Vanguard Adding More Target Retirement Funds

[Lusitan]

Yeah, I have to say that all of the customer service interaction I've had with Vanguard has been just as good, or better, than any other financial institution. I'm sure screw-ups happen everywhere (whether we find out about them or not) and Vanguard isn't perfect, but it's the best of the financial companies that I've dealt with.

As for the asset allocations changing ... yeah, I see the point about those who bought in the Target Retirement funds with the idea of a specific asset allocation plan not being happy with a shift in that plan. It's good for those who are getting in now, or those who like the asset allocation shift, but maybe they should have left the funds as-is and just added a new option ...

Anyway, I'll have to take a fresh look at all of the asset allocation plans for the revamped existing Target funds and the new Target funds to see how I'll proceed.

[saluki9]

Even before I reached the Voyager level at Vanguard I was always very happy with their service. Everybody I've talked to has gone above and beyond what I have expected.

One time we had a problem here in the office with our 401(k) (with Vanguard) and the support guy was talking to actually went through a 30 page statements and reconciled our figures (AND ACTUALLY CALLED BACK!!!!) We were very impressed.

Concerning the Target Retirement Funds. I think Vanguard basically gave in because the WSJ and other members of the financial media kept harping on how conservative their allocations were.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

One other point mentioned was 'marketing' to customers. Nobody has ever called me from vanguard or mailed me anything to try to sell me anything...even though my 'consolidated view' shows considerable assets that are not in vanguard.

I rolled my 401k to them when it was below the voyager level, and owned a five figure amount of funds with them 5+ years ago. No problems. At voyager level I got questions answered on the phone fast and emails responded to within a few hours. At flagship level I have a named guy I can email or call directly, and he has a backup person. The one question I asked him via email was answered thoroughly in about an hour.

but like I said, until something bad happens and you get to see how well its handled, you dont really know...

This allocation change still bugs me though. While as noted many funds change allocations, its not typical for a large cap value fund to start buying small cap growth...yeah...I know fund style drift happens all the time. and inexperienced investors probably wont know the difference.

I remember they did something like this a couple of years ago, I think it was changing the short term corporate bond fund to be able to buy other kinds of bonds besides short term corporates...now...what are the odds that if I wanted to own bonds that arent short term corporates that I'd have bought a short term corp bond fund? :

[free4now]

That Dee Dee Havens complaint was interesting reading. But I have to agree that it isn't particularly shocking... it sounds just like a negative spin on the running of a normal corporation. Management doesn't devote resources to things that don't make money, so it's sad but not surprising that they didn't do better at keeping track of the beneficiary info.

I just signed up for a Vanguard account and I filled in the beneficiary info electronically over the web, so it should get stored away in the same database as the rest of my account info that they need to make money.