Fidelity vs. Vanguard

[rrspike]

90% of my taxable and tax-deferred are with Fidelity. They just kinda conglomerated there, mostly because of my employer retirement plans and plans of my wife's employer. However, am now seriously considering Vanguard when i ER. Fidelity doesn't have the domestic and international small cap value funds that Vanguard has and V's index funds cover a broader spectrum for diversifying. Overall, V has the edge on lowest management fees - the fees for its Index funds are almost non-existent (as they should be). Paul Merriman's book is an excellent treatment on this whole subject.

Finally, if i had my druthers, I'd be moving into DFA, but have not yet decided if i want/need a Financial Advisor and the price tag that comes with it. However, the DFA funds are definitely a cut above all others (no, i'm not associated with DFA).

 

[scrinch]

Talk about a mess, including the wife and kids we have over the years accumulated 22 accounts, including Vanguard, Fidelty, Schwab, Mercer, T Rowe Price, Smith Barney, ETrade, some 403(b) insurance companies, and some others that I can't remember. I'm slowly trying to consolidate into Fidelity, Schwab, and Vanguard, with the big rollover IRA at Vanguard. With all those accounts it is difficult to keep very accurate track of asset allocation. :

 

[getoutearly]

Thanks again everyone.  A couple more follow up questions. 

- If I moved to VG and opened only VG funds, then switched to Fido later, I could move the VG funds to Fido without having to sell the funds(move them "in kind")?  Therefore no taxable event.  And visa versa...

- How about the websites for Fido vs. VG?  One easier to use than the other?

After reading all the posts, I think I'm inclined to move everything to Vanguard except for the 401K's currently with Fido.  This way, I can test them both out, and if I want to further consolidate later, I can. 

Now if I could just get off my butt and fill out all the transfer forms and finalize my asset allocation....

 

[ESRBob]

When we switched my Mom's accounts from Merrill Lynch to Vanguard, they did almost all the work. Certainly there was no listing of securities. You just give them a few pages with signature, name, account number etc. and they work it all out with the closing-down broker. One of life's little secrets? Good luck with your decision.

 

[perinova]

In my own experience the Fidelity site is slightly more infomrative and easier to use. Lower expenses on funds with VG in general. Fid. has low cost funds with expenses only temporarily(?) reduced by management.
I like in VG that you can include non-VG funds and track all your portfolio there.

I don't understand why you would switch VG funds in kind to be managed by Fid.?

 

[Nords]

I don't understand why you would switch VG funds in kind to be managed by Fid.?

A couple reasons which may or may not apply to everyone:
- You don't plan to buy any more shares in the fund you hold (thus avoiding Fidelity's potential $75 purchase fee).
- The fund custodian has pissed you off for the last time so you move to Fidelity where you're not nickel-and-dimed to death or frustrated by customer "service". I did this with Tweedy, Browne-- I'm not implying that I ever had a similar experience with Vanguard.
- You're doing a Roth IRA conversion and want Fidelity to be custodian of both the traditional IRA and the Roth IRA to minimize the confusion.
- You're consolidating assets with one firm for their breakpoint pricing & services.

 

[eyetri2]

rrspike,

I agree with you that the best funds out there are the DFA funds. The backdoor way to get into them is the West Virginia's 529 plan. Smart529select, or something like that. I personally have money in it for full disclosure. Once you get over the 25K mark, they waive the annual fee which brings down all their choices to a max 1.10% for fees. This backdoor is also only good if they don't change the current tax laws.

The second way after perusing the web seems to be Cardiff Park advisors who do a flat fee "depending how complex your situation is." But even on tehir own website, they say will be between 600-2400/yr, paid in quarterly installments. No, I do not use them, but it is very tempting.

eyetri2

 

[rrspike]

rrspike,

I agree with you that the best funds out there are the DFA funds.  The backdoor way to get into them is the West Virginia's 529 plan. Smart529select, or something like that.  I personally have money in it for full disclosure.  Once you get over the 25K mark, they waive the annual fee which brings down all their choices to a max 1.10% for fees.  This backdoor is also only good if they don't change the current tax laws.

The second way after perusing the web seems to be Cardiff Park advisors who do a flat fee "depending how complex your situation is."  But even on tehir own website, they say will be between 600-2400/yr, paid in quarterly installments.  No, I do not use them, but it is very tempting.

eyetri2

thanks for the tip eye.

 

[km4hr]

I'm not sure about Fidelity but Vanguard is very primitive in one respect. They have no "routing number" (ABA number or whatever) like you use to transfer cash to other financial institutions online. Vanguard readily uses the routing information from other institutions to transfer cash into Vanguard accounts but they make it hard to go the other way. As it is, I have to first transfer cash to my checking account at my bank. Then I can transfer it anywhere I wish. But I find this very annoying.

Fidelity's website is clearly more user friendly, in my opinion.

Vanguard offers the Financial Engines tool free of charge. I find FE very informative. Unfortunately some features have been broken for weeks and Vanguard appears to making little effort to fix it. I've called several times about this. The feature that's broken is it's capability to import information from accounts outside Vanguard. This feature allows you to include up-to-date info from all your accounts in your analysis without have to manually type them in. A quirky feature gives all external accounts the same name. But I'm familiar enough with the amounts in my various accounts that I can identify them fairly easily. But it makes Vanguard pretty slack to let this go. It also makes it look like there aren't many people using Financial Engines. Makes me feel like they may drop FE at any time since it's so neglected.

Vanguard generally just feels less polished than Fidelity. But I still use and like them both.

 

[saluki9]

rrspike,

I agree with you that the best funds out there are the DFA funds. The backdoor way to get into them is the West Virginia's 529 plan. Smart529select, or something like that. I personally have money in it for full disclosure. Once you get over the 25K mark, they waive the annual fee which brings down all their choices to a max 1.10% for fees. This backdoor is also only good if they don't change the current tax laws.

The second way after perusing the web seems to be Cardiff Park advisors who do a flat fee "depending how complex your situation is." But even on tehir own website, they say will be between 600-2400/yr, paid in quarterly installments. No, I do not use them, but it is very tempting.

eyetri2

Shop around, the firm I work for invests a lot of client money in DFA funds. There are a few advisory firms that will let you buy in with a one time fee. Once the funds are in your account, you can buy more through the schwab or fidelity website (depending on your custodian) without paying any more than the transaction fee.

I wish I could offer a special for forum members, but I can't (NOTE!!! THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION)