Managing investments

A lot may be riding on your investments: retirement, children’s or grandchildren’s education, your financial legacy. Your investment plan should get the attention it deserves.

Some investors enjoy managing their own plan. They feel confident in their ability to research and understand various financial instruments, to determine an appropriate combination and concentration of those various investments within a portfolio, to determine if and when those investments should be purchased or later sold. They feel able to quickly respond to both the economic and market developments that are both anticipated and unexpected.

If you don’t share that sense of confidence you’re in good company. Many of our clients feel this way. A common solution to this issue is to make use of an advisory program.

Using an advisory program

You can save time and have a professional manage your investments when you use the services of an advisory program.

Advisory programs generally fall into two categories. One gives another party the power to make decisions for your account’s day-to-day management. This means you can allow a portfolio manager — in some cases your Financial Advisor — to decide when to buy, sell, and hold investments without consulting you.

Your portfolio manager will make decisions based on a variety of factors:

• Your long-term objectives
• The time you have to reach your objectives
• Your risk tolerance

In the other program, you collaborate with your Financial Advisor. We will provide you with objective advice and guidance based on your needs, goals, and today’s investment environment, to help you make your own buy, sell, and hold decisions.

Fee replaces commissions

So how can an advisory account differ from a traditional brokerage account? One difference is how you pay for the services you receive. In an advisory account program, you generally pay a fee. This is often charged on a quarterly basis based on a percentage of your account’s value. In a traditional brokerage account you would pay a commission for each transaction.

Flexible range of alternatives

You can choose which advisory services program you implement. Wells Fargo Advisors offers an array of programs. You can decide what products you would like to have managed, such as mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), stocks, bonds, and commodity-based investments.

We can discuss the programs with you and see what fits your situation – and what makes you feel more confident in helping you reach your goals.

Next steps

Decide if you would like some extra help with making your investment decisions.

Make an appointment to talk with us about advisory accounts.



The fees for advisory programs are asset-based and assessed quarterly in advance. There may be a minimum fee to maintain this type of account. Fees include advisory services, performance measurement, transaction costs, custody services, and trading. These fees do not cover the fees and expenses of any underlying exchange traded fund (ETF), closed-end funds, or mutual funds in the portfolio. Advisory accounts are not designed for excessively traded or inactive accounts and are not appropriate for all investors. Please carefully review the Wells Fargo Advisors advisory disclosure document for a full description of our services, including fees and expenses. The minimum account size for these programs is between $10,000 and $2,000,000.