You'll make more money with a robot.. And probably get better customer service.
I started investing with Highwater Wealth in January 2018 and invested for a year and a half (through June 2019). In that time I made about a 3% total gain on my investments, but I wanted to give it at least a full two years before investing elsewhere. Unfortunately, I never got that chance to do so because my portfolio manager left the company. I found out about this through a very brief letter I received in the mail stating that "as I may have heard" (I had not heard...from anyone) my portfolio manager had left and that Highwater was "unable" to keep my account with them - I'm assuming that as a 28 year old working woman without a mature trust fund, I didn't have enough money to be worth keeping as a client. The letter also stated that my account would be automatically transferred to Fidelity retail if I didn't contact the office within the month.
I contacted the office and spoke with Dickson Griswold, the president of Highwater, whom I asked to transfer my investments to my bank account (except for my IRA which had been with Fidelity for years). He agreed and said it wouldn't be a problem. I waited.. and waited thinking maybe it takes a while to process this kind of transfer. Two weeks later, I followed up. It turns out they transferred my account to Fidelity retail after all and they never attempted to transfer my money to my bank account as was agreed upon. The cherry on top is that it looks like they did sell all of the assets in my portfolio, so what was left was essentially just a bunch of cash sitting in a Fidelity account with recurring fees. When I emailed Highwater, the admin informed me that "any further questions would need to be directed to Fidelity retail". When I replied with a clarifying question, the admin essentially repeated directing me to Fidelity retail with no further response.
Essentially, I thought using a wealth management company would mean higher returns and a more personal experience. In reality, I would have been better off going through Vanguard or just using Fidelity retail from the beginning and not paying Highwater Wealth higher fees for lackluster performance and a laissez faire attitude. If you have enough money to invest, maybe they'll treat you better, but personally I wouldn't trust anyone who would treat another person's money (however small an amount to them) with such a lack of care and respect. read more
