Another Vanguard problem

[Phroig]

An increasing number of investors are switching from funds to ETFs. As long as you hold Vanguard ETFs, I suspect Vanguard doesn’t care where you hold them.

 

[Sue J]

After my cousin died in 2021, I paid to have 10 cartons of paper shredded. He had EVERY statement and mailing and prospectus he had ever gotten for all of his accounts. It was nuts. I keep the current year and get rid of them in January and that’s it.

When my Dad moved to assisted living he gave me his collection of documents. It was in a wicker hamper the size of a bench. Like a piece of furniture! He had decades worth of all the slips from every transaction with his broker. Also, years of paper statements and prospectus.

He told me to shred it all and I just had a home paper shredder. This would have taken me months so I found a local commercial shredder who had weekly free shredding for individuals.

I filled 3 large laundry baskets with this stuff and drove to to the facility. They unloaded it and I saw it all go into the massive shredder. They returned my laundry baskets and I was DONE.

I like getting documents and statements online or in email. If it's something I need to hang onto I put it into a folder on my computer. I rarely print things unless I need it for a tax return. I file taxes electronically but keep a printed copy in the file cabinet.

 

[Sunset]

Yeah, the printer on my desk is a Brother. It hasn't printed a single copy in 2 years. Not sure why I haven't dumped the thing.

I should have said my Brother printers are laser.

I gave up on the liquid ink jet printers decades ago, due to never printing when needed.

 

[Koolau]

When my Dad moved to assisted living he gave me his collection of documents. It was in a wicker hamper the size of a bench. Like a piece of furniture! He had decades worth of all the slips from every transaction with his broker. Also, years of paper statements and prospectus.

He told me to shred it all and I just had a home paper shredder. This would have taken me months so I found a local commercial shredder who had weekly free shredding for individuals.

I filled 3 large laundry baskets with this stuff and drove to to the facility. They unloaded it and I saw it all go into the massive shredder. They returned my laundry baskets and I was DONE.

I like getting documents and statements online or in email. If it's something I need to hang onto I put it into a folder on my computer. I rarely print things unless I need it for a tax return. I file taxes electronically but keep a printed copy in the file cabinet.

Yeah, I fault the big houses for sending SO much paper when they don't really need to (or, said another way, I don't need it.) How about making me get on their site to read the boiler plate if I want to. I can live with that.

I DO have to shred a fair amount of V stuff (and others) at years end, If I'm happy with my year-end statement, I shred all the monthly statements (Hey, it's all on the V site, right.) BUT I keep the yearly's for a couple of years - just in case.

 

[Texas Proud]

Yeah, I fault the big houses for sending SO much paper when they don't really need to (or, said another way, I don't need it.) How about making me get on their site to read the boiler plate if I want to. I can live with that.

I DO have to shred a fair amount of V stuff (and others) at years end, If I'm happy with my year-end statement, I shred all the monthly statements (Hey, it's all on the V site, right.) BUT I keep the yearly's for a couple of years - just in case.

I have V year end stmts going back to 2003.... They fit in one 3 ring binder... I did shred the previous years...


It is NOT a lot of paper for year end stmts and tax info... if they had an option for just those I would be good to go... but they do not..

 

[Koolau]

I have V year end stmts going back to 2003.... They fit in one 3 ring binder... I did shred the previous years...


It is NOT a lot of paper for year end stmts and tax info... if they had an option for just those I would be good to go... but they do not..

Yeah, I think I could live with monthly or quarterly statement on the web site but printed year end statement. Let's both call V and request (heh, heh, demand) just year enders for free!

 

[disneysteve]

In today's mail, I got the notice about the updated fee. Of course, I didn't just get it once. I got it 8 times. Eight separate envelopes each containing the 2-page notice, one for each of our accounts. So 16 sheets of paper and 8 envelopes.



I immediately logged into both of our accounts and switched to e-delivery. The amount of waste generated by these accounts is incredible. I'll have way less shredding to do from now on. No more monthly and quarterly statements for 8 accounts along with all of the other random notices, prospectuses, etc. Just us alone will save hundreds of sheets of paper per year. Multiply that out by how ever many customers Vanguard has and it's a mountain of paper for sure. Again, kudos to Vanguard for doing this.

 

[Texas Proud]

In today's mail, I got the notice about the updated fee. Of course, I didn't just get it once. I got it 8 times. Eight separate envelopes each containing the 2-page notice, one for each of our accounts. So 16 sheets of paper and 8 envelopes.



I immediately logged into both of our accounts and switched to e-delivery. The amount of waste generated by these accounts is incredible. I'll have way less shredding to do from now on. No more monthly and quarterly statements for 8 accounts along with all of the other random notices, prospectuses, etc. Just us alone will save hundreds of sheets of paper per year. Multiply that out by how ever many customers Vanguard has and it's a mountain of paper for sure. Again, kudos to Vanguard for doing this.

I had called and got a consolidated statement... so I rarely got the 8 separate notices...

 

[jazz4cash]

An increasing number of investors are switching from funds to ETFs. As long as you hold Vanguard ETFs, I suspect Vanguard doesn’t care where you hold them.

Oh, I think they care…unless you want them to mail you a statement.

 

[Koolau]

In today's mail, I got the notice about the updated fee. Of course, I didn't just get it once. I got it 8 times. Eight separate envelopes each containing the 2-page notice, one for each of our accounts. So 16 sheets of paper and 8 envelopes.

IOW, it's not me, it's them! They could send me one envelop with all my stuff on a couple or three sheets of paper (details to be found on the net) and NO boiler plate.

 

[nwsteve]

IOW, it's not me, it's them! They could send me one envelop with all my stuff on a couple or three sheets of paper (details to be found on the net) and NO boiler plate.

IRC, Vanguard has rarely gotten Kudos from this board for its effective using technology. In fact, updated processes generally inflict harm until V's coders are done letting clients be their debug "team". The migration to brokerage has hardly been smooth or showed much thing of work done to design a customer centric migration plan

 

[Koolau]

IRC, Vanguard has rarely gotten Kudos from this board for its effective using technology. In fact, updated processes generally inflict harm until V's coders are done letting clients be their debug "team". The migration to brokerage has hardly been smooth or showed much thing of work done to design a customer centric migration plan

Yeah, but not only did the migration go smoothly for me, it didn't cost me a dime. So (full disclosure) I was mildly upset about the whole thing, but it turned out to be nothing. It was easy.

Now THIS - even if it goes smoothly, it will cost me $150 that I didn't pay before unless I agree to get all my data online. Right, wrong, indifferent, easy or difficult, I don't WANT to do it that way. I liked it the way it was. I want it to stay that way.

I've always thought most of the stuff folks whined about over Vanguard were pretty trivial AND the whining wasn't because of changes (just the normal policies - or very occasionally, actually mistakes. Vanguard's bad.) This is a policy change with "teeth" and cost and I had no say in the matter. Not happy but YMMV.

 

[Badger]

Please tell V your leaving because of the $25 charge/account. Then, maybe they'll change their policy and I won't have to move my accounts.

I have my investments in both Vanguard (Flagship) and Schwab. I haven't heard from Vanguard yet but will be calling them soon to check my status and if there will be a charge for the 2 accounts for my wife and I in multiple funds and multiple MM accounts. If there will be a charge I will let them know about a possible exodus to Schwab with all the money. At least Schwab has a brick and mortar in town with a senior advisor I have known since Scottrade>TD Ameritrade> Schwab. Will Vanguard care? I doubt it.
I like the convenience of mailed hard copies to keep track of the investments and would probably forget to check otherwise. Getting older has some downsides and one for me is a lack of knowledge and comfort in dealing with computers.

Cheers!

 

[Koolau]

I have my investments in both Vanguard (Flagship) and Schwab. I haven't heard from Vanguard yet but will be calling them soon to check my status and if there will be a charge for the 2 accounts for my wife and I in multiple funds and multiple MM accounts. If there will be a charge I will let them know about a possible exodus to Schwab with all the money. At least Schwab has a brick and mortar in town with a senior advisor I have known since Scottrade>TD Ameritrade> Schwab. Will Vanguard care? I doubt it.
I like the convenience of mailed hard copies to keep track of the investments and would probably forget to check otherwise. Getting older has some downsides and one for me is a lack of knowledge and comfort in dealing with computers.

Cheers!

Hear, hear.

I feel the same way. For all the money (of mine) that V has, the least they could do is set some limit on each account (other than blanket 5mil) before they charge for mailings.

 

[Graybeard]

I received the 2 page letter yesterday and logged in to assure I was signed up for E delivery for all 3 accounts and I am. I called just to double check explaining that I still get the various pamphlets (annual and semi reports et al) for just my Trust account. She had no idea why but passed that along for someone to check into it.

FYI misc - In the course of the call, she mentioned Vanguard has 7M clients, I would have thought it was far greater than that. I was transferred to another person to question why I haven't been at Flagship status despite having more than $1M all year. He told me the Flagship designation was being dropped and everyone will just be a Vanguard client regardless of the total assets at Vanguard.

 

[Koolau]

I received the 2 page letter yesterday and logged in to assure I was signed up for E delivery for all 3 accounts and I am. I called just to double check explaining that I still get the various pamphlets (annual and semi reports et al) for just my Trust account. She had no idea why but passed that along for someone to check into it.

FYI misc - In the course of the call, she mentioned Vanguard has 7M clients, I would have thought it was far greater than that. I was transferred to another person to question why I haven't been at Flagship status despite having more than $1M all year. He told me the Flagship designation was being dropped and everyone will just be a Vanguard client regardless of the total assets at Vanguard.

So not even "Admiral" shares anymore? I w*rked so hard to get that.

Heh, heh, when I call V, I'll tell them they'll soon have only 6,999,999 customers if they keep nickel and dimeing me.

 

[gauss]

Year End Statements - How?

To all the folks speaking of retaining a year end statement, are you talking about Vanguard Brokerage accounts?

One of my big reason for not wanting to transition to VBS is because their statements are sent monthly vs quarterly with a year end YTD statement for the Vanguard MF accounts.

If you are getting year-end comprehensive statements for VBS (not just Dec 31 account values, but all the transactions throughout the year), I would be interested in hearing how this is done.

Thanks in advance.
-gauss

 

[MRG]

IOW, it's not me, it's them! They could send me one envelop with all my stuff on a couple or three sheets of paper (details to be found on the net) and NO boiler plate.

I worked on two projects designed to save mailings from financial services companies. It ain't easy to get things to match, I know it seems easy, but little things like a missing initial, lower case, or a period make it more difficult than it seems. Legacy systems have been around for decades, and the rules for acceptance change over time.
Most times, companies get low fruit and forget about the hard cases.

 

[swakyaby]

My Vanguard 2022 year-end brokerage statement only contains detailed transaction info for December, then summarizes year-end amounts for 2022. The quarterly statements did the same, listing detailed transactions for that month only, then a year-to-date summary.

 

[jazz4cash]

I received an email with a cryptic subject “Updates to Form CRS and our commission & fee schedules”. It was confusing so it took me a sec to realized it was notice of the new $25 fee. I guess they needed to inform all clients even if already signed up for e-delivery. We haven’t received any snail mail from them in a long time.

 

[meleana]

I like getting the paper statements. Downloaded ones would be okay, but if/when I pass, how would heirs know that I even had an account? And DW is not all that great with online banking and such, I'm not going to make things more difficult for her at an otherwise very stressful time.

And as far as the cost of mailing them goes, not too long ago there were no objections to that and now they want to change the rules in the middle of the game. I find that offensive.

You should have a Letter of Instruction with all your accounts and user name and passwords.

Plus what I do is I have an account/ net worth statement on excel that I update monthly and it’s on my computer, on a USB stick and I also print it out once per year.

All our statements- everything- is electronic. T Rowe Price did this same thing quite a number of years ago and at first I was reluctant but actually it’s much better than having so much paper around to deal with.

And if you really feel the need to have paper you can always print the statements yourself.

Try it. You’ll like it.

 

[Texas Proud]

To all the folks speaking of retaining a year end statement, are you talking about Vanguard Brokerage accounts?

One of my big reason for not wanting to transition to VBS is because their statements are sent monthly vs quarterly with a year end YTD statement for the Vanguard MF accounts.

If you are getting year-end comprehensive statements for VBS (not just Dec 31 account values, but all the transactions throughout the year), I would be interested in hearing how this is done.

Thanks in advance.
-gauss

I just took a look at my stmt online and it is a year end holding statement with only the Dec transactions.


BTW, my consolidated stmt is called a 'Household Statement'.... I do see all the individual stmts listed online but they are not mailed to me (usually)...

 

[GoodLife59]

Pretty easy to go paperless. You can view and print statements and tax documents from the website. The less I can involve the USPS the better.

 

[tpkinsl]

Goodbye Vanguard

After 35 years with Vanguard, I moved a mid 7 figure portfolio to Fidelity. I was tired of the crappy mobile app, no customer service (3 hour wait for customer service a simple issue ) the onerous security when you log in (I am an IT professional so know what a good security interface looks like), etc.

Fidelity is running a deal, I got $4k for moving the money over. The response from Vanguard on losing a multimillion dollar account? Nothing. I expected that at least my assigned acct executive would have called. Crickets

Peace, out, Vanguard

 

[Graybeard]

To all the folks speaking of retaining a year end statement, are you talking about Vanguard Brokerage accounts?

One of my big reason for not wanting to transition to VBS is because their statements are sent monthly vs quarterly with a year end YTD statement for the Vanguard MF accounts.

If you are getting year-end comprehensive statements for VBS (not just Dec 31 account values, but all the transactions throughout the year), I would be interested in hearing how this is done.

Thanks in advance.
-gauss

Yeah, that was exactly what I was thinking. When I was on the mutual fund platform, the December statement would have all the activity for the entire year on that. It was great to have it all in one place, keep December and toss the rest. When I converted to a brokerage account I was very unhappy that December's statement doesn't contain anything but December's activity. I went back and forth with Vanguard but it seemed there was no way to get what I wanted.

If people with brokerage accounts are getting the entire year's activity on the December statement, I would love to know how.