Vanguard - last straw?

[target2019]

^
We'll probably stay with Vanguard and Schwab as things play out.

At Schwab I use the VG ETFs.

 

[OldShooter]

Just made a SEP-IRA withdrawal from Vanguard to my external checking. It will take 3-5 days electronic transfer. That is fine with me. The interface is definitely simpler than Schwab, so I see some of the VG attraction, at least in this one transfer.

I think this is another area where competition has or will hone service levels. On Friday I made a similar transfer from Schwab to a USBank account and the funds should be good there today. 1 business day.

The place where Schwab's interface is klunky is in setting up external accounts for transfers. External accounts are associated with individual Schwab accounts, so although that USBank acccount had been set up connected to my tIRA I had to do the whole dance again to set it up connected to my cash account.

I think a lot of these "which broker?" threads with anecdotes being reported are a lot like the old blind men and the elephant story. Each of us are accurately reporting our elephant anecdotes, but they are difficult to fit together enough to evaluate the three whole elephants involved.

 

[target2019]

^
^^
At least for us, Schwab is the newer guy, but about 10 years into the relationship. I did stumble a bit with the external transfer thing as it doesn't cross accounts by default. I don't regret the choice at all. The fact that there is a Schwab bank, checking, and bill payment has been useful too. Both children have Schwab too.

 

[brokrken]

This sort of thing is why we left Vanguard. The last straw was that they kept asking us to verify our address and threatening to freeze our accounts if we didn't. We haven't moved in a decade and we verified it numerous times.

 

[Texas Proud]

So Schwab is a good alternative?


I have tried Fidelity and Merrill Lynch... Fidelity is OK but limited me buying some preferred shares, otherwise they seem better than Vanguard.


Merrill I just never got into much... my biggest complaint is I got a cold call from a rep wanting to 'manage' my account.. I got pissed because when he first started to talk I asked if he was trying to manage it (it cost money) and he said no... but it was a sales call... then I come to find out he is in a different city!!! I raised hell about that to a few levels higher than he was...



My goal is to have a place that has financial advisors that are free or mostly free to help manage the accounts when I pass as my DW has zero financial abilities...

 

[brokrken]

I’ve been with Schwab for a few years now and have no complaints

 

[rrs26ja]

After 30 years of managing my own investments, last year I hired a company called E3 Wealth. I have been there a little over a year, and I couldn't be happier. Anytime I have a question, I send an email or call and they always have an answer. I have sent an email at 10:00 or 11:00 PM and within a few minutes they send me a response. I like that they don't just put you in a 60% - 40% allocation. They have alternative investments that usually are just for the rich.

 

[Texas Proud]

After 30 years of managing my own investments, last year I hired a company called E3 Wealth. I have been there a little over a year, and I couldn't be happier. Anytime I have a question, I send an email or call and they always have an answer. I have sent an email at 10:00 or 11:00 PM and within a few minutes they send me a response. I like that they don't just put you in a 60% - 40% allocation. They have alternative investments that usually are just for the rich.

Went and looked... it seems to be made up of independent investment firms... but NO mention of costs...


The good thing is they say they are fiduciaries....

 

[rrs26ja]

I paid .62% of the total assets that they manage for me.



https://e3wealth.com/foundations/

 

[BoldPelikan]

My wife and I have our assets split between Vanguard and Fidelity. We made this decision quite a few years ago to try and mitigate against hacking risks, etc... Over time I have come to love Fidelity and tolerate (barely) Vanguard. We recently created a joint trust and had to change ownership on taxable accounts. Fidelity was fast, easy and painless. Vanguard took days and I lost many many hours sitting on hold waiting for an agent.

 

[rayvt]

The loan officer worked for the bank and .

There's your problem right there. Banks aren't really in the business of making home mortgages. You need a place where making mortgages is their entire business.

Like aimloan or amerisave.

 

[LimaPop]

Lost check

I sent Vanguard my pension lump sum check for a rollover. I had it certified mail and return receipt, and they lost it after signing for it. Simply lost it. I had to get the former employer to stop the check and issue a new one, and lost 2 months of market gains. So frustrating trying to get a real person to try and hunt the check down. This was a big check one would think gets kid gloves. I’m sure it’s sitting in someone’s file there….

 

[whatnot]

LimaPop - 2 months is totally unacceptable!
You are a patient person.
We have my DH IRA, and both our HSA’s at Fidelity.
My IRA is with Vanguard. In part, to diversify risk of hackers, unanticipated down time etc.

But we have really not needed to contact Vanguard since I moved my IRA there 3 years ago.
We use Fidelity to draw our annual living expenses, use the Cash Management account, HSA’s, etc. I plan on using them to start 457 plans for Grands.

 

[cranberryjoe]

OK, I didn't catch that. Not sure how any letter could actually force you to withdraw from your assets if you decided not to, but I don't doubt your story. In our case they just wanted written proof we had the assets to pay for the house.

I've been retired for about 8 years, living off my taxable account.

I'm in the middle of getting a mortgage loan. My loan guy has supplied me with a letter for my financial advisor to fill-in-the-blanks, indicating I will start monthly distributions from my IRA of a specified amount beginning on a specified date. The loan guy told me the date should be a few days before closing, and after closing I can cancel the distributions without actually taking any, and go back to managing my money however I wish. The letter is just to satisfy the mortgage underwriter.

My assets are split between Vanguard and Fidelity. Although I manage all my investments myself, I do have an advisor at Fidelity who checks in with me once a year but knows to mostly leave me alone. I'm sure they will write that letter for me when we get close to closing. I'm lucky I have a large enough IRA at Fidelity. I shudder to think what would happen if I had to ask Vanguard to write a letter...

 

[Lstansbury]

Vanguard service has been wretched, I'm out.

Same issues here with Vanguard as I am retired this month and spent a couple of weeks trying to get a Roth IRA and a new Self-Directed IRA set up at Vanguard as they hold all a majority of my retirement assets.

After going through 20-30 minutes with one rep -- a phone would disconnect.
Happened three times.

Met with a personal advisor to see if I should pay the .03% to get them to help manage my funds -- and they filled out the forms wrong when they sent me their sample advice to sell me on the service. This "advisor" missed out on some of my assets that I entered into the "other assets" category of the account info he requested I enter into the Vanguard interface. So, the AA was totally off. Not much trust there!

Also was told that once my assets were 'under management' I wouldn't be allowed to touch them. () The advisor would take my requests under advisement, of course, but I wouldn't be allowed to make any changes on my own. (WTF?). That nixed all the plans.

Then, when I tried to start moving $100K out of there into a new Fidelity IRA instead of the Vanguard Self-Directed IRA, the rep stalled the transaction for over an hour on the phone. Kept saying he had to ask somebody else what to do. And then came back and told me my 403(b) company plan wouldn't allow me to take $100K out -- even though three other reps and I had worked on a plan to do partial distribution and the plan issue was never brought up. But if I rolled it over to a Vanguard IRA, that might be different.

I had him give me a copy of the company document that stated the partial distribution wasn't allowed -- and I read to him over the phone the section in the plan that clearly stated a partial distribution WAS allowed. And asked him why it would make a difference if I rolled over to Fidelity IRA or Vanguard IRA? At that moment, funny how the phone went dead again.

I called back, got a lady on the phone who finally said, "sure, no problem" and sent my $100K to Fidelity within 5 minutes. All done. Yeah, I kept her name somewhere...

Long story short, I'm getting my money out of Vanguard. Real shame, it was a great company for me in many other ways. But if you can't read the company plan document, well, I don't need you touching my money..

 

[2cheap2eat]

I just rolled over to fidelity from vanguard, IRAs took couple of weeks. My ESA took over a month!

 

[target2019]

These Vanguard customer service complaints are very interesting to read. What customers expect has evolved, and Vanguard lags Fidelity and Schwab.

 

[RunningBum]

These Vanguard customer service complaints are very interesting to read. What customers expect has evolved, and Vanguard lags Fidelity and Schwab.

Elaborate on what has evolved, please?

 

[MRG]

I sent Vanguard my pension lump sum check for a rollover. I had it certified mail and return receipt, and they lost it after signing for it. Simply lost it. I had to get the former employer to stop the check and issue a new one, and lost 2 months of market gains. So frustrating trying to get a real person to try and hunt the check down. This was a big check one would think gets kid gloves. I’m sure it’s sitting in someone’s file there….

You should contact the SEC. Accounting for all the funds sent into a fund company is an issue they would take very seriously. This incident says the controls used by the organization potentially failed.
I remember this frequently happening before the industry adopted digital technology in the early 90s. Most fund companies audited their trash to ensure checks weren't discarded. I'm not sure how a check could actually be lost inside a locked check processing area but it's under 24x7 camera surveillance.

 

[Trailwalker]

I've been happy with Vanguard. My expectations are low: low fees and minimal service. I haven't needed to talk to a live person since transferring accounts from two different brokerages there and setting up a transfer from Vanguard to Fidelity Charitable.

 

[TheWizard]

I have a Roth IRA and a taxable account at Vanguard, linked to my checking account.
These accounts are in my name only, no trusts or other complications.

Everything works smoothly using the Vanguard app on my smartphone. I've mostly been buying ETFs lately using limit orders. I can even buy shares of QQQ with no fee.

I've also gifted contributions to my son's Roth IRA at Vanguard by mailing a paper form and a check to their El Paso location. Takes a few days but works every time.

I've no complaints with the company...

 

[meleana]

I have had T Rowe Price forever and they used to be fantastic. But these past years their customer service has gone downhill and their statement format, which they have changed 2 or 3 times, frankly suck. They are so confusing that even our Financial Advisor has a hard time with them.



Thankfully I do an excel spread sheet to keep things organized.

 

[Lienlord]

I have $$ with VG and Schwab. I do frequent wires in/out for real estate investments, and I like that Schwab lets you submit your wire request online. VG requires you call in and provide all the info to a representative to submit. I rarely get right through, but the hold times aren't terrible and the rep is always efficient. In spite of that, I like that VG only charges $10 and Schwab is $25. You'd think Schwab would be cheaper since the process is more automated?

 

[SecondAttempt]

I'm so frustrated with Vanguard these days. Might be the end of the road for me.

I am actually a big fan of Vanguard funds and have much of my money invested in Vanguard funds through another brokerage. But I have had similar problems with gross incompetence in dealing with Vanguard customer service and administration.

Ten plus years ago we did some estate planning which involved setting up a living trust. Of the dozen or so companies that we had o retitle accounts with, which should be routine, Vanguard was the only one that screwed things up. And it was big time, to the point the lawyer had to get involved and we almost had to sue them.

In my case sorting everything out took over a year after their screw up after which we closed our accounts and moved to T. Rowe Price.

 

[OldShooter]

... You'd think Schwab would be cheaper since the process is more automated?

As these companies struggle with the new world of no transaction costs, IMO for clients it will be necessary to evaluate the total cost of doing your kind of business with each and to have some patience. Some fees will be higher, some will be lower, some will be subtle like interest paid on sweep accounts and on margin loans. Service levels will wax and wane. This is complicated at Schwab with the cost of close to doubling their number of accounts with the TDAmeritrade merger. My guess is that there are a lot of people at TD, Schwab, Fido,and VG not having much fun as they struggle with this new business environment. I don't envy them.