Vanguard

[PandaBear]

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

 

[LOL!]

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).

 

[W2R]

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.

 

[MRG]

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.

 

[mickeyd]

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.

 

[gauss]

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

 

[DrRoy]

I am sure that you can call Vanguard and get a lot of assistance on transfer paperwork, etc.

 

[travelover]

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.

 

[donheff]

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.

 

[ERD50]

Sounds like you are not alone:

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/kansascity/news/2016/04/26/waddell-reed-layoffs-investor-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

 

[sakowitzm]

+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.