATCHARA-AMPHAIWANFROM THE EDITOR
Mark Solheim
The Broker Matrix
B
ack in the April issue, I wrote
about my beef with my broker,
E*Trade, over $32,000 that had
gone missing from my IRA. As I ex-
plained then, I had invested in Mobil-
Eye, an Israeli company that developed
camera-based driver-assistance tech-
nology, and the company was acquired
by Intel. Before that point, whenever
shares of companies I owned had been
acquired, I simply let the money make
its way to my account. But in this case
I was supposed to actively tender my
shares, and I missed the tender period
because E*Trade didn’t use e-mail or
snail mail to notify me of the
requirement. The money was
sent to an escrow account in
the Netherlands, and al-
though I filled out multiple
forms and affidavits that
E*Trade forwarded, nearly
six months later there was
no indication that the money
would be sent to my ac-
count anytime soon.
After a few unpro-
ductive e-mail
exchanges with
E*Trade, I decided
to call. The eager,
apologetic rep on
my “dedicated elite
team” wasn’t able
to help, so he
transferred me to
the corporate ac-
tion department.
Here’s where my
beef comes in:
The employee who
picked up there said
he didn’t have any
information and thatthere was nothing he could do. He did
not offer to investigate further. He
seemed indifferent and unresponsive.Best brokers. I bring this up because
starting on page 20, we present our
annual broker rankings. I eventually
got my MobilEye money, but after
the debacle I vowed to dig into our
rankings this year to see if there was
a broker that could offer more hand-
holding. We were planning to give our
methodology a face-lift this year, so I
asked the broker rankings team, with
associate editor Ryan Ermey on point
and Anne Smith editing, to include
premium services for larger ac-counts as part of the
evaluation criteria.
Six of the 10 bro-
kers we include
in our rankings
will assign a ded-
icated account
representative
to clients who
meet a certain
asset threshold.
Only at Fidelity,
Schwab and TD
Ameritrade can cli-
ents work one-on-one
with a certified finan-
cial planner. Clients at
Fidelity and TD Ameri-trade need accounts with $250,000 or
more to access a CFP, but it takes only
$25,000 in assets at Schwab. I had a
dedicated planner assigned to me at
E*Trade, but he stayed conspicuously
silent while I was having my MobilEye
moment.
Access to a CFP is only one piece
of a complex matrix in my decision.
As we make clear in our article, the
best broker for you depends on what’s
important to you—from the number of
no-commission funds available to the
depth of analyst research to the agility
of the mobile app.
My current broker offers a great
menu of services and, to be fair,
E*Trade earned the top spot overall
in our rankings this year. But I’m look-
ing for someone who will be in my
corner and reach out to me at crucial
junctures. With retirement on the
medium-term horizon, I’ve accumu-
lated a decent-size nest egg in my IRA,
and frankly I’d like my broker to ac-
knowledge that with extra offerings.
It may be naï ve to believe that an en-
tire industry that has replaced human
brokers with cheap, automated trades
will offer truly personalized service,
but I remain hopeful.
One other tidbit to crank into the
decision: Some of the brokers are of-
fering a small bounty if you move your
money. For example, at TD Ameri-
trade, you can get up to $2,500 cash
along with 90 days of commission-free
trading if you open an account with at
least $1 million. Ryan gave a rundown
of some of the offers on the Kiplinger
podcast that aired on August 5 (see
kiplinger.com/links/podcast). ■MARK SOLHEIM, EDITOR
[email protected]
TWITTER: @MARKSOLHEIM6 KIPLINGER’S PERSONAL FINANCE^me of the
money was
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premium serviceTHE BEST BROKER FOR
YOU DEPENDS ON WHAT’S
IMPORTANT TO YOU.