explanade
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- Joined
- May 10, 2008
- Messages
- 7,461
I thought I posted about this previously but can't find it.
My parents have most of their securities assets with Fidelity. They've been happy with their balances growing in recent years but they know I have most of my assets in VG and know it's also grown.
They've been paying $15-20k a year in management fees.
They had a trust account with a large balance and their IRAs being managed by Fidelity.
When I look at the statements, there's frequent trading and they have dozens, maybe hundreds of equity and fund/ETF positions, of a few thousand each.
That's in this trust account and their IRA accounts. And I would swear one of the statements indicated that they were assessed a fee with the annual MRDs from their IRAs.
My father expressed interest in moving some of the assets over to VG but apparently he didn't press the issue with the account managers at the local Fidelity office.
He passed away in October and I'm probably going to become the trustee of the family trust, because my mother has never dealt with the finances and is lost about these matters.
We met with Fidelity about a couple of weeks ago and I did express to them that we were looking to get away from management fees.
The one thing they said in their favor that made me think was that they claim the accounts they manage are done so in a way to make them tax-advantaged, meaning minimizing their tax liabilities.
I haven't looked closely at their tax returns yet but would that mean they harvest so many losses with this frequent trading churn?
Some of the transactions they do is for a few shares. Since there are so many positions, it's hard to see the effect of small transactions in the overall return and tax exposure of the trust account.
If I get her IRA moved to VG, problem is simple we can liquidate most or all those positions if necessary and buy VG funds or ETFs and there are no tax implications.
But the trust account, which has low 7-figures in assets would obviously have tax liabilities if I tried to streamline the account and start selling off some of these positions to eventually replace with VG funds or ETFs.
Plus, I would imagine we'd be paying VG commissions on those sales all along the way so tax hit as well as commissions.
Or maybe I could find out if I can get Fidelity to stop managing them and I would sell these positions little by little over time.
But that account will be the property of the trust and we will probably need to have tax attorneys file trust tax returns, which will cost money over time.
My parents have most of their securities assets with Fidelity. They've been happy with their balances growing in recent years but they know I have most of my assets in VG and know it's also grown.
They've been paying $15-20k a year in management fees.
They had a trust account with a large balance and their IRAs being managed by Fidelity.
When I look at the statements, there's frequent trading and they have dozens, maybe hundreds of equity and fund/ETF positions, of a few thousand each.
That's in this trust account and their IRA accounts. And I would swear one of the statements indicated that they were assessed a fee with the annual MRDs from their IRAs.
My father expressed interest in moving some of the assets over to VG but apparently he didn't press the issue with the account managers at the local Fidelity office.
He passed away in October and I'm probably going to become the trustee of the family trust, because my mother has never dealt with the finances and is lost about these matters.
We met with Fidelity about a couple of weeks ago and I did express to them that we were looking to get away from management fees.
The one thing they said in their favor that made me think was that they claim the accounts they manage are done so in a way to make them tax-advantaged, meaning minimizing their tax liabilities.
I haven't looked closely at their tax returns yet but would that mean they harvest so many losses with this frequent trading churn?
Some of the transactions they do is for a few shares. Since there are so many positions, it's hard to see the effect of small transactions in the overall return and tax exposure of the trust account.
If I get her IRA moved to VG, problem is simple we can liquidate most or all those positions if necessary and buy VG funds or ETFs and there are no tax implications.
But the trust account, which has low 7-figures in assets would obviously have tax liabilities if I tried to streamline the account and start selling off some of these positions to eventually replace with VG funds or ETFs.
Plus, I would imagine we'd be paying VG commissions on those sales all along the way so tax hit as well as commissions.
Or maybe I could find out if I can get Fidelity to stop managing them and I would sell these positions little by little over time.
But that account will be the property of the trust and we will probably need to have tax attorneys file trust tax returns, which will cost money over time.