I'm a pretty annoyed Europac customer right now. You can see the story of why I'm annoyed here:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=263560
To follow up on that thread, they never responded to the message sent through their comments form that claims they'll get back to you shortly. Peter responded when I emailed him, but he never offered to remedy anything or showed any concern about the damages caused by their mistakes. I didn't follow up with him either, so it is possible I could have done more. Also, despite this enormous change in policy, I have not received any written (or emailed) information on the new policy of Europac. Nothing at all. It is a huge policy change that negatively impacts a large number of their customers, so that they don't contact their customers in any formalized way is a big concern of mine. Had the policy been in place when I signed up, I probably would not have opened an account with them.
I think their fees are very high. Their fees made sense when they were helping you manage your portfolio and making recommendations of what to buy and when to sell, but that has changed. They have set a threshold (I think around 100k, but I'm not sure) where they will no longer help you with those things, so the fees don't make as much sense. Instead they try to force the smaller folks into their mutual funds where the fees are even higher and you have to pay annual fees on your holdings, whereas before there were no such fees.
Despite all this if I compare the total amount of cash I put in since I opened the account (about 20 months ago, I think) it works out to being worth about 30% more now. That is 30% with all fees being taken out, except the fees that would be imposed for selling and removing cash. I like their strategy, and I like their picks. I am very worried and bothered by the nonsense I've gone through with forced sales and the scraping of a big chunk of my account away in unneeded fees that in no way benefited me. I am even more bothered by their lack of concern or reaction. I feel like their response has been very unprofessional.
Personally, I am keeping my account open for the time being. I expect the financial turbulence to cause it to gain worth. I'm hesitant to add any more money. As for whether or not you should use them, I'd advise you to talk to a broker. If you have a substantial amount of money so that they would be willing to advise you on individual picks, it may be worth their fees. With smaller amounts it still may be worth it, but it may be more cost effective to do things on your own. You probably wouldn't be able to get as diversified on foreign markets as their funds, but you wouldn't have to pay the fees either. You have to decide what is better. I'd say call a broker up. Talk to them. Don't agree to anything. Take some time to think about it and then decide. I'll also add that prior to my little incident with them I had nothing but good things to say. They were always very good to deal with, easy to get in touch with, friendly, etc. The performance of their picks always has been decent (at least so far.) I'm not sure if the incident I've gone through should be interpreted as a fluke or as a warning sign.
I hope that more Europac customers will post their experiences here as well. I'd be very interested to hear.
EDIT:
Does anybody have any actual experience with Euro Pacific? Do they have 401k instruments? What's the quality of the average advisor? What's their cut?
Forgot to answer your questions:
I'm pretty sure they offer 401k and IRA type things. I don't have that style of account. Call them up and they could answer those questions pretty easily.
I've had two different brokers in my time there. They've both been friendly and helpful and very willing to talk about any concerns.
Their cut varies based on amounts. If you call them up they'll give you the exact rates. The mutual funds have their own rates, so definitely remember to take that into account if you go that route.
