Too many funds - Fidelity hold for me?

[stephenson]

Hi All,

Am still trying to simplify my life by reducing the number of funds/companies I have assets with ... I waaaay over-diversified many years ago.

Was on the phone with Fidelity today on another topic, went through my list of funds and determined which they could hold ... turns out is most of them and only a couple had a sales fee associated with it ($50) that is assessed only when the fund is finally sold.

Since the sale of these have tax consequences, I don't want to further simplify, yet - will do so when my taxable income is lower.

Has anyone done this with Fidelity? Other companies? I have not yet checked with Vanguard.

I think I would like to "end up" with assets in more than one financial institution ... Vanguard has lowest cost index funds ... I kinda like the Fidelity brokerage account screens ...

Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[gauss]

I have funds at Vanguard and a Brokerage account at Fido.

I also recently consolidated all of my mutual funds. I got it down to one fund. It was one of the target retirement funds at Vanguard, which is actually a balanced fund with an AA that I like.

-gauss


I still have complications due to the number of accounts that I have due to tax laws. (taxable, roth me, roth DW. trad IRA me, trad IRA DW, HSA me, HSA DW ....)

 

[eta2020]

I have funds at Vanguard and a Brokerage account at Fido.

That would my route if I had a fidelity brokerage. I am not fan of fidelity funds or brokerage though

I would go with E*Trade or Schwab and build core of investment with things like VTI, VXUS, VWO, VIG.

 

[Animorph]

I set my mom up at Fido with FUSVX (S&P 500), FSEVX (Total US ex S&P 500), FSGDX (World ex US), and FSITX (bonds). All index funds with 0.05% to 0.18% ER's. You can do fine at Fidelity unless you want more niche indexes or Vanguard's active funds.

You might want to sell only the funds that would cost you $50 to sell at Fidelity before doing a transfer. Assuming you can sell them for free where they are now.

 

[stephenson]

The point was that Fido would just hold my current mom Fido mutual funds ...all this does is simplify my accounting ...the funds look like securities in my Fido brokerage account vice having 15 other funds at 8 other fund family institutions.


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[Sunset]

Simplifying your holdings to fewer investments is totally separate from picking a brokerage to hold them.

I have to wonder, why can they not remain where they are located now as you simplify, or just move some of them ?

 

[Senator]

I use Fidelity. they have a lot of no-cost ETFs. I like IVV (S&P) and IVW (S&P growth).

I like the ideas of just set it and forget it.

The S&P gives you some international flavor, as most large caps are international.

 

[stephenson]

Sunset ...I do want simplify he number of places I have to go to review holdings ...the Fido brokerage account would sort of behave like the spreadsheet I use now ...I have financial institution links to the various funds (like about 20 of them) ...I'm looking for some reason why this would simplify or improve or make easier, etc, than the way I'm doing it now. And then, if there is some advantage for me (I know there is for THEM ...they want to make it easy for me to liquidate other funds and move to their funds), is there a better reason to go with Vanguard, TRPrice, etc.

I would prefer to seriously simplify by eliminating some of the funds, but these under consideration are all taxable funds.


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[ChicagoGal]

I do want simplify he number of places I have to go to review holdings ...the Fido brokerage account would sort of behave like the spreadsheet I use now ...I have financial institution links to the various funds (like about 20 of them) ...I'm looking for some reason why this would simplify or improve or make easier, etc, than the way I'm doing it now. And then, if there is some advantage for me (I know there is for THEM ...they want to make it easy for me to liquidate other funds and move to their funds), is there a better reason to go with Vanguard, TRPrice, etc.

I recently did this with several accounts - old IRA, 401k, stock accounts, etc. Moved almost everything to Vanguard (still have 1-2 accounts that I need to work on). Things I could easily liquidate and transfer into Vanguard funds, I did. Those that had bigger tax implications, for now I just stuck in a Vanguard brokerage account while I figure that out (need to find cost basis for employee stock purchases from around 15 years ago).

Makes it a ton easier for me as I'm sorting through things. And I chose Vanguard pretty much because I just wanted to make a decision and get things moving. And I don't intend to do a lot of trading or shifting around once I get things settled, so their offering seems to work fine.

 

[stephenson]

The more questions I ask, the more interesting the process!

Fidelity folks were really great - yeah, I know they are paid to be, but had very helpful POC - I have not pulled the trigger, yet, but my POC offered a "promotion" on the following scale - she collected some info and noted not everyone would necessarily qualify ...but, given my intent to do something it is certainly good motivation.

While I sort of stumbled into this, I was impressed ...they of course pushed their local office advisory on me, but I told 'em wasn't interested. Be glad to provide the rep's contact info I spoke with - she was not affiliated with a local advisory office, just the national "1-800" folks.

I have to check with Vanguard next ...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Offer Details

Earn up to a $2500 deposit bonus when you open and fund a Fidelity IRA or brokerage account or add new money to an existing one.
Deposit Amount$50,000+$100,000+$250,000+$500,000+$1,000,000+Deposit Bonus Earned$200$300$600$1200$2500

 

[Options]

Consolidating to Vanguard last year was almost life-changing in that I spend so much less time/hassle. The simplicity of having (almost) everything in one place has made financial money management so much easier. Should have done it a long time ago.

 

[Sunset]

I totally agree with the idea of simplifying, its easier to manage.
I used to have 4 roll-over IRA accounts, and I transferred them into 1, its much nicer and easier to have an over-view.
My next step is to reduce the # of stocks and agregate them into a few ETF's as less risky and less reviewing needed.

One thing I have concern about is having ALL retirement investments at 1 place. Imagine the issue if say Fidelity was hacked and accounts stolen from, or erased.
Could you prove what you owned, does their insurance cover you and everyone else for the full amount or would the insurance go belly up on that massive loss ?
What are you going to do while the "repairs and admin" take months to work out ?
I had a bond with a trust company (like a bank) and they went "bankrupt". It took 9 months for the gov't to send me my check.
Had all my accounts been at that 1 bank, I would have had serious money-flow issues.
That's why I'm considering having all my retirement $$$ split between 2 brokerages.

 

[MRG]

One thing I have concern about is having ALL retirement investments at 1 place. Imagine the issue if say Fidelity was hacked and accounts stolen from, or erased.
Could you prove what you owned, does their insurance cover you and everyone else for the full amount or would the insurance go belly up on that massive loss ?
What are you going to do while the "repairs and admin" take months to work out ?

... snip...

All I can say is don't worry. These systems are backed up with point in time checkpoints, with replicated data in a hot off site data center(s). These system(s) are typically run out of tier 4 data centers(ANSI/TIA 942 spec). While it's possible someone might get hacked, the data would be restored and brought current without the hack. You'd never know.


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