Another Vanguard Rant

[Koolau]

Well I'm sure Vanguard has gotten caught in the middle more then once. You seem unduly upset about this .

If only people were that diligent.... the old spouse got the money I'm guessing. This stuff isn't Vanguards problem

Yeah, can hardly blame VG for not wanting to get in the middle. Lots of other stuff to get upset with VG about. I'm gonna pretty much let this one go I think.

 

[mathjak107]

Well I'm sure Vanguard has gotten caught in the middle more then once. You seem unduly upset about this .

i bet they haven’t . there is nothing for them to get caught up in .


the named beneficiaries on the accounts take precedence over anything stated in the will and the assets will be distributed to the named beneficiaries period .

there is nothing else that involves them

 

[24601NoMore]

i bet they haven’t . there is nothing for them to get caught up in .


the named beneficiaries on the accounts take precedence over anything stated in the will and the assets will be distributed to the named beneficiaries period .

there is nothing else that involves them

Yep! Named Beneficiaries on TOD/POD accounts over-ride all else - wills, trusts, family squabbles, disagreements, hurt feelings etc. If there's a TOD/POD beneficiary on an account, that person receives their designated percentage of those assets, period. Nothing else matters. At least that's my understanding.

So, that said..VG not allowing TOD/POD beneficiaries on joint accounts is idiotic IMHO. Enough to make me seriously think of moving our joint taxable assets elsewhere, assuming I can do so and not be in a worse position in terms of higher transaction fees or lack of fund availability at a different brokerage. I did look again early today after reading up-thread that Schwab offers some NTF VG funds and was surprised to see that two VG funds I own that are either not available or have high ($75 per) TX fees elsewhere ARE NTF at Schwab. Unfortunately, a third VG one I currently own wasn't. And Schwab doesn't even offer a fourth, non-VG fund that we've held for decades (ACINX) and that we'd have to sell in order to close the joint brokerage account @ VG. Urgh.

 

[ivinsfan]

i bet they haven’t . there is nothing for them to get caught up in .


the named beneficiaries on the accounts take precedence over anything stated in the will and the assets will be distributed to the named beneficiaries period .

there is nothing else that involves them

Guess you didn't see the story I recounted about EverBank

 

[mathjak107]

exactly, it couldn’t be more cut and dry which is why our fidelity rep and chase rep couldn’t believe they did that

 

[mathjak107]

Guess you didn't see the story I recounted about EverBank

saw it but that is likely more like the proverbial lightning strike if even the story has all the facts correctly.

so i certainly can’t see using a trust where it isn’t warranted .

in fact look at my story about the defective verbiage in my wife’s father in laws trust and will i have spoke about a few times.

so there can be lightning strikes in any document

 

[Texas Proud]

Guess you didn't see the story I recounted about EverBank

I did not and did not see any link in this thread.... can you give one?



Since I have no joint accounts at any broker I do not have to worry about this... but if VG has a problem with it then I think losing customers is a price they are willing to pay... I doubt anybody is going to say 'let us go to VG since they will not allow us to designate beneficiaries on our joint account'...

 

[ivinsfan]

I did not and did not see any link in this thread.... can you give one?



Since I have no joint accounts at any broker I do not have to worry about this... but if VG has a problem with it then I think losing customers is a price they are willing to pay... I doubt anybody is going to say 'let us go to VG since they will not allow us to designate beneficiaries on our joint account'...

Its not a link, it happened to a personal friend of mine...point being, an excluded by choice relative ( the executor of the estate) put pressure on Everbank. Everbank lawyers got involved and it took forever and a day to sort out. The PO'd relative didn't have a leg to stand on, except he was pissed off.

 

[ivinsfan]

saw it but that is likely more like the proverbial lightning strike if even the story has all the facts correctly.

so i certainly can’t see using a trust where it isn’t warranted .

in fact look at my story about the defective verbiage in my wife’s father in laws trust and will i have spoke about a few times.

so there can be lightning strikes in any document

Oddly enough times have change as far as these institutions getting embroiled in who gets the money arguments. I guess you will need to leave VG if it doesn't suit you, but they aren't going to change it.

 

[nwsteve]

I can't speak to Schwab policies and procedures but can share when we transferred in kind all our V positions including a couple of mutual funds to FIDO, we had no charges from fido for reinvesting dividends or selling them. If we wanted to buy more shares than a purchase fee of $75/transaction would be owed. I did have to convert a couple Admiral funds to the identical standard version before moving the shares

 

[24601NoMore]

I can't speak to Schwab policies and procedures but can share when we transferred in kind all our V positions including a couple of mutual funds to FIDO, we had no charges from fido for reinvesting dividends or selling them. If we wanted to buy more shares than a purchase fee of $75/transaction would be owed. I did have to convert a couple Admiral funds to the identical standard version before moving the shares

There's a (perhaps obvious) downside to converting to non-Admiral shares, though, with those standard version funds have a higher ER than Admiral.

AFAIK, Admiral are "only" available through VG. That was one of the lock-in tricks VG pulled a while back.

 

[mathjak107]

Oddly enough times have change as far as these institutions getting embroiled in who gets the money arguments. I guess you will need to leave VG if it doesn't suit you, but they aren't going to change it.

been gone from vanguard from the first day i saw it., worst customer service i ever experienced too so i would never go back even if the changed the policy

 

[mathjak107]

There's a (perhaps obvious) downside to converting to non-Admiral shares, though, with those standard version funds have a higher ER than Admiral.

AFAIK, Admiral are "only" available through VG. That was one of the lock-in tricks VG pulled a while back.

yep , i had to convert my admiral share s&p fund to voo and then move it elsewhere

 

[Gumby]

been gone from vanguard from the first day i saw it., worst customer service i ever experienced too so i would never go back even if the changed the policy

Well, then, you've made your choice and moved on, so why continue to complain about it?

 

[mathjak107]

Well, then, you've made your choice and moved on, so why continue to complain about it?

i warn others to check their beneficiaries if it’s important to them ..they may not be aware they have been deleted

 

[Gumby]

i warn others to check their beneficiaries if it’s important to them ..they may not be aware they have been deleted

And you did that 46 posts ago. If you're here to provide helpful information, that's fine. But if your only purpose is to whine about Vanguard, it grows tiresome.

 

[mathjak107]

well evidently not everyone knew from the comments right in this thread

know why sleepy had a mattress sale everyday advertised?

because people don’t pay attention until it effects them .

plus in any discussion about vanguard i will chime in to voice my opinion about them and their awful customer service experience i had

sorry if it hursts your feelings about them but in my opinion they suck and i have no bones about making it known whenever i can

 

[MichaelB]

well evidently not everyone knew from the comments right in this thread

know why sleepy had a mattress sale everyday advertised?

because people don’t pay attention until it effects them .

plus in any discussion about vanguard i will chime in to voice my opinion about them and their awful customer service experience i had

sorry if it hursts your feelings about them but in my opinion they suck and i have no bones about making it known whenever i can

The thread topic is not your personal criticism of Vanguard, it is the settlement time for funds. You’ve made your point, and by dragging it out you’re hijacking the discussion.

Like Gumby suggested, why don’t you just leave it and move on.

 

[Gumby]

well evidently not everyone knew from the comments right in this thread

know why sleepy had a mattress sale everyday advertised?

because people don’t pay attention until it effects them .

plus in any discussion about vanguard i will chime in to voice my opinion about them and their awful customer service experience i had

sorry if it hursts your feelings about them but in my opinion they suck and i have no bones about making it known whenever i can

Doesn't hurt my feelings; I have no water to carry for them. But your repetitive complaints are just boring the crap out of all of us and dragging out threads for no good reason. You may want to consider that, sometimes, the problem with customer service is the customer.

 

[Rianne]

well evidently not everyone knew from the comments right in this thread

know why sleepy had a mattress sale everyday advertised?

because people don’t pay attention until it effects them .

plus in any discussion about vanguard i will chime in to voice my opinion about them and their awful customer service experience i had

sorry if it hursts your feelings about them but in my opinion they suck and i have no bones about making it known whenever i can

Sorry you feel that way. We've been with Vanguard for over 35 years. Never had an issue. Happy with customer service, they always provided advice with whatever changes we've had over the years. I know some posters have had a bad experience with them.

 

[all4j]

To me there seems to be one clear explanation for the Vanguard "no-nos" mentioned: they are a mutual company. There is a cost involved in each of these & the question becomes who bears the cost? Or more directly, how much are you willing to pay someone for these to be offered? Competition feeds off difference between customers.

 

[frank05]

Had an account with Vanguard for over 20 years. Only needed to speak to customer support once when changing my account to a Trust which they did with no problem. One of my requirements for selecting a financial company is the ability to do everything online which is why I dropped Merrill.

 

[Texas Proud]

Doesn't hurt my feelings; I have no water to carry for them. But your repetitive complaints are just boring the crap out of all of us and dragging out threads for no good reason. You may want to consider that, sometimes, the problem with customer service is the customer.

I will chime in and say why do you care if he does? Just ignore it and move on... do not speak for the whole community...



I agree with him that not everybody knows and if they do not know then reading this may help them.... but if it were not here they would not find out...

 

[MichaelB]

<mod note>
The original thread topic has been pushed aside and replaced with a flood of posts regarding an unrelated personal grievance of one member. This is in violation of our community rules. Any further posts on that matter will be removed. From our community rules:

This forum is not intended to be a mechanism for people to solely vent frustrations about services, products, vendors or sales.

Members wishing to discuss the beneficiary policy at Vanguard, are free to start a thread on that topic, as long as it stays informative and of interest to the community and does not become another extended personal vent.

 

[target2019]

This thread has been somewhat interesting as to the beneficiary policy. It's a good time to check beneficiaries across all of our accounts.

Thanks for addressing the thread hijack.