Buying ACINX (closed to new investors) in Vanguard brokerage

[toofrugalformycat]

If this isn't the place to ask this question, please feel free to suggest a better place.
I'm wondering if anyone here has experience buying a fund closed to new investors in a Vanguard brokerage.
I own ACINX outside of the brokerage (directly from Columbia) but not in the brokerage. On the Vanguard site, it is shown as closed to new investors (which it is).
When I asked via email if owning it outside the brokerage qualified me to buy it inside Vanguard brokerage, Vanguard said yes, but it had to be done by phone.
I called today to be sure, and the guy said it had to be done "manually by someone in the fund access specialty area".
So tomorrow I'll phone Vanguard Brokerage and try to do it.
It just seems like something might come up.
Has anybody out there tried this? How did it go?

[LOL!]

Why would you even want to buy more shares in this fund at all? Vanguard has better alternatives in the same asset category. I'm dumpfounded.

[toofrugalformycat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LOL! Why would you even want to buy more shares in this fund at all? Vanguard has better alternatives in the same asset category. I'm dumpfounded.

Small foreign? I don't want to commit $25000 to buy into VINEX.
I am way open to suggestion.

[toofrugalformycat]

I thought I should close out this thread now that I've started it.
I had no problems buying the closed fund ACINX in my Vanguard brokerage.
The order had to be made by phone (not online) and it took a day for it to show up online because it was done "manually" - they had to phone Columbia to verify I owned ACINX.
It's not something that anyone would want to do in most cases, because if you own it direct from Columbia there are fewer limitations on transactions, but in my particular situation it made sense.
But making a phone call to Vanguard a few days before I wanted to buy helped out, and if you're in this situation you should definitely do that if only to make sure nothing has changed since this post.

[LOL!]

Since you are dealing with VBS, just buy GWX or DLS instead.

Ooops, too late. You can at least tax-loss harvest when your fund goes down and then buy GWX.

[toofrugalformycat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LOL! Since you are dealing with VBS, just buy GWX or DLS instead. Ooops, too late. You can at least tax-loss harvest when your fund goes down and then buy GWX.

Thanks for the tip. No, you're not too late. I bought ACINX for other convoluted reasons unique to my situation.

I've stayed mostly away from ETFs because of the fees. If I had a million at Vanguard, this would not be an issue, but I don't.

But I should reconsider them occasionally. Thanks for the reminder.

[LOL!]

What fees? Sure there is a commission to purchase, but isn't there a commission to purchase that non-Vanguard fund? Also check out the expense ratio differences. You probably would pay more annually in the expense ratio with the columbia fund than with the ETFs.

[toofrugalformycat]

I was referring to the commission to purchase, $12 for me. You are right about the expense ratio, but ACINX is actively managed, and I don't plan to have a huge position in it. ACINX has no transaction fee or commission, is my understanding. It does have that minimum purchase of $1000 that I wish wasn't there. And of course it has that closed thing going on which makes this moot for most people.

I'm not saying ETFs are wrong for everyone all the time, I'm just saying for me in my relatively small position, small cap foreign, buying in relatively slowly, especially when I already have ACINX, I don't think a small cap foreign ETF is right for me at the time.

But if I do choose to move things around or make a new investment (that doesn't happen very often) I will keep ETFs in mind, now that you've reminded me about them!

I have most of my equities in index funds (and one index ETF), but I choose to have a little bit in a few actively managed funds like ACINX just in case someone hits the jackpot.
No jackpot yet.