Anyone used Vanguard's Personal Advisor Services?

[GTFan]

Presently, I don't feel that I want or need an advisor. But if I did, the Vanguard service has a very good reputation AFAIK.

Another option I didn't see mentioned was with a low fee wealth mgmt firm such as betterment or wealthfront. Any of these choices (including Vanguard FA) would be better than going with the firms that fee you to death.

I think a bigger problem with a substantial portfolio is transitioning to a managed setup without incurring a lot of taxes. I guess you'd have to do it over time, which could be years.

 

[MRG]

Any of these choices (including Vanguard or Fidelity FA) .

I reviewed two proposals from Fidelity for family members. While there were no 12B1 fees or loads, some of the funds were expensive. These were all active funds, no index funds or ETF'S. The non-Fidelity funds had 1.5% - 2% fees. Both proposals featured a collection of ~25 funds from many fund families. YMMV

 

[SpinDr]

It would be interesting to see how the managed Vanguard account advice compared to the Financial Engines recommendations. I've used the Financial Engines offering on Vanguard and played a bit with the risk scenarios and re-allocation advice and, not surprisingly, it comes up with a heavier tilt to the Vanguard index funds (no real argument from me) and moving more money into international funds.

I've done similar explorations within my Schwab and T-Rowe Price accounts and they don't differ too widely in their general asset allocation strategies but more in which company funds they recommend. No surprise there. In the end my real question would be how different would the advice be from the "active" Vanguard advisers versus using some of the tools that they offer?