Who should I invest with--HSBC or Edward Jones?

2.5% upfront and 1% a year are really expensive - especially the 2.5% upfront. You should not go with either, or you should walk in there and tell them their fees are too high and see if they'll reduce them. You should use one of the big low-cost guys and buy a bunch of index funds. There is nothing these guys are getting paid to do that you can't do your self. You shouldn't check on those even once a month. Assuming you are invested in a broadly diversified index fund there is no reason to open up your statement more than once a year. 10% average returns is not a realistic expectation unless you have an explicit view that the equity market is meaningfully undervalued.

This is as close to a no-brainer as you can possibly get: invest with Vanguard index mutual funds. I'm largely repeating what others have said upthread because I hope it helps it sink in what a monumental mistake it would be to turn over 2.5% of your investment initially, and then 1% a year to put yourself into investments that will very likely perform worse than the market average over the long term. And this 2.5% plus the annual 1%? That's just the fees they're telling you about. Because there are all kinds of other drags on your money, too, that you won't pay nearly as much of in a Vanguard fund: all of the transaction fees when these guys make trades and put you in and out of different investments; the taxes that these investments will have to pay; and other expenses--it's not at all unusual for the types of investments you could wind up in to have expense ratios of greater than 1% a year--this is in addition to the 1% you're paying annually, and in addition to the 2.5% you forked over up front. If you put this in Vanguard Admiral shares, your expenses will range between around .10% and .20% a year. In other words, you'll cut your fees down by 80% or 90%. Look, if you're paying what amounts to a 2.5% penalty to be invested with either one of these outfits, that means you have to outperform the market by 2.5% just to break even. So even if these guys are above average and happen to consistently outperform the market (which is exceptionally rare to do this consistently--study after study shows that over time actively managed funds do worse than the index funds that track the market; think of it like flipping a coin--it's not impossible to come up heads five times in a row, but it's very unlikely), unless they outperform it by more than 2.5%, you're losing money. So, don't lose money. Invest in index funds. I would invest (and I do invest) with Vanguard, but Fidelity is a good alternative too if you get into their Spartan funds. Diversify, and you can do this with three index funds: Total Stock Market, Total Bond Market, and a Total International Fund. A typical asset allocation that reduces volatility would be something like 70% stock funds, with 50% of your total in the Total Stock Market (domestic US fund) and 20% in the International Fund, and 30% in the Bond Fund. But some other thoughts for you. If your investment horizon is truly as short as five years, put this into CDs. Investing is for the long-haul, not for stuff you want in five years. So, you may want to consider whether you really want to invest this at all if you think you may pull it out in five years. For instance, if you had asked this in 2003 you would have been screwed, since the market went down almost 40% in 2008. Anyway, for the love of god, do not go with either choice.

Go with Vanguard, they're an amazing company. They go to AMAZING lengths to protect their customers. A specific example of this is to outline their ownership structure, which is the exact opposite of every other financial institution. Vanguard's investment funds (the things you own as an investor) actually own the the main management group, so all profits are returned to YOU instead of being kicked out as million dollar bonuses or dividends to the bank's owners. The easiest possible thing is to buy their target retirement date funds and never think about them again.

Take a look at https://www.cpf.gov.sg/cpf_trans/ssl/financial_model/expense_cal1.asp to get an idea of the effect of expense ratios on your investment. For a $100,000 investment projected to grow at 10% annually, the difference between a 0.2% expense ratio and a 1.0% expense ratio is $18,000 over 10 years. Over 30 years? $325,000. It would be one thing if you were talking about an actively managed, sophisticated investment strategy, but there is really no need to pay any more than necessary for a simple 80/20 portfolio. This is something you can DIY with one fund, as others have mentioned. If you are worried you will mess with it, keep your non-memorable Vanguard or Fidelity password written down in a safety deposit box. Honestly.

what medusa said.

Honestly, I would go with neither, and put my money into something from Vanguard (e.g. https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0122&FundIntExt=INT is broadly diversified with allocation of 80% stocks 20% bonds, and 0.17% fund fees), or T. Rowe Price (e.g. http://www3.troweprice.com/fb2/fbkweb/snapshot.do?ticker=RPBAX, allocation of 65% stocks 35% fixed-income securities, and 0.69% fees). There will be no upfront fees, either. I agree with JPD above that the fees you mentioned sound quite high, and the average returns unrealistic. Some additional information that would be helpful - what is your investment horizon? Are you investing for your retirement?

Either HSBC or Edward Jones will likely get you similar returns, so if your only choice is between the two of them, I would recommend you invest with whomever you're more comfortable with personally. Before you invest with either, however, I would recommend that you at least read an article on the impact of fees on the growth of your investment. Fees can be a huge drag on costs. Here is http://moneyning.com/investing/the-impact-of-costs-on-mutual-fund-returns/. I know you said you don't want to DIY but you can set up a very simple, one-fund portfolio at Vanguard, using one of their Target Retirement funds, which start out with a similar portfolio to what you're looking at and get more conservative over time. You can automate a monthly investment, and never look except briefly at tax time. If you don't want something that automatically grows more conservative over time, their LifeStrategy Growth fund is 80% stocks/20% bonds and will stay that way indefinitely. Apologies for straying from what you're asking, but even 1% of expenses can add up over time. With inflation, it's likely that that 1% might amount to $5,000, $10,000, $20,000, or more, a year. It's a pretty significant amount of money, it's worth it to at least check out the simplest of the DIY options.

Investment horizon is 5-10 years minimum, probably retirement.

I agree that telling you to expect 10% annualized returns is irresponsible and (imo) a little unethical. The fees they are quoting you are also high. I would recommend looking for fees of 1.5% or less annually. That fee should include everything - there shouldn't be any additional commissions or dealing charges. Also make sure you ask about the mutual funds you're investing in - ask what type of shares you're getting and what the front end charges and annual charges are. If you buy (for example), what are called "A" shares, you're going to be paying a lot for those funds between front end loads and ongoing management charges, which makes them more likely to underperform the market. Larger institutions have access to "institutional" shares (often called "I" shares or somesuch), which are essentially wholesale shares and have much lower fund charges. The industry term for overall internal charges of mutual funds is "expense ratio". Have you checked with Vanguard or Fidelity? If I remember correctly, they have call center advisors who can help you a lot if you're just looking for simple buy and hold investments. You also might want to look in your local directory for "Registered Investment Advisor" firms (RIA), which are truly independently owned and local. They will generally charge you the one flat annual fee as well.