Your second opinion on Edward Jones

Edward Jones's Advisory Solutions program uses a tiered fee schedule from their March 2025 ADV Part 2A. On a $480,000 account in the Fund Model, the fee stack looks like this:

For comparison, a passive 60/40 portfolio held in Vanguard Personal Advisor Services (a fiduciary RIA managing $300B+ at the Vanguard fee structure) would run roughly 0.30% all-in — including underlying ETF expense ratios. Same allocation, same risk, $1,440/yr instead of $9,245. The gap is approximately $7,800 per year, or roughly $120,000 over a 10-year horizon assuming the same account size.

The Edward Jones service stack does include trading, performance reporting, "evaluation and selection of investments," and your advisor's time. The question worth asking is whether the increment over passive — about $7,800 a year on this account — is buying $7,800 worth of incremental value. Most academic studies put the value of "behavioral coaching" (the legitimate empirical case for paying an advisor) at roughly 1–2% of returns, not fees. In your case, that math is borderline.

Comparing your account's 5-year net return (estimated from your statement) against a 60/40 index baseline of similar risk:

On $480,000, the 1.1% annualized gap equals roughly $5,300 per year. Most of this is consistent with the fee gap from Section 1 — the underperformance is mathematically what you'd expect when you pay 1.94% all-in vs. 0.30% in a passive equivalent. Investment selection isn't the main story; cost is.

One subtlety worth flagging: American Funds as a family has a stronger long-term active-management track record than most large fund families. So the right comparison isn't "is American Funds bad?" — they're not — it's "is American Funds + Edward Jones's advisor layer worth ~1.6% above an index baseline?" Five years of evidence on this account suggests no.

Your 2024 return shows three dependents — Emma, Henry, and Lily — who in 2026 are 6, 5, and 2 years old. We see no 529-related deductions, no Form 709 (gift tax return) attached, and no education-savings transactions. At a $625,000 AGI with both parents' 401(k)s already maxed, 529 plans are the next-largest tax shelter available to your household.

The opportunity:

At a 7% real return, $570,000 front-loaded across three accounts grows to roughly $900,000 tax-free over Lily's runway to college (~14 years from now). On a household at your income level, that's a real number — the federal-plus-state tax saved on the growth alone is approximately $200,000–$250,000 over that horizon, depending on your marginal rate at the time of withdrawal.

Massachusetts-specific note: Massachusetts offers a state income tax deduction for U.Fund (MA's 529 plan) contributions of up to $1,000 single / $2,000 joint. Modest, but worth taking. The federal benefits (tax-free growth, tax-free qualified withdrawals) apply regardless of which state's plan you use — and SECURE 2.0 now allows up to $35,000 of unused 529 balances to be rolled to a Roth IRA in the beneficiary's name, providing a relief valve if a child doesn't use all the funds for education.

Both of you are maxing your 401(k) elective deferrals at $23,000 (2024 limit). What's likely available beyond that, depending on your plan documents, is the after-tax 401(k) contribution + in-plan Roth conversion — commonly called the mega-backdoor Roth. The total 401(k) annual addition limit in 2024 is $69,000 ($76,500 if 50+); the gap between elective + employer match and that ceiling can typically be filled with after-tax contributions and immediately converted to Roth.

Worked example: if David's plan permits this and his employer match brings the combined total to $35k, there's $34,000/yr of additional Roth space. Lauren's plan, similarly, may have $20–30k of room. Combined, you're potentially leaving $40–60k/yr of Roth-equivalent contribution space on the table.

Two things have to be true for this to work:

• Your plan document must permit voluntary after-tax (non-Roth) contributions
• Your plan must permit in-service distributions or in-plan Roth conversions

Roughly 40% of large-employer 401(k) plans now offer this. The plan summary description (SPD) will say. It takes a 15-minute conversation with your plan administrator to confirm.

Your Edward Jones account holds ~$90,000 in American Funds Bond Fund of America (ABNDX), a taxable bond fund generating ordinary-income distributions. At your marginal rate (32% federal + 5% MA = ~37% combined), the tax drag on those distributions is roughly $1,000–$1,500 per year.

The standard asset-location rule: hold tax-inefficient assets (bonds, REITs, high-turnover funds) in tax-deferred accounts (401(k), Traditional IRA); hold tax-efficient assets (broad equity index funds, individual stocks, LT-hold positions) in taxable. Your placements are inverted: equity-heavy 401(k)s where bonds would be tax-sheltered, bond fund in taxable where it generates currently-taxable income.

Fixing this is a within-account swap, not a behavior change. The total risk profile of your household stays the same; only the after-tax return improves. Conservative estimate: $1,800–$2,400/yr in recovered after-tax income.

Your Schedule A shows $25,000 in cash charitable contributions in 2024 — generous, and good. The structure can be improved.

If you donate appreciated long-term-held securities instead of cash, you receive:

• The same itemized deduction at fair market value
• Plus you skip the capital-gains tax you'd otherwise pay if you sold the securities (15–20% federal + 5% MA = ~20–25% combined)

On a $25,000 donation, that's an additional $5,000–$8,000 in tax saved per year, depending on the embedded gain in the securities donated.

The natural source: appreciated American Funds positions in your Edward Jones taxable account. Identify the lots with the highest unrealized gains (the funds bought 5+ years ago will have substantial appreciation), donate those directly to charity (or to a Donor-Advised Fund, which lets you decouple the year you take the deduction from the year the gift goes to the recipient charity).

American Funds offer multiple share classes with materially different expense ratios. For an Advisory Solutions account paying a separate program fee, you should be in F-3 shares (or comparable institutional shares) — these have the lowest expense ratios because the advisory compensation is built into the program fee, not the fund expense.

Compare:

The difference between F-3 (~0.30%) and F-2 (~0.39%) is $432/yr on a $480k account; between F-3 and A shares is closer to $1,500/yr. Worth checking.

Your Schedule 1 line 13 (HSA deduction) is empty. That's only relevant if one of you is enrolled in a High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) — which is increasingly common among large-employer health plans, often offered alongside a traditional PPO.

HSAs are the most tax-advantaged account in the US tax code when used correctly:

• Contributions are deductible from federal tax (and from MA state tax)
• Growth is tax-free
• Withdrawals for qualified medical expenses are tax-free — at any age
• After 65, withdrawals for any purpose are taxed like a Traditional IRA (no penalty)

The advanced strategy: max the HSA every year, pay current medical bills out of pocket, save receipts indefinitely, invest the HSA in equity index funds for decades, then reimburse yourself in retirement for those decades-old receipts — extracting decades of tax-free growth at withdrawal time.

At a 32% federal + 5% MA bracket, the $8,300 family contribution is worth approximately $3,070 in immediate tax savings, plus ~$300/yr in tax-free growth over a long horizon.

Your W-2s show $23,000 in box 12 code D (401(k) elective deferrals) for both of you — the maximum allowed for 2024. This is the right baseline. Combined with employer matches, you're likely depositing $55,000–$70,000 per year of pre-tax dollars into retirement accounts. This compounds heavily over 25-year horizons.

The next layer (mega-backdoor Roth) is in Finding 2 above. The layer beyond that — backdoor Roth IRA contributions — is also worth raising with Edward Jones if neither of you has a Traditional IRA balance that would trigger the pro-rata rule. At your income level, direct Roth IRA contributions are phased out, but the backdoor route remains open.

Schedule A shows $10,000 SALT (capped at the federal limit), mortgage interest, and the $25,000 in cash charitable. No obvious omissions. Your preparer has correctly handled the SALT cap interaction with the federal AMT calculation — common error point that's been correctly avoided here.

One small optimization to discuss: if your state offers a Pass-Through Entity (PTE) tax workaround for the SALT cap (Massachusetts's elective PTE tax does), and either of you has any K-1 or self-employment income, electing PTE treatment can effectively un-cap the SALT deduction at the federal level. Worth a 15-minute conversation with your tax preparer to confirm whether this applies.

For a household at your income level with three dependents, term life insurance and long-term disability insurance are non-negotiable risk-management tools. Indirect evidence in your documents suggests you have both. We don't have policy details to evaluate the coverage levels, but the right framework for term life is roughly 10–15× annual income (so $6M–$9M of coverage on the household), with separate policies on each parent.

One question worth surfacing for your next review: is your term coverage right-sized as your income has grown? Many households take out term policies early in their careers and forget to revisit when income doubles. A 15-minute review with your insurance broker can catch this.