Subscribers of various newsletters are curious if Motley Fool is a ripoff, or a great investing service. Considering how irreverent the branding is, it's not a head scratcher that people are asking if it is indeed a legit finance company.
These days, newsletter companies come up with different gimmicks to stay relevant. Have you seen the teasers they come up with to promote their services?
Ross Givens talks about an $8 savior stock. It is supposed to be the biggest investment opportunity of the AI era. Is the claim legit? Read our article to know more about it.
Another teaser that screams for attention like Motley Fool is from Dylan Jovine. His “last retirement stock” is supposed to yield 2,000% in the next 12 Months. We reveal critical details about it in our exposé.
Jason Simpkins does not want to be left out. He also wants you to believe that his “Uber Air” stock will give you 2,366% returns in only six years. Again, read our writeup if there's any merit to this claim.
With all these wanting to get your attention, it's no wonder Motley Fool is marketing itself the way it does. But is it a ripoff? Read on and find out.
Overview
- Name: Motley Fool
- Founders: Tom and David Gardner
- Website: www.motleyfool.com
- Flagship Service: Stock Advisor
Motley Fool is among the more prominent investment newsletter providers in the country. It stands out because of its playful branding and comprehensive services.
Founded by brothers Tom and David Gardner, its target market seems to be younger investors. They'd be the ones who'd be drawn to the edgier marketing tactics of the company.
Services include Epic and Stock Advisor. The website is also generous with free information like stock market news, articles on investing, and retirement guides.
What is Motley Fool?
At this point, who else has not heard about the company?
With its distinct branding, it's a rather cheeky approach to investing services. Is it a genius marketing ploy? Or does it discourage serious investors from considering its newsletters?
For the few who are not familiar with it, Motley Fool is a financial services company providing a range of resources to help individuals make informed investment decisions.
The goal seems to be simple. Founded in 1993 by brothers David and Tom Gardner, the company aims to make the world smarter, happier, and richer. The duo offers advice and guidance on investing and personal finance.
If you browse through the website, you'll know they mean business. It has a user-friendly design with a clean layout. Even those averse to the Internet will find it easy to navigate through various sections.
As well, the homepage features the latest stock market news, trending articles, and links to their premium services. You will observe that the overall feel is professional yet approachable.
Obviously, Motley Fool wants to cater to both novice and experienced investors.
In the “About Us” section, The Motley Fool describes itself as a company dedicated to helping regular investors take control of their financial lives.
It emphasizes its commitment to providing honest and transparent advice. This is extremely lacking in this industry. If the company indeed follows through on this, it's great for all of us.
One trivia at the start of this page is that Motley Fool’s name came from a very famous play by Willian Shakespear titled “As You Like It.” We like this bit as it makes its investing services more approachable to everyday people.
To summarize what they are doing, they pointed out three things. These are 1) Premium membership, 2) Free market use and commentary, and 3) Member-only tools and programming.
As mentioned, the website offers a variety of articles. Even those who are not looking to subscribe but just need stock market news will find them helpful. Motley Fool covers topics such as stock market news, investing strategies, and personal finance tips.
For example, an article titled “3 Top Stocks to Buy in November” discusses promising investment opportunities for the current month. Another article, “How to Prepare for a Market Downturn,” provides strategies for safeguarding investments during volatile times.
Another helpful addition is the “Trending News. There's also a section that discusses “Popular Topics”.
At first, it was hard to distinguish the difference between the two but based on the news below them, it became clear. Another great feature the company wants you to see is the section on “Investing News”.
Services
The Motley Fool offers different newsletters designed to assist you, should you choose to subscribe:
- Stock Advisor
This seems to be the flagship for the brand. It provides two new stock picks each month. It also offers in-depth research and analysis. According to the website, it will help you build a diversified portfolio of high-quality stocks.
You may get this service for $99 a year.
- Epic
This Motley Fool service offers five new stock picks per month. The company also says this will give you access to various stock research tools and resources. It looks like it combines multiple Motley Fool services.
This service is priced at $499 a year.
- Epic Plus
An upgrade to the previous one, this is also obviously more expensive. It supposedly unlocks additional research and recommendations. Epic Plus also covers trends, international, value, and options trading.
It is also an introduction to Tom Gardner’s portfolio management. This service is priced at $1,999 a year.
- Fool Portfolios
If you have a lot of money to spare, pick Fool Portfolios. It provides full access to co-founder Tom Gardner’s portfolios and investing research. You will also get additional real-money portfolios.
At $3,999 annually, the services will give you specialized research on crypto, microcaps, and more.
- Fool One
You think Fool One is expensive? This one will cost you $13,999 a year.
The service offers comprehensive access to all The Motley Fool recommendations and research. You will also get access toexclusive events, early access to new tools, and wider access to the investing team.
What do you think so far? Are you getting a sense if Motley Fool is indeed a ripoff or are the services worth it?
In addition to these, there's an interesting feature on the website. There are also offerings of $100 per report for research on one stock studied by analysts and/or the Stock Advisor Team.
If you want to just try their service, we recommend checking out a certain report. This would be less risky on a lower investment. Once satisfied, you can try Stock Advisor and so on.
One thing to note is that on the main page, only the Stock Advisor and Epic are featured prominently.
Who is Behind Motley Fool?
Here's an excerpt from the website:
The Motley Fool was founded in 1993 by brothers Tom and David Gardner as a traditional print newsletter in a backyard shed in Alexandria, Virginia. In 1994, an April Fool’s joke designed to teach an investing lesson put The Motley Fool on the map.
What do you think about the bit above? Is this an amusing origin story? Or do you think it sounds more like the joke's on us? We have a lot more to unpack, so sit tight.
Motley Fool as a company has three affiliates – Asset Management, Wealth Management, and Ventures.
Asset Management gives you investment strategies on ETFs and Mutual Funds. You will find these mainly through professional brokerage accounts.
Meanwhile, Wealth Management offers personalized account management services. The Fool's goal here is to aid investors save time in designing their own portfolios. They also offer financial planning services here.
Lastly, Motley Fool Ventures as the name indicates, offers early-stage, technology-focused venture capital funds.
If you are looking for truly comprehensive services aside from newsletters, it looks like the company is the real deal.
As well, the company is operational not only in the USA but also in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. This is a huge show of force and credibility, for sure. It shows the team knows various stock market trends and areas.
The company is emphasizing, in its communications, emphasizes six core values. These are Motley (inclusion and belonging), Collaborative, Innovative, Fun, Honest, and Competitive.
It's also interesting that in the Careers Section, Motley Fool is claiming they are a “virtual first” workplace. They have office hubs, though, functioning as collaborative spaces.
They are very strong on their principle that well-cared-for employees are an important factor in achieving quality work and service. They also featured their awards as “best place to work”.
The Board of Directors is composed of seven individuals coming from different fields such as Google, LinkedIn, Whole Foods Market, and Zuckerberg Media.
Reviews
Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor
The service has a review page on Stock Gumshoe. As of this writing, it has a 3.8 out of 5 rating from about 1280 votes.
This service is rated based on four things: 1) Investment Performance, 2) Quality of Writing/Analysis, 3) Value for Price, and 4) Customer Service.
Among the categories, Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor is equally excelling in Investment Performance, Quality of Writing/Analysis, and Value for Price with an average of 3.75-3.76.
Meanwhile, it is lowest in Customer Service with an average of 3.59. With these numbers, all aspects are performing well with very little variance. This is a very accurate basis since each category received at least 300 ratings.
These comments came from January 2009 to October 2024. This is a very long range of comments.
User Tom from February 2009 shared his experience of losing money following Motley Fool’s Stock Advisor.
For NoFool, it was not worth it:
They offer too many services. Their attempt at cross-selling is almost as annoying as their performance. I subscribed for two years and did not have enough money left to renew for a third year!
If you seem to be losing money rather than getting a return on investment on your subscription, at what point do you unsubscribe? Sure, there are a lot of factors here, but this is why exercising caution is critical with these newsletters.
A long-time subscriber, Janice Paddock, the service has slowly become a disappointment. It was good in the past:
When I joined TMF as a novice investor in 2005, there were, if I recall correctly, three services, and, each service limited its recommendations to its specialty. I built my portfolio completely on those recommendations with great results. It was exciting; and, I was a happy camper.
However, it seemed like the company has become greedier, at the expense of long-time readers:
Unfortunately, as time passed, TMF began opening new specialty services in order to gain more membership fees. This, of course, narrowed down the recommendations allotted to the other services.
So, if one wanted to continue getting all recommendations, it was necessary to join the new services as they were added.
The reader also noticed that as time passed, there weren't too many new recommendations. These became more like re-recommendations. For her, the next step was obvious:
After the last expiration of my membership, I said: Enough!
However, Stock Advisor also has fans.
One of these believers talked about what the company did during the pandemic. According to Jeff, the team seems to make sensible investing decisions:
Some other positive comments to read for yourself include:
Motley Fool makes sound judgments. The basic philosophy is research, buy solid companies, and hold for 3-5 years or longer. – jpetergmd
My experience with both Stock Advisor and Rule Breakers has been excellent. – robpgole
I’ve subscribed to about eight different stock newsletters over the years, and MF Stock Advisor is the best, provided you hold the stocks for a long time. – hugh108
Motley Fool One
Another great resource for finding out if Motley Fool is a ripoff is the Stock Gumshoe page on Motley Fool One. It has a 3.6/5 rating from about 120 subscribers.
The Stock Gumshoe member below has a glowing recommendation:
However, for John Williams, the editor was no good:
Ross is too opinionated and treats clients like they are dumb.
Overall, though he admits he had a hand in his returns, he was not satisfied with the service:
Moved my accounts around and always managed to pick the ones with the lowest returns even when the market was doing well. Bought 5-year all-inclusive with financial advisors and have had poor returns.
BBB
The company does not have a good reputation with the Better Business Bureau. By the time we publish this article, it only has 1.21 out of 5 stars on the website.
For Daniel R, even if people say the recommendations are suited for long-term investors, it still did not work for him:
I have followed their recommendations, diversified, and stayed for the long run. Years later from over 30 stock pics – 27 are losing with many suffering drastic, nonrecoverable losses such as 90 and 95 percent down.
In fact, even if the market has recovered, the commenter said the recommendations were still in the dump. For him, this was “highly suspicious.” It was even more painful for him as he invested his family's savings into these recommendations.
Obviously, this is an unfortunate situation for the subscriber. But it is wise to be circumspect with the money you use to invest. Always have the mindset that you can afford to lose whatever you put in the stock market as they can be unpredictable.
If you are looking for great customer service from a newsletter provider, the commenter below has something for you:
When you read comments like the one above, do you feel you're still inclined to subscribe if you believe the recommendations are great? Let us know below.
For user Dave a, the company is a scam, adding that Motley Fool does not care about its customers and the content they provide. Michael C says that he has lost thousands based on the Fool's recommendations.
Another subscriber, Erlend B, has six words for those looking to check if subscribing is worth it: “Terrible stock recommendations. Very simplistic analysis.”
There are a few good reviews, and we think you should also see them.
Schalon L also praised the company:
Not sure when this change was made but I am a current subscriber and there is now an option under your account settings to cut off auto-renew. I love the non-biased advice. A bit pricey unless you catch a deal.
For Cal O, Motley Fool does “a decent job of research and recommendations.”
Honestly, we only found less than a handful of positive comments as of this writing. It could be that it is that bad of an investing service provider, or that those who are satisfied with the company do not bother to comment publicly.
It is for this very reason that we encourage you to do your own research. Different people have different expectations that lead to different outcomes. It sounds redundant, but it may end up different for you.
What has been your experience with Motley Fool? Is it a ripoff? Or is subscribing worth it? Let us know below.
Pros V Cons
Pros
- Motley Fool provides a wide array of services and accessible information to current and potential subscribers.
- The company projects authority in how editors and team members present information, which can be reassuring for newer investors.
Cons
- The playful branding can repel more serious finance nerds who are looking for more traditional presentations.
- Subscribers are torching Motley Fool with negative comments on the quality of recommendations, spam emails, and sketchy credit card charges.
Conclusion – Should You Subscribe to Motley Fool?
Will you get your money's worth when you subscribe to Motley Fool, or is it a ripoff? Many are asking about its legitimacy as its branding is unlike traditional newsletter providers.
Upon visiting the website, readers can find the services they provide. Casual readers can also check out the free articles about many topics on finance, investing, and stocks.
Motley Fool's goal is simple. The company says it wants people not just to be richer and smarter. If people can also be happier in the process, it will be a win-win.
Apparently, this is the reason for its marketing decisions. Team members say they understand finance is serious, but they do not want to take themselves too seriously.
The company's services have decent reviews on Stock Gumshoe as of this writing. However, it's different altogether on Better Business Bureau.
We have highlighted several comments that we think will be helpful for you. It's always tricky reading comments as you never know how representative they are of the services or the subscribers' sentiment as a whole.
Make sure you do tons of research first, gauge your comfort level, and trust your instincts. Most of all, do not invest what you can't afford to lose.
At this point, have you determined if Motley Fool is a ripoff or a legit platform for your investing needs? Let us know below.