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Old 10-05-2016, 05:40 PM   #21
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"Your broker is not your friend. Neither is your mutual fund company." Written by one of those well known finance authors whose name I cannot remember.


I could go on about beefs that I have had with Fido (sales attempts, bad advice) but I have had mostly good to excellent service over the years so I will be sticking with them as my primary asset holder. I still like Vanguard funds better though.
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Old 10-05-2016, 06:09 PM   #22
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Based on all the drama on Seeking Alpha between longs and shorts of Tesla I hesitate to bring it up, but Fido is often criticized for holding a large stake. I wonder it that holding is on the fund or private equity side or both. This is another reason for me to avoid Fido's actively managed funds.


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Old 10-05-2016, 06:13 PM   #23
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I think what's getting lost here is that some have issues with Fidelity managed funds, but many love Fidelity as a broker. No one is forcing you to put money into their funds. They offer the universe of investment options.
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Old 10-05-2016, 06:45 PM   #24
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For every valid reason to not like Fidelity, there will be a valid reason to not like any of its competitors. The converse also applies.

I'm a happy customer of Fidelity, Vanguard, and Schwab. They have all treated me very well in recent years (although not always in the past).
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Old 10-05-2016, 09:07 PM   #25
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I think what's getting lost here is that some have issues with Fidelity managed funds, but many love Fidelity as a broker. No one is forcing you to put money into their funds. They offer the universe of investment options.
Excellent point.
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Old 10-06-2016, 09:19 AM   #26
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I think what's getting lost here is that some have issues with Fidelity managed funds, but many love Fidelity as a broker. No one is forcing you to put money into their funds. They offer the universe of investment options.
Agreed.

Although they offer very low cost index funds themselves.

Generally - convenience is the biggest selling point for me. And great customer service, great record keeping, and good prices when you look for the good deals.

We've had investments there for decades - primarily as our broker and mutual fund warehouse - and their mutual fund costs and trading costs keep dropping.
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Old 10-06-2016, 01:36 PM   #27
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Agreed.

Although they offer very low cost index funds themselves.

Generally - convenience is the biggest selling point for me. And great customer service, great record keeping, and good prices when you look for the good deals.

We've had investments there for decades - primarily as our broker and mutual fund warehouse - and their mutual fund costs and trading costs keep dropping.
+1
Consolidated everything at Fido last year. While they, on occasion do stuff that agitates me (eg new RiP before last update), their administrative competency well exceeds what I ever got from Vanguard, despite being Flagship.
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Old 10-06-2016, 02:30 PM   #28
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We keep all of our accounts at Fidelity, but we have no interest in their actively-managed mutual funds. So the Reuters story is of no concern to us.

Our holdings are a mix of iShares and Vanguard index ETFs with very low ERs. The only fee we pay Fidelity is the rare $7.95 commission to trade a Vanguard ETF.

For my DIY style of money management and retirement planning, I've been quite happy with Fidelity... great website, knowledgeable reps, quick transactions, useful online tools, full-service CMA, cash-back CCs, free ATM use, hardware-based 2FA, brick & mortar when needed, etc.
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Old 10-06-2016, 03:00 PM   #29
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i can see why you're upset. The[y] give me 0 atm fees worldwide. 0 commission etf's, free checks, $7.95 stock trades, a .25% annuity fee, a non commission advisor, some of the best retirement planning tools in the industry and lots of other stuff [including industry leading customer service]. I feel fleeced.
+1 [My Edits]

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we keep all of our accounts at fidelity, but we have no interest in their actively-managed mutual funds. So the reuters story is of no concern to us.
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Old 10-06-2016, 03:17 PM   #30
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I'm not saying that Fidelity is the equal to Bernie Madoff. If you invest with them and you are happy then keep doing it. Just pointing out that this article has some pretty clear conflicts of interest where the Johnson family gets the pick of the litter while they claim to put the interests of investors before their own. It's more of a warning about their corporate culture that I don't like.

Also, in 2014 they were sued by employees over their own 401k plan. They offered many high expense funds when they were offering low cost funds to the public. Just saying I'm not a fan.

Also it has been mentioned that competition from Vanguard is really the impetus for fidelity to offer low cost funds.

Expense ratios being equal or even close I simply choose not to do business with the Johnson family.
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Old 10-06-2016, 03:31 PM   #31
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...this article has some pretty clear conflicts of interest where the Johnson family gets the pick of the litter while they claim to put the interests of investors before their own. It's more of a warning about their corporate culture...
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Old 10-06-2016, 05:31 PM   #32
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Of course competition from Vanguard has been the impetus for offering low cost funds. Just like the competition from on-line brokerages got them to lower trading costs by over a favor of 10 from 2000 to 2010.
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Old 10-06-2016, 05:45 PM   #33
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Of course competition from Vanguard has been the impetus for offering low cost funds. Just like the competition from on-line brokerages got them to lower trading costs by over a favor of 10 from 2000 to 2010.
The point of the thread is that the Johnson family has their own interests at heart and that is a conflict of interest and they shouldn't be able to do that.
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Old 10-06-2016, 05:54 PM   #34
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By all means, lobby Congress to write some new laws.
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Old 10-06-2016, 05:57 PM   #35
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The point of the thread is that the Johnson family has their own interests at heart and that is a conflict of interest and they shouldn't be able to do that.
Life's not fair, get over it.

All we can do, as little people, is make the best choices that are available to us. If you stick with index type funds, none of this matters, I am very grateful that we have such low cost, diversified funds available. I'm no Pollyanna, but look at the bright side. We have outstanding choices available to us at very low costs.

That said, I do have a certain loyalty to Vanguard, as they are the ones who started down this path, and Fidelity has had to move towards it to compete. We all benefit.

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Old 10-06-2016, 06:18 PM   #36
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By all means, lobby Congress to write some new laws.
Congress approved Glass-Steigal- they then repealed that which lead to the 2009 financial collapse. Do a little more a little research yourself.
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Old 10-06-2016, 06:38 PM   #37
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Life's not fair, get over it.

All we can do, as little people, is make the best choices that are available to us. If you stick with index type funds, none of this matters, I am very grateful that we have such low cost, diversified funds available. I'm no Pollyanna, but look at the bright side. We have outstanding choices available to us at very low costs.

That said, I do have a certain loyalty to Vanguard, as they are the ones who started down this path, and Fidelity has had to move towards it to compete. We all benefit.

-ERD50
So thanks to Vanguard you invest with Vanguard and you don't invest with Fidelity because of Vanguard.
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Old 10-06-2016, 06:41 PM   #38
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I'm not saying that Fidelity is the equal to Bernie Madoff. If you invest with them and you are happy then keep doing it. Just pointing out that this article has some pretty clear conflicts of interest where the Johnson family gets the pick of the litter while they claim to put the interests of investors before their own. It's more of a warning about their corporate culture that I don't like.
So the Johnson family hit it big with a few biotech start-ups. You know, you or I could also invest in them, too. Of course, many biotech (and various other venture capital investments) also fail miserably and become worthless. And I'm sure the Johnson's have listed their share of "Sales price = $0.00" on form 4797 for investments that flop. Are you expecting a mutual fund to make private capital investments? Or are you just upset that a mutual fund doesn't purchase shares in an IPO?

Oh, speaking which, are you aware that some mutual funds' by-laws specifically prevent them from purchasing shares in an IPO, and require the stock to be listed for, say, 6 months first?
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Old 10-06-2016, 06:46 PM   #39
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So the Johnson family hit it big with a few biotech start-ups. You know, you or I could also invest in them, too. Of course, many biotech (and various other venture capital investments) also fail miserably and become worthless. And I'm sure the Johnson's have listed their share of "Sales price = $0.00" on form 4797 for investments that flop. Are you expecting a mutual fund to make private capital investments? Or are you just upset that a mutual fund doesn't purchase shares in an IPO?

Oh, speaking which, are you aware that some mutual funds' by-laws specifically prevent them from purchasing shares in an IPO, and require the stock to be listed for, say, 6 months first?
One issue is that the Johnson family purchased them and that actively managed funds offered by fidelity could not because of the family fund purchase. Fidelity funds later purchased them at much higher prices when the Johnson fund sold them.
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Old 10-06-2016, 06:51 PM   #40
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So thanks to Vanguard you invest with Vanguard and you don't invest with Fidelity because of Vanguard.
No, that's not true.

I do feel some loyalty and appreciation to Vanguard. But I have investments with Fidelity, and I directed my in-laws to Fidelity, because they have a B&M presence and it made a lot of things they needed to do when FIL passed far easier.

I use both.

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The issue is that the Johnson family purchased them and that actively managed funds offered by fidelity could not. Fidelity later purchased them at much higher prices when the Johnson fund sold them.
And I imagine that the funds also purchased some of those IPOs at much lower prices when the Johnson fund sold them. Or passed on them because they fell flat, as many IPOs do.

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