Best Brokerages

[MichaelB]

Why do you say "mutual funds are limited?" I believe I can buy just about any open mutual fund through Schwab.

I like the PIMCO institutional funds, most of which you can get at Vanguard or Fidelity for $25K minimums. Schwab asks $100K - out of reach.

Schwab did revamp it's commission schedule and bond offerings last year, becoming more competitive.

Michael

 

[rwc356]

I took a somewhat different approach. I will ER this December at age 56. My concern is that my wife will probably outlive me and I was looking for brokerage which might make the transition easier. Selected Merrill Lynch - has offices in most any city we would live in so my wife could have a person and not a phone to talk to. Right now I handle all activities without a broker - but if something happens to me we can bring in some help without having to move all the funds, electronic transfers, ACH debits, etc. to another place. Since I invest mostly in mutual funds I don't see any real cost penalties compared to lower cost options. Anyone have a similar idea or other options to consider.

Thanks
Bob

 

[happy2bretired]

I took a somewhat different approach. I will ER this December at age 56. My concern is that my wife will probably outlive me and I was looking for brokerage which might make the transition easier. Selected Merrill Lynch - has offices in most any city we would live in so my wife could have a person and not a phone to talk to. Right now I handle all activities without a broker - but if something happens to me we can bring in some help without having to move all the funds, electronic transfers, ACH debits, etc. to another place. Since I invest mostly in mutual funds I don't see any real cost penalties compared to lower cost options. Anyone have a similar idea or other options to consider.

I know your viewpoint is not a popular one here on this forum, but, THANK YOU! I am a widow and my husband and I set up our account with a large brokerage firm like ML just before he died. I was SO grateful for those people. Real living/breathing bodies that I could see and deal with and not some far away phone buddies.

 

[Texas Proud]

I took a somewhat different approach. I will ER this December at age 56. My concern is that my wife will probably outlive me and I was looking for brokerage which might make the transition easier. Selected Merrill Lynch - has offices in most any city we would live in so my wife could have a person and not a phone to talk to. Right now I handle all activities without a broker - but if something happens to me we can bring in some help without having to move all the funds, electronic transfers, ACH debits, etc. to another place. Since I invest mostly in mutual funds I don't see any real cost penalties compared to lower cost options. Anyone have a similar idea or other options to consider.

Thanks
Bob

A good thought out process..... and if the cost are not to bad, a good choice for your reasons....


BUT, it would be good to actually get her involved with the finances... my BIL recently died... and my sister knew very little of what was going on.. fortunately she has me as a brother... but she has learned a lot in the past three months... and it was him that was the problem... told her not to talk to me about finances and not to 'worry'... he had taken care of her for over 30 years etc. etc.... but... if you are FEMALE... do 'worry'... know what is happening.. know where the money is located.. know the passwords, know how to pay bills online and transfer money etc.... you do not have to do it all the time... but at least do it every so often...

Then again.. before someone calls me sexist... I know of a guy who does nothing for their finances.. just give the wife the check and she takes care of everything... he even said he can not buy her a gift because she will see it on the credit card and ask what he bought.... but he said he will be dead before her so he does not care...

 

[Nords]

I know your viewpoint is not a popular one here on this forum, but, THANK YOU! I am a widow and my husband and I set up our account with a large brokerage firm like ML just before he died. I was SO grateful for those people. Real living/breathing bodies that I could see and deal with and not some far away phone buddies.

My spouse would take a different view of my setting her up with a relationship broker...

I keep her informed, which she gracefully endures, and we keep it simple enough that even a caveman could do it.

 

[ladelfina]

Depending on where you are.. you needn't have to sign up with a full-service broker to be able to talk to humans in person. Where I used to live, Schwab had a physical office nearby, and they also had one not far from my mom in a different state. Just in the last year they assigned me a personal contact/broker out of the blue. I've only dealt w/him on one issue via e-mail, but his response was prompt enough. I don't think Merrill Lynch could/would do more, but they'd likely cost more.

Fidelity has branch offices, too:
Fidelity Investments:
Vanguard maybe not...

 

[youbet]

I know your viewpoint is not a popular one here on this forum, but, THANK YOU! I am a widow and my husband and I set up our account with a large brokerage firm like ML just before he died. I was SO grateful for those people. Real living/breathing bodies that I could see and deal with and not some far away phone buddies.

Schwab also has walk in offices. I use the local one a couple of times a year. Before you commit to a high priced outfit like ML, do check Schwab. They will give you lots of face time/help if that's what you want, but will leave you completely alone, ala Vanguard, if you prefer.

 

[LOL!]

Oh, my goodness! Not Merrill Lynch! As we have seen from many, many posts on this forum, ML seems to take for themselves 25% to 50% of a person's annual investment withdrawals. That's an outrageous amount to pay when one is retired.

There are many, many discount brokers with walk-in offices. In our area they are even clustered together: Schwab, Fidelity, TDAmeritrade, Scottrade to name them. Ones to avoid are AGEdwards, EdwardJones, ML, USB, SmithBarney, etc.

My BIL died in last January. My sister is clueless, but at least she has a financial advisor that is only charging her 0.5% of assets under management. The FA has put her in Dodge&Cox funds, which is not what I would do, but going to MerrillLynch would cost her at least 3 to 4 times as much.

 

[happy2bretired]

My spouse would take a different view of my setting her up with a relationship broker...

I keep her informed, which she gracefully endures, and we keep it simple enough that even a caveman could do it.

Each to his own Nords.

 

[clifp]

I know your viewpoint is not a popular one here on this forum, but, THANK YOU! I am a widow and my husband and I set up our account with a large brokerage firm like ML just before he died. I was SO grateful for those people. Real living/breathing bodies that I could see and deal with and not some far away phone buddies.

My mom is 82 and as far as she is concerned Schwab is a guy named Dean at the local office. I keep telling her she can just call the 800 number, but she understandably prefers Dean.

 

[travelover]

...............Fidelity has branch offices, too:
Fidelity Investments:
Vanguard maybe not...

I have a local Fidelity office near me and have found them to be helpful. I'm sure they wish I'd invest in more than Spartan index funds, but they assure me that they are not on commission.

 

[rwc356]

Folks - thanks for the comments and suggestions on a brokerage house - I will look at some suggestions before we act.
Bob

 

[Spanky]

We have Vanguard, Fidelity, and ETrade. Our transactions are practically all done online. All their online transactions are about the same, we cannot really tell which one is the best. There is one complain about Fidelity - they only have monthly statements, unlike Vanguard that provides a consolidated statement of transactions on a yearly basis.

 

[roger r]

I have Vangard and Fidelity accounts and over the years have also had Merrill Lynch, Watchovia, eTrade, and other various accounts. Fidelity leads the pack for customer service. No big deal if things are going along without a hitch, but if you need something special or have a problem, I think Fidelity will excel. They have enough low cost index type funds for me, but nothing like Vangard.

 

[summer2007]

Fidelity doesn't do Roth IRAs for minors and T. Rowe Price is one of the very few who does, so we had to set up an account with them (first time since the 1970s).

I got the letter that we had online access but couldn't log in. I finally got through their phone queue to a human being. They attempted to verify my personal info over the phone but they said I had my kid's SSN wrong. After a bunch more questions they realized that they had our kid's SSN wrong and accused me of sloppy handwriting. When I offered to fax over my copy of the application to show its clarity they said I should log in under her "wrong" SSN and change it to the correct info. I asked them how the IRS would perceive this when I got two 5498s next year, at which point I was rewarded with a supervisor.

A week later it was all sorted out. Then six months later they sent us a letter telling us that the first share transactions had been incorrectly priced and that TRP's "fair value" system should have charged us $15.13/share instead of $15/share.

Compared to Fidelity's website, TRP's website sucks. Bad navigation, bloated & slow response, difficult to extract answers to tricky questions like "How much money have I put into my IRA this year?

Our kid has had quite the introduction into investing customer service. When she turns 18 I'm going to show her how to roll her IRA to Fidelity, where she'll be accorded lifetime "valuable customer" status as a member of the family. And when her income rises enough to open a taxable account, Fidelity's ready for her even as a minor.


Has anyone seen any studies or surveys of this? I could make a different claim from the chaos testified to in the old Havens claim but I realize that it's difficult to separate aggregate data from anecdotal bias.

Nords

I know exactly what you are saying with TRP!

I just set up a Roth IRA with Vanguard and this was my first time doing it. It took me maybe 15 minutes to do everything! I already had a taxable account with them already but still it could not have been smoother.

My TRP Roth 401k was like 70 pages of stuff and I kept having to resend stuff in because it wasn't to thier liking.

UNREAL the difference

The only reason I went with TRP is they were pretty much the only well known brokerage that had the Roth 401k avalible.

To me it seems this would really hurt business to make things this much of a hassle.

I was going to set up my Roth IRA with fidelity online and it just rejects my application!

So no wonder Vanguard is so popular!

Jim

 

[Ronnieboy]

I had set up a Roth IRA for my minor son through TRP as mentioned before, they were about the only ones to do it. After filling out the application, which required my SSN for some reason, ( I was afraid I was going to get dinged for the deposits under my SSN) it took a number of weeks to get rolling.
When we received the account number, I called to verify it was being "recorded" under his SSN, then went on-line to take a look at his account. For some reason we could log into the account but not get any information whatsoever, no balance, history, transactions, etc. When I questioned this via email, we were told it was because my son was a minor and it could not be accessed electronically.
I said even though the custodian (me) was not a minor? Yes, sir that is the case, they told me.
Then a year and a half later, when my son was over 18, I emailed again and said he is now a 'adult' and should have access to his account information. I was told that I had to print some kind of form and send it in to verify that he was 18. I said look on the original application and see from his B-Day that he is over 18 for heck sake.
They wouldn't budge. So there it sits waiting for the $3k to do the Vanguard transfer.

 

[FinanceDude]

I had set up a Roth IRA for my minor son through TRP as mentioned before, they were about the only ones to do it. After filling out the application, which required my SSN for some reason, ( I was afraid I was going to get dinged for the deposits under my SSN) it took a number of weeks to get rolling.
When we received the account number, I called to verify it was being "recorded" under his SSN, then went on-line to take a look at his account. For some reason we could log into the account but not get any information whatsoever, no balance, history, transactions, etc. When I questioned this via email, we were told it was because my son was a minor and it could not be accessed electronically.
I said even though the custodian (me) was not a minor? Yes, sir that is the case, they told me.
Then a year and a half later, when my son was over 18, I emailed again and said he is now a 'adult' and should have access to his account information. I was told that I had to print some kind of form and send it in to verify that he was 18. I said look on the original application and see from his B-Day that he is over 18 for heck sake.
They wouldn't budge. So there it sits waiting for the $3k to do the Vanguard transfer.

There are protocols that all brokerages follow. Mistakes are made all the time on account info from years ago. Sign the form, and they will give the info.........

BTW, I'm not saying it's right to have to jump through those hoops, just that it's the current world we live in..........

 

[Freein05]

I took a somewhat different approach. I will ER this December at age 56. My concern is that my wife will probably outlive me and I was looking for brokerage which might make the transition easier. Selected Merrill Lynch - has offices in most any city we would live in so my wife could have a person and not a phone to talk to. Right now I handle all activities without a broker - but if something happens to me we can bring in some help without having to move all the funds, electronic transfers, ACH debits, etc. to another place. Since I invest mostly in mutual funds I don't see any real cost penalties compared to lower cost options. Anyone have a similar idea or other options to consider.

Thanks
Bob

I moved my accounts to Smith Barney for the same reasons. I hold mostly individual stocks or bonds. I buy and hold so the fees are generally a one time event. Their bond offerings and pricing are better than most discount brokerage firms. Depending on how much money you have with them all fees could be waived. I know I will also get flack but I have tried Etrade and TDWaterhouse and know the bond offerings through SB are better.

I also hold foreign stocks not ADRs and SB was the only firm that could transfer these from our foreign account to the US.

 

[gstander1]

I have accounts at several online brokerages.

Scottrade - does not allow DRIP. I had some smaller IRA Accounts - wanted that option but not available. If your account is something unusual (I have a family limited partnership), you can't get checks and they will not allow EFT so the only way to get money out is to request a check - while they are prompt, it's a hassle.

Ameritrade - allows DRIP's but only will purchase even share amounts which is kind of lame. Easy to get money out though.

Schwab. I like these guys. One plus is that I can buy things like CD's online if I have some extra cash for a small amount of time. Trades are a little more expensive (used to be a lot more).

ETrade. Etrade is good but they don't communcate well (the bank is terrible). I have sent checks in and such and I never get a phone call or anything if there is a problem and eventually it is returned. Last year, I had a SEP deposit returned because I made the mistake of saying 'add it to my existing account unless that is a problem - then create a new one'. They decided it was too complicated and just returned the check. It arrived on April 15th and I got it before I got hosed by not being able to deduct it (glad I checked my mail before evening). Ran over to a local Schwab office and opened an new account and deposited it that day before it was too late.

Greg

 

[redduck]

Schwab and Vanguard seem to be great in answering my questions. (I use Vanguard for their mutual funds only). Scottrade, well, you definitely get your $7.00 worth.