Adam Bold’s Mutual Fund Store is a network of franchisees who operate under the guise of calling themselves, “financial advisors”. But in my mind a financial advisor should do a lot more than just press a couple buttons and print out a pie chart, fill out contracts and paperwork to transfer your account, and then press more buttons to sell your current holdings and buy the funds they recommend. Yes, these people have the required SEC designations, but ask them any other questions having to do with taxes, estate planning or anything else and they say they can’t do it. All they can do is sell a mutual fund wrap account. Wonder what a wrap account is? Highlight, copy and paste this link in your browser and see for yourself if this doesn’t just sound like it was written specifically about Adam Bold and his Mutual Fund Store. www.responsible-investing.net/news_jun09_wrapaccounts.html
Consumer Reviews and Complaints
WRITE A REVIEWLeave a Reply to Terry Cancel reply
Get Leads Fast
Hired getleadsfast.com to build website ($1250), they never did. They even scammed me into paying up front ($1500) for the management of
LG Electronics
Previous Review Next Review
Giltner, Inc.
ROBERY; They took the money from my pay check, without notification. It was $136.00 dls. for a Parking ticket in california. I was waiting
Cindy Railian
Emailed over a dozen times back and forth to marvin. | Black leather leg bag, has never been shipped. | I was told they were having
Envrio Solar
This person, Ernesto Alamos, just opens another company to screw his customers and moves to another state with another name. They are
FLA Contractors
We purchased an AC condenser from Frankie in April. He came out to do the install and it didn’t work so he had to come back out with
Gallatin Association of REALTORS
Unless you are living in California or Oregon, DO NOT file any type of complaint against an unethical real estate agent with the Gallatin
First Citizens Bank
Due to suspicious activity on my account and sudden continual phone calls stating I have been approved for a loan to be deposited into my
This complaint and/or review was posted on HolySmoke.org on 02:57 am, November 26, 2019 (CST) and is a permanent record located at: https://www.holysmoke.org/scam/financial-engines-formerly-the-mutual-fund-store/.
The reviews & complaints posted about Financial Engines (formerly The Mutual Fund Store) was submitted by a member or guest on this website. Any and all opinions and information are published as is. HolySmoke.org does not edit or remove any aspect of the report and is simply a consumer grievance free-speech platform. As such, HolySmoke.org cannot be held liable for the complaints and reviews posted about Financial Engines (formerly The Mutual Fund Store) as per Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Financial Engines (formerly The Mutual Fund Store) Reviews & Complaints
ADAM, When someone calls The Mutual Fund Store show with ADAM BOLD he has no good argument in defense of ETS”s. ETF”s are for intelligent people not the kind of brain dead college educated clients MFS clients are. Of course an IDIOT can blow themselves up with ETF”s. They can also do it with mutual funds. If my financial planner needs GPS to get to Krogers, he”s fired… If he can”t give an historical performance record for all the asset models in his group, he”s fired. If he cares less about my money than i do, he”s fired. I like Walt Kazunchuck of MFS SF Bay Area but he cares less about my money than his own. He doesn”t recomment ETF”s even to people it might be appropriate for since it would brake the IDIOT Adams rules. I left MFS in 2007 and have made more money shorting and playing long at the right times than i ever did at MFS. MFS is mainly for financially brain dead people who may even be college educated professors. Thats part of the problem. TOO much school makes too many people too stupid. That”s Adams advantage which he profits on to the hilt. I”m not trying to build a shuttle to the moon, i just want to trade. The word investing is the biggest slap in the face lie perpetrated on a civilised world. The stock market is a casino and as soon as people realise it the better. Only good thing about this casino is i get to see the other guys cards which gives me a great advantage as long as i don”t let guys like ADAM BOLD play for me. ADAM couldgive a flip when it”s not his money. So glad i left WALT and MFS when i did…Now i”m finally making money. Since MAY1st to AUG1st 2010 i”ve made 50, 000 dollars of my $800, 000 total. I”m positive that beats the crap out of MFS. Especially since MFS won”t even publish any historical track records. If i can do that in a BEAR market i”ll have no problem when the bulls come out. Just the fact you had to say i did not get your goat on the radio saturday proves i DID…hahhaahh. If you can”t even publish historical porfolio records as many honest planners do, To HELL with you.
Financial Engines (formerly The Mutual Fund Store) Reviews & Complaints
Bold loves analogies. He compares investment managers to quarterbacks, golfers and baseball players. A worthless analogy in my humble opinion. Bold tells the story of his grandmother who steals packets of sugar from restaurants because she lived through the depression and remembers suger being rationed. He points out other things being rationed as well in those days; coffee, meat, tires, cars…he does not tell us if his grandmother steals any of these items for the same reason as the sugar packets. But he appears to justify that it would be ok to do so, since she’s only doing it because of the memories of rationing. So try this analogy Mr. Bold. Stealing packets of sugar from restaurants seems to be a victimless crime to you. Well consider if everyone who came into the restaurant did that every single day the restaurant was open. Before long the restaurant would have to start charging for each packet and only bringing them out once payment has been collected. One person stealing a few packets goes unnoticed by the restauarant, however. This is kind of like the fees you suck out of each account MFS manages. It’s just a “small percentage” and just like your grandmother you’ve figured out that people won’t notice it. But over time it adds up to a hell of a lot of sugar!
Financial Engines (formerly The Mutual Fund Store) Reviews & Complaints
Bold says he’s been pumping mutual funds on the radio since 1998. It’s true. In 1998 he was blabbering on and on about technology stocks and funds. We all know how that turned out. After tech burst he started pumping financials and financial services. We all know how that turned out. He sounds a bit directionless at the moment, since he can’t really jump on the current bubble; precious metals, so he seems to talk about basically nothing over the course of his one hour infomercial. He spends a lot of time talking about the nearly 50% rise in stocks since March of 2009 and tries to act like this is proof of he knows what he is talking about. He says nothing about the fact that anyone who was taking his advice or following his allocation plan is, even in the best of situations, still in the red, or perhaps just about break even if they’ve been in the market for 10+ years. Bold is a stopped clock. He is going to be right once per day and thats it. That doesn’t mean to say that his own net worth hasn’t benefited immensely from his weekly drivel. But this has been on the backs of the people who have been paying his company to manage their money.
Financial Engines (formerly The Mutual Fund Store) Reviews & Complaints
For some stupid reason I listen to Bold’s commercial/radio show every Saturday. Probably because I’m just too lazy to change the radio station and it comes on automatically with my coffee maker. I’m not a client, and not a competitor. I’ve never met any0ne from the company so I have no axe to grind other than just years of chuckling over this program, which is nothing but a paid advertisement. At least they state at the end of the show, which they began doing just a couple years ago, probably because they were told to do so by some regulatory body. The problem I have with this program is that there is never any debate about the service or recommedations. Every now and then a caller attempts to get in a “controversial” subject regarding the fee structure, poor performance of a previously Bold recommended fund(s), ETF’s, or market direction. Every single time, Bold cuts them off and dances around the issue, or just flat out ignores it. I’m curious if the advisors do the same thing if a client asks these same questions. If the radio voice of the company can’t answer these questions, how can anyone else? He says he’s been on the radio pumping managed mutual funds since 1998, but he nevers bothers to say that since 1999 the stock market has returned virtually 0% on a nominal basis and is significantly negative on a real basis. What has he done for his clientele for the last 12 years? Nothing. Well, except for draining their accounts of additional fees. It’s sad because every year he convinces the more ignorant listener that ther is a way to pick winners, when he knows it’s just a guessing game and the odds are poor no matter how you try to analyze funds. I’ve heard so many funds come and go from that show it makes me wonder that really his losers far outnumber any decent fund he happens to catch for a brief ride of glory. Let’s see, he’s loved Trendstar, Hodges, Forward Hoover, Marsico, Excelsior Value, FBR Financial, FBR Focus, Kinetic Paradigm, Red Oak, White Oak, Quaker, Third Avenue, a variety of real estate funds. All of which are no longer ever mentioned. Anyone can go find a 4 or 5 star rated fund and start talking like you’ve been in it for years…AFTER the fact. Then when it eventually crumbles like they all do, he moves on to the next one. Isn’t this known as performance chasing? I find it interesting that he likes to criticize other investment choices and people engaged in different types of finacial services. He loves to point out their shortcomings as if he’s genuinely concerned about the welfare of the listener. But what he nevers bothers to talk about is the shortcomings of his own service and how it’s methods are just as questionable as any other form of advice. It’s nothing but a wrap account of high fee managed mutual funds. The same thing as an annuity. The difference being that the annuity takes about 4-6 years of fees up front and Bold’s fees continue forever, forever, forever. I said forever 3 times because the fees continue each and every year, wheras with an annuity or a front load fund they have a lifespan of 4-6 years. Personally, I don’t condone paying any kind of fee. But the guy really needs to fess up and stop acting all high and mighty. He’s no better than the worst of the worst he loves to criticize. So that’s my beef about this program. I would love to have an HONEST debate with Bold but that will never happen.
Financial Engines (formerly The Mutual Fund Store) Reviews & Complaints
Gold, Silver and oil have quadrupled over the last 10 years and the ENTIRE time Adam Bold has been on his weekly radio show telling people over and over not to invest money into these asset classes. His mutual funds have done absolutely NOTHING for a decade and yet this guy acts like he knows what he”s talking about. This weekend one of his lackeys makes the statement “the easy money has been made in natural resources, so we don”t like that category”. IF it was so “easy” why didn”t Adam Bold ever suggest it? I can”t believe the brain dead drivel that comes forth from this program on a weekly basis.
Financial Engines (formerly The Mutual Fund Store) Reviews & Complaints
Here is the scene. There are a group of financial planners sitting around a table and one says, “I have an idea. Why don”t we stop charging commissions and just charge a small annual management fee.” This way we will make less money and the client will make more”. The reality is the planner makes more although it sounds like a better deal for the client. This is the easiest lie to sell in the financial services business. “We do not charge a commission, we only charge a small annual fee”. You hear this guy, Adam Bold on the radio every weekend telling you that you should avoid the “greedy brokers” that charge a commission. The actual fact is the “greedy broker” charges a lot less than The Mutual Fund Store. The Trojan Horse is that the “greedy broker” charges a one time fee whereas the mutual fund store charges at least 1 1/2% fee every year, even if your account loses money. Let”s look at what happens if you invested $100, 000 with the greedy broker. Your sales charge is a one time fee of $3500. Assuming you are in the investment for ten years with the mutual fund store your fees total a whopping 15% of your original investment which is $15000. 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. If you do the math and assume that your account grows by 10% per year your fees to the mutual fund store total over $24000. This is why he hammers other brokers and annuity salesman. He talks about greedy brokers and annuity salesman like they are lepers. He spends most of his show speaking ill of others in his industry. The fact is, in the recent economic down turn, his investors have lost a lot of money, while those who invested in annuities have lost no money and paid no fees and their accounts are actually up in value. Sadly, his investors have lost a lot of money and they will lose some more when he deducts his fees from their accounts. To his credit, Adam Bold is a great marketer but don”t expect him to tell you the truth.
Financial Engines (formerly The Mutual Fund Store) Reviews & Complaints
I examined the promises this company makes. A) They say you will own the “best Funds”. What is the definition of best fund? There aren’t any other than past performance. Do you want to invest based on past performance? How hard really, is it to move your money to the funds sporting the “best” past performance AFTER you know the results? Not very difficult I would guess. Does the company have any predictive powers of what the “best” fund will be in the next 12 months? You can be judge of that. But while you’re at it, please tell me who will win the Kentucky Derby next year as well. The odds are about the same. B) Wrap Fees. That’s how they make their money. The are many people who consider wrap fees as fraudulent. You be the judge of that. But you should at least know what wrap fees are and what they mean for your portfolio. Read this link for some clarity. www.stockbrokerfraudblog.com/2007/06/wrap_fees_beware_of_investment.html Here is another one. www.byrneasset.com/images/Article-NJL-wrapaccounts.pdf The Mutual Fund Store is an RIA firm cloaked in a Wrap Agreement. How can you tell? Ask them for any financial advice other than the allocation of your money into various mutual funds. That is all they will do. They are unable to provide any other financial advice. No estate planning, no tax planning, no insurance evaluation. It’s nothing but a wrap program, which many consider fraudulent and barely legal. You be your own judge. Do your own research.
Financial Engines (formerly The Mutual Fund Store) Reviews & Complaints
I must take exception and voice my opinion of what I hear from this radio program. All they ever say is the market is going to go up and you need to be fully invested in stock and bond mutual funds. The voice tells you they will find the best mutual funds for you. But I am here to tell you, the market is for trading only. No one is going to make money by owning mutual funds unless they trade and time the market. You ABSOLUTELY must not be in these funds when the market is moving sideways or is heading lower. They say you “get to be a long term investor.” What does that mean? Ask the people who have been holding mutual funds for the last 15 years? It has not gotten them anywhere. They have measily long term returns when you factor in fees and taxes. Yet they have taken insane risk. They have seen their funds go up ridiculously [protected]). Then seen dramatic crash (late [protected]), then it goes back up dramatically [protected]), then another dramatic crash [protected]), then it goes back up [protected]). But when all is said and done it had produced virtually nothing for long term investor. You may think when these funds go up, it is good for you. BUT do not be fooled. You will think yourself richer than you really are and you will take stupid risks and a great deal of your income on things you do not need due to false sense of wealth. Then market will crash on you again when you do not expect it and you will be financially destroyed. This has been the pattern in this country since the 1920’s and it is not changing anytime soon. You must not listen to people who tell you this stock market is for long term investors. You must wise up and realize you will only profit by the trade. IF you let them convince you otherwise, they will milk your savings of fees that you don’t even realize until it’s too late. You must not fall for the pitch of these salesman who try to convince you they have your interest at heart. They do not. They only want your fees, that is it, and they don’t care what they have to say to get them.
I got it hook line and sinker
Wow is all I can say about this rip off. What a total joke.I lost 15k over a 6 7 yr. period. I went in having little knowledge about investing. I trusted the Mutual Fund Store and they got me. My fault no doubt for not paying attention. Woke up one day and got a second opinion. Surprise surprise. I fired M F S in Austin and transferred my account. Within 3 yrs. I recouped everything and even made a little. I now see or talk by phone my Voya rep. every 6 months and I’m happy happy happy. I’m giving them a one star because they don’t have a BIG FAT -0. Buyer beware of The Mutual Fund Store.