Looks like I might be the only 1 giving this company a positive review, but...so far...I haven't…read morehad any cause to complain. Then again, I haven't hit my retirement yet so I guess time will tell. The company I was employed with for 23 years once had pensions, but by the time I had gotten there, pensions had gone the way of all flesh, and a 401K was the "happening thing," the "new normal." Don't like it? Not "happening" for you? Tough shite. Pensions have gone the way of the dinosaur. You want a pension? You should have become a cop.
After 23 years with that company, I was laid off, along with everyone else in my office (except for 1 guy...the Teamsters were able to secure for him a job as a janitor at the now-pretty-much-empty facility where we used to work because the union really liked him, even though he had less seniority than a lot of us, but that's a review for another time, when I write reviewing Teamster weakness, mendacity and corruption-- Jackie Presser was my president, after all, so we as union members encountered a lot of weakness, mendacity and corruption. Don't worry. That review is coming. And if I disappear before then, well...they never found Hoffa, so I doubt they're going to have much luck...or interest...in finding me. Or am I being overly dramatic, given the near-total emasculation of unions everywhere in America? Am I suffering delusions of grandeur in even jokingly comparing or equating myself with Hoffa...who was a bum but did actually improve the overall lot of the union members he represented during the years he was president of the Teamsters even while he was enriching the Mafia)? Anyway...back to Fidelity....
Ultimately, I secured another job(s), but I definitely worried about the future (providing I got that far) and whatever security that 401K was going to offer me. But I have to say that my experiences with Fidelity haven't been bad so far. They contact me once a year and we go over my "portfolio." I immediately profess my near-total ignorance of the stock-market/bonds/face-value-vs-par-value/trading/fixed-or-variable-rates-of-interest/long-term-capital-appreciation/small-cap-vs-micro-cap/financial-markets/investing/annuities/business-in-general/public-vs.-private/etc./etc.
The reps I talk to have been pleasant, thorough, professional. I usually feel some relief after talking to them. (Although I do have to say that 1 rep I talked to was not exactly a "charm school" graduate-- after talking tough about the "volatility" of markets and the possibility of complete financial ruination, she asked, "So suppose you make 84 years of age, or 90, and there's no money left for you? How would you feel about that?" I kept my cool, with difficulty, but I wanted to answer, "How the f*ck do you think I would feel about that? Ebullient! Ecstatic! I'd throw my walker to the side and moonwalk my way with arthritic vigor into oncoming traffic! What the f*ck would you do?!?")
I called them recently to lower the "aggressiveness" of my stock portfolio, given that Trump is president (by the way, in terms of criminality, Hoffa and Presser were pikers, in comparison to Trump; I think even Al Capone might have tipped his hat to Il-Douche and said, with grudging admiration, "Well done!"), and a financial iceberg is looming on the horizon. I really hope I'm wrong about that, but I don't think so. Catastrophe is coming, and I'm obviously not the only one who thinks so. The rep I talked to was helpful with my request, and remarked, "You're not the first person I've talked to today to be doing this. And I doubt you'll be the last."
Obviously, if I live long enough to retire, and see how efficiently I'm able to sustain life based on what Fidelity has done for me, this review might be updated (if I can still see to type on the keyboard, that is). For better? For worse?
Time will tell, I guess.
But so far...I can't really complain. So far, at least, they've done their job professionally and efficiently and I'm satisfied.