23. Can I withdraw funds?
Yes, the assets are yours. We understand that sometimes unexpected needs arise that make a ten-year or longer horizon impossible. However, there are transaction costs and investment complications from sales, especially smaller sizes. Preferably withdrawals could be made at the annual rebalancing and strategic review time in late April/May, when transactions are clustered. In general and especially at other times of the year, we prefer minimum withdrawals of at least $15,000. This enables the portfolio to remain attached to the model, since proportionate holdings of each stock can be sold without sizable transaction costs relative to the withdrawal. We prefer to keep the security transaction cost (roughly $10 per security at several major Custodians for the 24 or 28 stocks in FFI models) under 1.5% of the withdrawal amount. We can detach the account from a model and sell a few stocks, but this diverts our attention to managing individual portfolios, which is unfair to both those account holders and to the model account investors. Nevertheless, these costs and complications notwithstanding, we do our best to meet client needs in the most cost effective way.