Annuity IQ

OK, so I was checking out my RSS feeds yesterday, like I do every morning, and I ran across something unusual. I have an RSS feed, or did, right to Mr. Burns blog and to my surprise it was no longer active.

Being the inquisitive person that I am, I then visited the site to see what was going on. I could not believe my eyes! Talk about being a hypocrite, this guy who for years has stated the following:

1. Always index your money or use Vanguard.
2. Never pay commissions.
3. Do it yourself, it’s easy.
4. He am always right.

I guess he never meant a word of what he preached because now he is an active participant in selling fee based investments. He and a group of other people are using Dimensional Advisor Funds and charging a management fee for the service. Now, granted the management fees are low, they range from .50% to .25% for investments over 4 million, but it still stinks of hypocrisy.

Seriously, he has been talking about the ‘Couch Potato’ method of investing for how many years now? On top of that he has consistently criticized brokers and others for charging fees to manage money, but I guess it is OK that he is the one who charges fees now.

This explains why he has been talking so much about American Funds lately. As the fees he is charging, combined with the mutual fund fees, are equal to the fees American funds charges on an annual basis. I am willing to bet that he will soon start to make that comparison between his new company and American Funds.

I am not opposed to anyone making a living providing a reliable and solid service, but to sell your soul like that is just wrong. I mean, going and giving all of that advice to index your money and now making a 180 turn around and saying, well what we are offering is different and better, I mean come on.

Not to mention that he still has no direct roll with talking to clients his title is Chief Investment Officer. In other words he will be collecting a fee for cheerleading the Dimensional Funds. What I find amusing is that you can buy the Dimensional Advisor Funds only through an adviser or RIA, so much for the words of wisdom, right Scott?

Anyhow, I thought you all might like to know that even Mr. Burns realizes there is money to made in the real advice game. Since it is OK for him to collect advisory fees then it must be right, because Scott is never wrong.

I wonder if he will continue his ‘Couch Potato’ portfolio, or will that be replaced by Dimensional portfolios now?