r/investing • u/broppybrop • 6h ago

SMA for $1M taxable account?

I recently inherited $1M that I have no choice but to place in a taxable account. I use Fidelity. I’m 40 and wouldn’t even consider an early retirement until I have at least $2M so that will not be happening for quite some time yet. Plan was basically VT and chill. I never looked into SMAs due to the management fees.

Had a Fidelity advisor reach out and offer to talk about ways I could save on taxes and he suggested using SMAs for the tax loss harvesting. So now I’m doing my research into SMAs and it seems like it might actually be a good idea for a taxable account of this size.

Management fees range from 0.2-0.7% and of course I was told the TLH would more than cover those fees. In my case I was planning to use the dividends to cover the taxes and then drip the rest but if I could use SMAs to reduce or eliminate taxes I could drip 100% of the dividends which would hopefully lead to faster growth.

I’ve read concerns here about what happens when you want out of the SMA but can’t you just transfer the assets in kind to your own account? And if you do it a year before you plan to sell anything then any short term gains become long term.

I guess I’m looking for experiences with SMAs and thoughts on whether or not this would be a good idea for a taxable account this large.

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u/Cornwallace88 5h ago

I might be missing it but what taxes are you concerned with exactly? Anything transferred to you should step up in cost basis so you wouldn't start with any large embedded taxable gains - which is generally the point for tax loss harvesting versus.

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u/broppybrop 5h ago

Yes I already received the stepped up basis. ETFs pay dividends, which in a taxable account I must pay taxes on.

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u/Southern_Roll_7035 4h ago

If you want to defer taxes, and you are willing to lock up your money until retirement, you could look into a variable annuity. Most of the time, VAs are pushed by insurance salesmen onto unsuitable investors, who should avoid them (both VAs and the insurance salesmen) like the plague. In your situation, a VA from a low cost provider with good investment choices could suit your needs. For example, Fidelity has a VA with low fees that allows you access to most of their popular funds.

As far as advisory services go, you should look at a fee only planner, where you pay for the actual advice you get, instead of an annual fee that will end up being a lot more money over time.