Another small example: Fidelity vs Vanguard

[stephenson]

Perhaps there is something I don't understand, but here's what just happened when collecting information for estate attorney visit tomorrow:

Went to Fidelity and easily found and downloaded both IRA and Joint TOD forms.

Went to Vanguard and looked and looked and looked - using several methods including searches, etc. Finally found a page that said "Online Only" or by Mail (10 days).

Is this for real the sort of differences?

Grrrr ....

 

[RunningBum]

I've found VG very confusing with forms. Many of the forms you find on searching is for the old style account. If you were badgered into converting to a brokerage account, as many of us were with assurances that there were no differences, there is a different form. It's not easy to tell which is which, and if you use the wrong one it gets returned to you. More than just a matter of redoing paperwork if you had to get a signature guarantee somewhere. This really irritated me.

My flagship rep just told me to ask him for the form to get the right one the first time, so I no longer even search. Even if it's a form I do annually, I ask him.

TOD forms are interesting too. I did the same search before my own estate attorney visit last year. The beneficiary designations for the IRAs were clear and easy to change if I wanted to. (BTW there is no TOD for IRAs--your attorney can tell you why.) But for my taxable account, it also listed beneficiaries. Is this my TOD? And will changing them here change my TOD? I asked my Flagship guy and he said yes.

I wonder how easily a non-Flagship person gets these kind of questions answered.

 

[pb4uski]

No need for forms, you can just log on, go to My Accounts/Account Maintenance and then go to Beneficiaries and set them up as you please for each account. Easier than a form.

.... I wonder how easily a non-Flagship person gets these kind of questions answered.

Just a phone call away.

 

[stephenson]

Sorry - I probably wasn’t clear.

The estate planning attorney has asked for blank forms ... not sure why, yet, but Fidelity was easy, Vanguard was impossible (ten days notice needed).

 

[Scrapr]

Sorry - I probably wasn’t clear.

The estate planning attorney has asked for blank forms ... not sure why, yet, but Fidelity was easy, Vanguard was impossible (ten days notice needed).

well, you can take a screen shot & print it out. @pb4uski is right. Easy peasy

 

[DrRoy]

I do find Fido to be generally pretty helpful.

 

[RetireBy90]

I do find Fido to be generally pretty helpful.

+1

I switched from various investments to Fido as my company 401K was there and tired of having to gather info from various sites. I updated the beneficiary on-line and printed off the resulting pages. Talked so a couple planners and that is all they needed. Perhaps estate prep wants to fold the accounts into a trust ?

 

[stephenson]

Gah - yes - sorry - we’re gonna be setting up a trust.

 

[ncbill]

Another reason I'm consolidating everything to Fidelity.