Many government retirement plans offer up to 25% in self directed mutual funds at outside firm such as Fidelity. CA state retirement plans are a mess with agenda that have nothing to do with best risk adjusted return. My wife worked several years for state - I need to move over to something like Fidelity balanced.

To clarify: I was referring to *pensions* that employees only pay into but have no control over how it's invested - those are the places witih the fat allocation to expensive hedge funds/PE black boxes. My state (MD) 403(b) also has the brokerage window where I could dump 0-99% of my 403 now into whatever fund I wanted to offered at TIAA or Fido ... but I'm happy with the one LCV fund I'm in now at TIAA, so I haven't used that.
I could probably buy into one or more 'alternative' type funds that way if I wanted to, but why?

@Tarwheel again I agree completely.
It's also why when I joined my state university system I avoided the pension plan and went for the self-directed 403(b). Many state pensions have huge positions in various (and costly) hedge/PE investments that I want no part of ... plus I don't trust the investing savvy of the political appointees overseeing the pension's investment, many of whom live and die by whatever the Wall Street favorite 'thinking' is at the time regarding allocations.
As I said at the time, if I'm going to lose or make money, I want to be the one responsible for it.
ETA: Somewhat off-topic but IIRC the Nevada State Pension is entirely in Vanguard funds. A WSJ article a few years ago talked about how 'boring' the Pension Chief's job was. :)

Many government retirement plans offer up to 25% in self directed mutual funds at outside firm such as Fidelity. CA state retirement plans are a mess with agenda that have nothing to do with best risk adjusted return. My wife worked several years for state - I need to move over to something like Fidelity balanced.

Yes. I left Matthews after an arrogant prick treated me like dirt on the phone, a handful of years ago. Glad I did.

Do you recall which fund you were invested in at the time?

I had been in MACSX and MAPIX. Then consolidated all into MAPIX.
I was calling---- as were many, many others---- about a missed dividend. Turns out a risky bet went south. The fellow on the phone read a pre-fabricated statement to me about it over the phone. Just a sentence or two.
I said: "Sounds like you're reading from a script to me."
He said: "I AM. I AM reading from a script to you."
I said, "Why would you DO that?" (Why not talk to me like a human being, eh?)
He said: "Listen, this is what was prepared. If you want to redeem your shares and go, you're free to do so!"
...I DID.

PRMTX holds good stocks, but lone manager has been there only four years. Max drawdown -44.69% 2021-22, about same as index

Yes. I left Matthews after an arrogant prick treated me like dirt on the phone, a handful of years ago. Glad I did.

Do you recall which fund you were invested in at the time?

Yes. I left Matthews after an arrogant prick treated me like dirt on the phone, a handful of years ago. Glad I did.

@Tarwheel again I agree completely.
It's also why when I joined my state university system I avoided the pension plan and went for the self-directed 403(b). Many state pensions have huge positions in various (and costly) hedge/PE investments that I want no part of ... plus I don't trust the investing savvy of the political appointees overseeing the pension's investment, many of whom live and die by whatever the Wall Street favorite 'thinking' is at the time regarding allocations.
As I said at the time, if I'm going to lose or make money, I want to be the one responsible for it.
ETA: Somewhat off-topic but IIRC the Nevada State Pension is entirely in Vanguard funds. A WSJ article a few years ago talked about how 'boring' the Pension Chief's job was. :)

@BaluBalu
In addition to RPGAX, TRP uses hedge funds in some of their Spectrum allocation funds, such as TRPBX. In the last two bear markets, TRPBX (which I owned for many years) did not perform any better than most comparable funds. I owned TRPBX for about 20 years, and its performance has steadily declined. I’m not sure exactly when they started using hedge funds, but I think it’s been at least five years and its performance has been below average over that period.
I just checked their website, and TRPBX had about 4% of its holdings in Blackstone hedge fund in 2023, and perhaps others. At times, it’s held as much as 10% in hedge funds, if I recall correctly, or perhaps that’s the amount they limit it too. Anyway, that’s one of the reasons I dropped the fund after many years.
According to the TRP website, RPGAX has about 7.5% in Blackstone and PRSIX about 6%.

"I do not understand the interest in hedge funds. . . . T Rowe Price started allocating about 10% of the holdings in their allocation funds several years ago, and I can discern no improvement in their mediocre returns."
@Tarwheel, could you please share specific TRP allocation fund(s) that invest in Hedge Funds? (I read and re-read your statements several times and am not able to reach a different conclusion.) If you think I misunderstood your statements, please elaborate.

I do not understand the interest in hedge funds. Most of them underperform simple market index funds, and some fail spectacularly. T Rowe Price started allocating about 10% of the holdings in their allocation funds several years ago, and I can discern no improvement in their mediocre returns.

I agree, don't see what value the black box provides.
In my case, I think I'm my own 'alternative' since I don't follow benchmarks or indexes when investing. :)

@msf and @BaluBalu, thank you for your comments on hedged equity funds. Just want to better understand these strategies.
In the past, I have invested small allocation on alternatives and decided they do not add much value while incurring high management fees. Thus I stick with high cash (equivalents) to balance my portfolio better. Certainly this approach has been more predictable in last few years. In the end,I want to have fewer funds for ease of management.

From Citywire - seems Sharat Shroff is finally leaving Pacific Tiger, which has had horrible performance, unable to beat its benchmark for the trailing 3, 5 and 10 year periods. A bit abrupt, this was announced in mid december and he'll be out the door by year end. Sounds like it was urgent to get him out as soon as possible. Tiger is easily matthews biggest fund so a bit surprised there wasn't a smoother and longer transition.
John Paul Lech, lead manager of matthews flagship emerging markets fund is also leaving as well as long time Japan manager Taizo Ishida. Both left Dec 19th.
I thought the last 4 or so years were bad for Matthews, starting with the departure of Kenichi Amaki, Tiffany Hsiao and Beini Zhou, but this has to be the most turmoil I've seen in my 30 years in the business. Word on the street is previous CIO Robert Horrocks was booted late 2023 as well, and the new CIO Sean Taylor is based in Hong Kong and not relocating to the San Francisco headquarters where most of the portfolio managers are based. How that is supposed to work out is beyond me.
What a mess that keeps getting messier. I wouldn't be surprised if we see the rest of Matthews PMs get lifted out soon or leave. I have no idea why they'd stay at this point. Word to the wise...stay clear. This firm could be going to zero very soon.
https://citywire.com/selector/news/matthews-asia-s-pacific-equity-fund-under-review-as-veteran-exits/a2432941

Would the class view it more important to work with an excellent CPA rather than an advisor? I do.
Also, I remember a convo I had with my VP Engr in the late 90s. He and his wife were in their mid 50s at the time and had done well in their careers....told me that he saw an advisor who was like 20 years younger than him and had like 5% personal wealth than he had. VP felt that he should charge for his advice to the FA.... LOL.
Also, it's my firm belief that I would never take financial advice from anyone who didn't have some gray hair and who didn't have very substantial personal wealth.... just like I like my pilots to have some gray hair....

I do not understand the interest in hedge funds. Most of them underperform simple market index funds, and some fail spectacularly. T Rowe Price started allocating about 10% of the holdings in their allocation funds several years ago, and I can discern no improvement in their mediocre returns.

@FD100 @rforno
I have had a similar experience at Schwab with the local FAs who have been very helpful with moving money, checking on accounts and answering the phone almost immediately. They probably would have been happy to give me investment advice, if I asked. (This is in contrast to Vanguard where your local FA is a "team". Not much experience with FIDO in this regard.)
The current proposal concerns a firm outside of Schwab, not a Schwab FA. The fees are similar or lower than most actively managed mutual funds, and the fees for FI are actually lower than most active bond funds.
FD100, if I had a system as reliable and apparently as successful as you do, requiring little time, I would not consider outside advice.
I have had decades of experience and have read many books about "Lazy portfolio's" "Couch Potato Portfolios" " Ivy League Portfolio", but these tend to work best for the "Accumulation" phase of life, where you can "set it up and forget it"
The computer generated portfolios of Fido, Schwab and Vanguard are similar to these "Couch potatoes" but just more complex and rest on assumptions that most people are not aware of ( and may not agree with) , especially referring to their large % of foreign stocks recently. With bond coupons back up, the 60/40 seem more reliable, but 2022 was a disaster for people who suddenly found they had 15 to 20% less money then they thought on retirement.
For a long winded defense of the above read the thread on Bogleheads
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412507&sid=16550dda64788e8838fa5d7004273d09
Now in retirement, my wife and I need advice on Roth conversions, withdrawal rates estate planning and are trying to avoid large drawdowns early on while maximizing income and return. I have investigated all of this and came up with similar answers, but it takes a lot of time.
While I am in good health, I believe as Lynn does , that my wife needs an honest and reliable firm to deal with the investments if I get hit by a bus, with more expert personalized advice than I think you will get at Vanguard. Fidelity seemed to offer a computer driven portfolio for a higher fee.
I have tried other advisors over the years with fractions of our money, and found them to charge 1.25% to put you in their firm's Bond funds and use a 60/40 portfolio to track the SP500. This is quite different than what I am looking for here.
I am starting small and will see how it goes.

I don't need (or want) an FA to invest for me, thankfully.
My Schwab FA came over from TDA. He treated me very well over the years in terms of customer service and we stay in touch very periodically to opine about the markets ... he has never pushed anything my way as a recommendation other than to gently note (back then) that I had a 'large cash pile' he thought could be better used. Also once he got to know me, he gave me direct access to some planning tools that he used to help his other clients, which I appreciated.*
When we first met I told him my ground rules for a FA/broker: I'm self-directed, so while you can always recommend, don't be pushy. For 14-ish years, he's been exactly what I asked him to be. (The same applies to the FA for my long-long term account at WF, where we go back over 20 years)
By contrast, the guy I was initially assigned from Schwab kept reaching out via email or phone, and once my TD guy also got onboarded at Schwab, I dropped him so we could reconnect and continue the relationship.
* He appreciated that while I was very eager to leave TD once the merger was announced, I didn't transfer my TD account to Schwab in 2020 until after the TD FA evaluations were completed, b/c I didn't want him to have a noticeable loss of AUM on his book during the post-merger analysis of internal folks.

Schwab assigned a local FA(financial adviser) to me when I joined years ago. This guy is amazing and can tell you what funds to use, he even does CEFs, all for free. I don't need it so I don't use him but over the years I met with him twice just to find out his knowledge. Last year I was assigned to another FA and she is your typical saleslady, which is what most FAs are IMO.
I call it catch-22. If your knowledge is below average, you would not be able to know if the FA is good, if your knowledge is above average, you don't need one.
In the past anytime I have asked Fidelity or Schwab for advice I received a portfolio made of 8-10 funds that looks like computer generated.
My advice is to learn it by yourself, investing is really "simple" unless you want to complicate things...and most do. See ideas at https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Lazy_portfolios
You can just go beyond that. Example: select 3 index funds + 2 managed funds = done.

MSNBC chart today shows that BA stock price has lost a cumulative 35% over the last five years. I recall visiting the factory prior to that decline. The tour guide touted the then-high share price as evidence of the company’s excellence. Sometimes it does not pay to hold a blue chipper for the long haul.

I switched to stocks from mutual funds after I retired. Don't post much because of that. I have 9% of portfolio in Tech stocks having bought both AVGO and NVDA plus four other stocks in late summer of 2022.

@Art - We’d enjoy your investment perspectives anyhow whenever you’re inclined to post.
Nice going.
A stranger I encountered on a hotel / airport shuttle a bit under 2 years ago (June ‘22) recommended I buy NVDA. (His only recommendation) Just casual chatter. He couldn’t even pronounce the company name correctly - but had read recommendations for it on the Motley Fool - which he swore by as a great source of investment guidance. Of course, I didn’t take his advice. Who in their right mind would buy a stock based on an anonymous tip from some stranger encountered by chance on an airport shuttle?
I suspect there’s deeper significance to that story - but danged if I can figure it out.
.

ROSOX / ROSIX
Morningstar 1* / 2*, Negative
Firm https://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/rosix/parent
From Barron's 5/22/21:
VALUE has lagged badly for so long, that it is risky to pick the NEXT GENERATION of value hunters. But that didn’t stop Barron’s from coming up with the following list (all have 10+ years of career ahead of them).
.....
Laura GERITZ, 49, Rondure Global (RNWOX, ROSOX). Quality-contrarian looks for high returns and free cash flows.
Rondure family will now have only EM RNWOX / RNWIX, 3* / 4*. Negative. It has received several favorable mentions in Barron's.
Interesting that Barron's put Geritz in the list of upcoming value managers, but her style in both of her funds is growth or blend.