Size

• Understand that not everyone qualifies for a discretionary account with eTrade (or any other financial institution for that matter). Discretionary accounts give the broker the right to make decisions for the client and act on the client's behalf when it comes to shifting assets in the account. This huge responsibility for the broker comes at a cost to the client. Fees range around 1 percent of the assets under management per year to have a broker manage your account.
  
  

Misconceptions

• Understand that there are live advisors in most major cities for help. eTrade has offices in many areas. eTrade is more than just an online discount brokerage house: Howard Capital Management, Harrisdirect and Kobren Insight Management offer services for full portfolio management. These companies are wholly owned wealth management specialists.
  
  

Types

• Ask for form ADV Part II before you open an account. The form describes all the fees, the services and the affiliations for a discretionary account with eTrade. Remember, you need at least $250,000 in assets to open one of these accounts. The discretionary eTrade account is listed under "wealth management."
  
  

Identification

• Give full information to the relationship managers once your account is open. Before they do anything else, they need a profile about you. Complete profiling helps them make decisions on the types of investments that you need to accomplish your goals. These are done by phone or in person. Expect them to be complete. If you have a discretionary account with eTrade, the advisors want to know as much about you and your needs so they can to allocate your assets properly.
  
  

Features

• Expect the advisors to trade in structured products. While a few of the advisors recommend stocks, most of the products in your portfolio will be exchange-traded funds (ETFs), mutual funds and other structured products. These give a much broader level of diversification than an individual stock.
  
  

Significance

• Consider the stress that you'll no longer experience if you have a broker manage your account. Wealth managers do asset allocation, which divides your assets into different classes according to your needs and risk aversion, retirement planning, tax planning and estate planning. They use the information that you gave them on your profile to create a plan especially for you.
  
  You can contact an advisor by calling 1-877-800-1207.