Join Early Retirement Today
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Vanguard
Old 12-01-2016, 01:53 PM   #1
Recycles dryer sheets
PandaBear's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 313
Vanguard

Hi,
Atfter many years of having our money through Waddell and Reed, dh is ready to make a change. He Is planning on moving our retirement fund (currently close to 600K) to Vanguard. The plan would then be to move our current 401k (also about 600K) when dh retires in a couple of years.
This is a big move for us. His brother has been trying to get him to make the move to vanguard for quite a while.
Do you have any advice for us as we do this? Anything we need to consider?
Thanks
PandaBear is offline   Reply With Quote
Join the #1 Early Retirement and Financial Independence Forum Today - It's Totally Free!

Are you planning to be financially independent as early as possible so you can live life on your own terms? Discuss successful investing strategies, asset allocation models, tax strategies and other related topics in our online forum community. Our members range from young folks just starting their journey to financial independence, military retirees and even multimillionaires. No matter where you fit in you'll find that Early-Retirement.org is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with our members, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create a retirement blog, send private messages and so much, much more!

Old 12-01-2016, 01:55 PM   #2
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 10,252
My best advice is to go over to the Vanguard fan forum: bogleheads.org and start reading. Maybe start at the "Getting Started" link (or whatever it is called).
LOL! is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-01-2016, 02:09 PM   #3
Moderator Emeritus
W2R's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 47,468
Quote:
Originally Posted by LOL! View Post
My best advice is to go over to the Vanguard fan forum: bogleheads.org and start reading. Maybe start at the "Getting Started" link (or whatever it is called).
+1

https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/index.php

I think probably he means the "Investing - - help with personal investments" subforum link. Hope this helps! They have always been very helpful to me as well and some of the people over there are very knowledgeable.

Two of the stickies at the top of that sub-forum are very helpful, "Investment Planning" and "Asking Portfolio Questions" so I'd recommend you read those before posting.

Something else that is helpful in the actual mechanics of transferring accounts over to Vanguard, is to call Vanguard and talk to them. They have been very helpful to me in the past.
__________________
Already we are boldly launched upon the deep; but soon we shall be lost in its unshored, harbourless immensities. - - H. Melville, 1851.

Happily retired since 2009, at age 61. Best years of my life by far!
W2R is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-01-2016, 02:19 PM   #4
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
MRG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Posts: 11,078
Taxable accounts you should do a transfer in kind if possible. Very carefully consider immediate tax concerns with future fund fees.

You will enjoy much lower fees with Vanguard. I assume you are stuck with an advisor with Waddell and Reed are you going to DIY or pay Vanguard for VPAS?

One other positive Vanguard does have a "no hack fraud protection", whatever they call it. Waddell and Reed doesn't.

It's probably best to initiate the transfer from the Vanguard side of things. Good luck.
MRG is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-01-2016, 03:01 PM   #5
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
mickeyd's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: South Texas~29N/98W Just West of Woman Hollering Creek
Posts: 6,668
Turn it all over to Vanguard and they will make sure that it all transfers to them ASAP. They do thousands of there each day so it's no biggie to those good folks @ VG.


Good luck.
__________________
Part-Owner of Texas

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. Groucho Marx

In dire need of: faster horses, younger woman, older whiskey, more money.
mickeyd is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-01-2016, 04:09 PM   #6
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
gauss's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 3,587
If your 401k plan allows, I would consider doing a partial transfer to Vanguard the first year as a "dry run" and document exactly how you did it.

If one year later your tax return comes in how you expected, I would then move the big money the second year.

This will only work if your 401k allows partial distributions.

Note I am a DIY guy who didn't trust any advice that I received from plan providers until I saw it with my own eyes. I way also doing rollover/transfers that were less common than most at the time. YMMV.

-gauss
gauss is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 12-01-2016, 05:51 PM   #7
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
DrRoy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,942
I am sure that you can call Vanguard and get a lot of assistance on transfer paperwork, etc.
__________________
"The mountains are calling, and I must go." John Muir
DrRoy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-01-2016, 06:03 PM   #8
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
travelover's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 14,328
Is your "retirement fund" in a taxable account or an IRA or 401(k)? If in a taxable fund, you could incur taxes when you move it. Vanguard can advise you on this.
travelover is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-02-2016, 06:57 AM   #9
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
donheff's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 11,314
I did it with several accounts both taxable and non-taxable. The non-taxable was not a big deal since I didn't need to worry about consequences. I just dumped it all into the pre-selected VG funds. The taxable was more complicated because I was concerned about tax consequences. I transferred most of it to a VG brokerage account in kind and then carefully liquidated and moved into VG indexes over time with an eye to tax consequences. I don't think there is any one size fits all approach to this. I could second guess every choice I made but why bother - plan it out as best you can and make the move.
__________________
Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre -- Albert Camus
donheff is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 12-02-2016, 08:58 AM   #10
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Northern IL
Posts: 26,806
Sounds like you are not alone:

Quote:
Waddell & Reed starts layoffs after investor exodus, poor results (Apr 26, 2016, 12:53pm CDT)

... The retail unaffiliated channel, which consists of individual investors, was hammered the hardest. Assets declined 35 percent to $38.6 billion, after the funds lost $1.64 billion to market action. Redemptions jumped 22.7 percent to $7.68 billion, and sales sunk 45 percent to $2.14 billion. ...
http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascit...or-exodus.html

Agree with others to inform Vanguard and give them authorization to 'pull' the assets from W&R. That will generally go much better than telling W&R to send things to Vanguard.

Also agree to consider taxes - some of the funds at W&R may not be able to be transferred 'in-kind' (transferred w/o selling them), and that could create a capital gains for you. Vanguard should be able to help, as well as this forum.

While I've always been a fan of Vanguard, you might want to consider Fidelity if they have a brick and mortar office near you. I found Fidelity to be very straightforward, knowledgeable and helpful when dealing with my FIL's estate. There were some complications, and they got it worked out with minimal effort on our part. If we tried this with Vanguard, it would have been difficult as some of the transactions required Medallion signatures.

That might not apply in your case, but having the B&M backup makes me feel better about it.

-ERD50
ERD50 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-05-2016, 04:54 AM   #11
Recycles dryer sheets
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 123
+million re:Fidelity. Nothing against Vanguard, but I do like having brick and mortar available, when I do anything the least bit complex. Also, over the years I've called Fidelity for assistance on dozens of occasions. No matter who I get, they are knowledgeable and have the answer I need. Very impressive. Again, nothing against Vanguard at all. Just a big fan of Fido, based on many years of experience.
sakowitzm is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
All Vanguard or Vanguard AND Fidelity? bizlady FIRE and Money 50 06-25-2011 05:08 PM
Vanguard ETFs - hold with Vanguard Brokerage Services? nerdlet FIRE and Money 9 01-16-2010 04:53 PM
Vanguard Index funds vs. Vanguard ETFs Saver FIRE and Money 8 03-22-2008 12:26 PM
Vanguard Personal Financial Planning Services lauraf13 FIRE and Money 36 09-03-2003 11:13 AM

» Quick Links

 
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 05:50 AM.
 
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.