Vanguard, Fidelity, and everybody else

[teekaymn]

I haven't done in-depth analysis of which fund families are a better buy than others, but I seem to see the most frequently mentioned on this forum are Vanguard and Fidelity. My 401k is with Oppenheimer, but I have some IRA's with Putnam. Should I be looking at Vanguard and/or Fidelity, or others, for long-term placement of my money? And if so, what makes them the best choices? I'm not looking for out-and-out investment advice, I'd just like to know why they seem to get the most ink.

 

[REWahoo]

These old threads might help:

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/fidelity-vs-vanguard-or-others-32959.html
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/during-retirement-fidelity-or-vanguard-38660.html
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/who-is-better-schwab-fidelity-or-vanguard-42975.html

 

[LOL!]

They get the most ink because they are the least expensive by a very wide margin.

 

[Trawler]

Both Fidelity and Vangaurd are condidered low cost with many no load funds available. They have a full compliment of services and I acually use both. vanguard has my 401K. Fideility has my individual Mad Money stocks as a trade stocks like thier trading tools tools. I also own a significant amount of different Americam funds that had up front loads however very low expenses inside the funds with low turnover rates and better overall long term 10 years returns for the style of funds I was shopping for about ten years ago..

 

[teekaymn]

Thanks for the quick replies, all -- I'll be checking out the links posted by REWahoo.

 

[FUEGO]

Vanguard ETF funds are some of the lowest cost investment choices around. But they are available at any brokerage firm. And some firms offer free or dirt cheap trades.

Fidelity is also good because they offer free trades on many ishares ETFs, and have a few good low cost index funds (although their selection recently got worse with a doubling of expense ratio of their International Spartan fund).

 

[Texas Proud]

When I was doing a review for a new 401(k) provider, Putnam was not that bad.... so I would not throw it out just because it is not one of the big two...

Vanguard did not want to have anything to do with us as we were way to small... so we went with Fidelity and are pleased... but Putnam was our next choice...

Can not remember about Oppenheimer... I do think they were a bit pricey....

 

[73ss454]

Years ago my old broker put me into Oppenheimer funds, I later found out that the up front charge to put money into the funds was 5.75%, can you imagine? I got out of there fast and didn't even bother to look at the ER's on the funds.

My advise is not to commit any new funds to Oppenheimer and call Vanguard ASAP.

 

[obgyn65]

I am at Vanguard and Edward Jones. I get very good service from both companies.

Should I be looking at Vanguard and/or Fidelity, or others, for long-term placement of my money? And if so, what makes them the best choices?

 

[FreeAtLast]

I have been happy with Schwab whom I have been using for the past 7 years. I find their website, trading, banking, on line education, news, and money transfers are all very well designed and reliable.

I have started to go to some of their educational workshops at the local branch since I retired and most of them have been worth while. Some have been better than others.

I don't know too much about their mutual funds. I own some Vanguard funds which I hold in my Schwab account.

 

[donheff]

In addition to the interest in no load funds and low expense ratios, many here like index funds rather than actively managed funds. Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab have good selections of low cost index funds.

 

[SJ1_]

They get the most ink because they are the least expensive by a very wide margin.

+1 that was my first thought - Cost. It is the only variable you can control.

 

[ziggy29]

I have been happy with Schwab whom I have been using for the past 7 years. I find their website, trading, banking, on line education, news, and money transfers are all very well designed and reliable.

I have started to go to some of their educational workshops at the local branch since I retired and most of them have been worth while. Some have been better than others.

I don't know too much about their mutual funds. I own some Vanguard funds which I hold in my Schwab account.

In terms of ETF investing, too, Vanguard, Schwab and Fidelity all have a list of ETFs that can be traded with no commissions. Vanguard and Schwab ETFs can be traded commission-free at their respective sponsoring brokerages, and Fidelity has some iShares funds that can be traded with no commissions.

The Vanguard and Schwab offerings are very comparable in expenses; for any given asset class there are times the Vanguard ETF is cheaper and times when the Schwab ETF are cheaper. (For the most part, the iShares are a little higher in expenses.)

Vanguard, Schwab and Fidelity have been competing and trying to one-up each other in terms of offering lower cost, lower fee investing options for "Bogleheaded" investors. And we as investors are the winners for it. Competition can be a wonderful thing.

 

[ShortInSeattle]

Vanguard ETF funds are some of the lowest cost investment choices around. But they are available at any brokerage firm. And some firms offer free or dirt cheap trades.

Fidelity is also good because they offer free trades on many ishares ETFs, and have a few good low cost index funds (although their selection recently got worse with a doubling of expense ratio of their International Spartan fund).

We just built a ETF portfolio at Fidelity using the commission free iShares. Given our interest in regular rebalancing the free trades make it a great deal.

SIS

 

[Midpack]

I started with a big name full service retail brokerage trading individual stocks exclusively, learned a lot but wised up after a few years of moderately higher commissions.

I then moved my whole portfolio to Fidelity for about 10 years when I traded individual stocks and active mutual funds, it was a good fit then, I was 100% equities in those days. When I stopped trading individual stocks and focusing on index funds, I moved everything to Vanguard (about 15 years ago). Vanguard had way more index funds to choose from. Fidelity provided more hand holding than Vanguard, but I no longer needed the help by then. However, Fidelity advice was usually good but not always, mostly bright "kids" with narrow knowledge.

My old employer had our 401k's with Schwab. The funds were garbage, but that was my employers fault (dumb selections), Schwab had decent funds - just not options for us.

I'd be comfortable with Vanguard, Fidelity or Schwab - though I like Vanguard best for DIY index investors.

Best of luck...

 

[youbet]

I have been happy with Schwab

Me too. I've been with Schwab for over 20 years and so far, so good.

I own some Vanguard funds which I hold in my Schwab account.

If you haven't discovered this yet, you can ask Schwab to set up your account to trade Vanguard funds commission free.


I think an investor can do just fine using either Vanguard, Schwab or Fidelity. I stick with Schwab because DW has a bad case of "investor-phobia" and requires a brick and mortar office nearby. Fidelity would also work for us. I've studied Vanguard and if it were not for DW's craving for brick and mortar facilities, Vanguard would work just fine for me.

The key thing is to avoid a brokerage where salespeople try to put you into loaded MF's with high ER's or try to sell you other products which are more focused on paying the salesperson a nice commission as opposed to meeting your needs efficiently. Vanguard, Schwab, Fidelity all meet this requirement. After that, whether you're paying a .06% or .08% ER for a TSM index fund isn't going to make all that much difference.

 

[FUEGO]

We just built a ETF portfolio at Fidelity using the commission free iShares. Given our interest in regular rebalancing the free trades make it a great deal.

I use the free trades to my advantage as well. I get my credit card rewards dumped into my fidelity account, along with $75/month or so in interest on a bond. Every few months I end up with a few hundred bucks in cash in my brokerage account and I can buy a few shares of an ishares ETF. However the comparable vanguard ETFs are starting to be a much better deal in terms of expense ratios so I will be slowly switching over to vanguard ETFs.

 

[Finance Dave]

I use Vanguard since my MegaCorp uses them for 401k.

I also use Fidelity because I manage my dad's retirement assets, and he had them there for years already.

I must admit I think Fidelity's online site is slightly easier to navigate, but otherwise I'm ok with either one. With Vanguard I've not found a way to integrate DW's portfolio with mine...but then I've never asked them if it's possible. When you're a "buy and hold" person...you only look online about twice a year.

 

[FinanceDude]

Vanguard is FAR BEHIND Fido and Schwab as far as what you can do on the site..........

 

[Midpack]

Vanguard is FAR BEHIND Fido and Schwab as far as what you can do on the site..........

That was/is my experience too. And Vanguard's reports/format is the clumsiest too. Though I still like their index find choices.

 

[FUEGO]

I must admit I think Fidelity's online site is slightly easier to navigate, but otherwise I'm ok with either one. With Vanguard I've not found a way to integrate DW's portfolio with mine...but then I've never asked them if it's possible. When you're a "buy and hold" person...you only look online about twice a year.

There is a way to get your DW's portfolios displayed alongside yours on your vanguard.com login. It has been years since I did so, but I did it. Call a vanguard rep and ask what forms you should submit. I want to say it was a "limited power of attorney" or "limited trading authorization" or something to that effect, but that may be what we did at Fidelity. Not sure if vanguard lets you see your DW's 401k (if she has one at Vanguard) but I know at Fidelity they will not display DW's employer related accounts on my login ID (in her case it is 401k and HSA).

Having all household accounts on my one login at vanguard makes getting a downloadable excel file with all current portfolio positions really easy (2 clicks after I log in).

 

[SpencerM]

Me too. I've been with Schwab for over 20 years and so far, so good. If you haven't discovered this yet, you can ask Schwab to set up your account to trade Vanguard funds commission free.

I'm at Schwab. How do I do this? Thanks.

 

[Finance Dave]

There is a way to get your DW's portfolios displayed alongside yours on your vanguard.com login. It has been years since I did so, but I did it. Call a vanguard rep and ask what forms you should submit. I want to say it was a "limited power of attorney" or "limited trading authorization" or something to that effect, but that may be what we did at Fidelity. Not sure if vanguard lets you see your DW's 401k (if she has one at Vanguard) but I know at Fidelity they will not display DW's employer related accounts on my login ID (in her case it is 401k and HSA).

Having all household accounts on my one login at vanguard makes getting a downloadable excel file with all current portfolio positions really easy (2 clicks after I log in).

Thank you Fuego, I'll look into this. I'll be calling VG anyway soon...I had a late IRA contribution for 2011 and need to do some quick shuffling in the next 1-2 weeks.

 

[rescueme]

There is a way to get your DW's portfolios displayed alongside yours on your vanguard.com login.

You can also use "Account aggregation" on VG if you have used it in the past (it's closed to new enrollments).

It will show you your VG accounts (both yours/DW's) and any/all outside accounts (such as FIDO) if you wish. It's similar to FIDO's "Full View" but in this case the information can be/is ported over to VG's FE (Financial Engines) tool...

Link to info: https://personal.vanguard.com/us/help/FAQTechHelpCashEdgeContent.jsp#1a

 

[Alan]

You can also use "Account aggregation" on VG if you have used it in the past (it's closed to new enrollments).

It will show you your VG accounts (both yours/DW's) and any/all outside accounts (such as FIDO) if you wish. It's similar to FIDO's "Full View" but in this case the information can be/is ported over to VG's FE (Financial Engines) tool...

Link to info: https://personal.vanguard.com/us/help/FAQTechHelpCashEdgeContent.jsp#1a

This is what I do and it is very easy to use. All you need is the account login details for the other accounts. They get updated automatically every 24 hrs, and you can always click "refresh accounts", if you wish, for an immediate update.