Vanguard, TRowePrice or Fidelity?

[johnbb]

I've decided to roll over my 401K. Any advice on Vanguard, TRowePrice or Fidelity? I have no experience with these firms, and could use some advice from those that have used them. Which do you recommend, and which fund for retirement. I am recently retired and am 62. I am rolling over $255K.

 

[mathjak107]

IF you want index funds go with vanguard,for actively managed funds go with fidelity.

I use fidelity exclusively,been there over 20 years.

 

[d]

all 3 are good ... i'd personally tend towards vanguard as a recommendation, though i have some $ with each

 

[audreyh1]

I've been with Fidelity for almost 20 years also. Great company and they keep getting better - they keep lowering fees, etc. Great on-line setup too. Excellent tracking of basis and tax info. Makes our life easy!

Audrey

 

[TromboneAl]

I'm a Vanguard fan. If you move more than $250K in, they'll give you a free financial plan.

 

[Texas Proud]

As you can see... most are between Vanguard and Fidelity... but T Rowe is 'good'...

I am in Vanguard and love it.. I was split a long time ago, but Fidelity had some people doing some risky investments in their 'conservative' funds and got caught with some big losses... I left after that, could not trust them.. but from what I read they got religion as they knew the people investing in them were us old foggies and did not want a Mexican Peso play in our asset allocation fund...

I do not think either fund got caught up in the scandal a year or so ago about backdating orders or favorable sales... don't know about T..

 

[samclem]

My investments are mostly in low-cost index funds, and Vanguard does these best. Recently, though, I had to open an account with Fidelity because Vanguard didn't offer a Solo401K option. Fidelity tends to be more "full service", with a broader product line, while Vanguard doesn't have the bells/whistles. In some small areas, Fidelty's charges for index funds are actually lower than Vanguards, but these are temporary reductions and might not be offered indefinitely. Vanguard has been the low-cost leader for decades, and I don't think they'll change their stripes. Both companies are very good, but I didn't want to buy those bells (can work out to many hundreds of $$ per year for a typical retirement account)

 

[FIRE'd@51]

Just a couple of logistical-type things. Find out who the custodian of your 401k is. You may find it easier to first move the money from your 401k to an IRA with the same custodian, then roll it over to it's final destination with another custodian (e.g., Vanguard). This way you avoid (or at least minimize) the time the money is out of the market while undergoing the transfer. If Vanguard or Fidlelity is the current custodian, this might help you make the decision about who to use for your IRA's. Also, make sure you do a custodian to custodian transfer, i.e. a direct rollover. With a 401k, if the check is written to you, 20% is automatically withheld for taxes, which you certainly don't want, because you would have to make up this 20% from other funds (which it appears you don't have), to avoid being taxed on the 20%. With a direct rollover to an IRA, you never take delivery of the money, so no tax is withheld. When you withdraw the money from an IRA (this is called a normal disribution), you can specify the amount of tax you want withheld, including none. You will still owe tax on money withdrawn from an IRA if you don't roll it over within 60 days to another IRA, but you can control the cash flows.

Finally, if you end up going to Vanguard, be sure to use their Admiral share class, if possible. These require minimum investments of $100,000, but typically have expense ratios which are lower by about 10 basis points, which will add 10 basis points to your dividend yield.

 

[trixs]

I personally use
fidelity and have never experienced any problems.

 

[frayne]

I have no exprience with TRP but I have accounts with Fidelity and Vanguard. Rolled over my 401K and lump sum pension into a Fidelity IRA by myself with assistance from FIDO reps. and the process was seamless. If you are into index funds, Fido has some with lower ERs than Vanguard.

 

[rs0460a]

Rollover IRA at Fidelity; 401K at Fidelity; IRA (both Traditional and Roth) at Vanguard.  Same breakdown for DW.

Both have their good/bad points.  It all depends on what you want, and that changed over time, for us.  Vanguard was good in the "beginning" (still is, for most things).  Fidelity is better due to where we are now (retirement in the next 8 months).

It's a bit like wine.  Start out with the sweet white's, and progress (after your taste "matures") to the dry reds.  Do I still drink sweet whites?  Of course, but not as often.  It's just that I prefer dry reds at this stage of my life.  The same with Fidelity/Vanguard...

- Ron

 

[uncledrz]

I echo the above. Vanguard for low cost index funds and target date funds, Fidelity for more full service.

 

[unclemick]

Hmmmm

Vanguard, Index funds, as in lifecycle Index funds - cause after forty years I'm a nutcase Boglehead - aka true believer. Except of course when I slip - hit a value gear - psst Wellesley or the Norwegian widow and her dividends.

T Rowe Price New Horizons helped buy my first sports car - a 1968 Datsun 2000 roadster and I've owned a few Fidelity funds over the years.

Indescretions of youth!

heh heh heh heh heh heh heh - Vanguard Target Retirement 2015,  plus a few good dividend stocks, bib overalls and a good used pickup in old age.

 

[yakers]

Hmmmm

Vanguard, Index funds, as in lifecycle Index funds - cause after forty years I'm a nutcase Boglehead - aka true believer. Except of course when I slip - hit a value gear - psst Wellesley or the Norwegian widow and her dividends.

T Rowe Price New Horizons helped buy my first sports car - a 1968 Datsun 2000 roadster and I've owned a few Fidelity funds over the years.

Indescretions of youth!

heh heh heh heh heh heh heh - Vanguard Target Retirement 2015, plus a few good dividend stocks, bib overalls and a good used pickup in old age.

unclemick2 has moved up even higher in the food/financial chain in my opinion. IMHO Vanguard is a good place to be. I have had a decent Oppenheimer fund and a couple decent American Funds but I feel I can relax more with Vanguard.
Now the great side comment, I had a 1969 Datsun 2000. Red, of course, and used. It ran good for a while but became a bit of trouble before it was totaled by girl friend. Great memories of my first sports car. Our current Miata is so reliable that it misses that critical adventure element of wondering whether I would get anywhere. But unclemick "done good" if the fund paid for the car, mine was funded by a credit union loan, I didn't know about avoiding debt then.

 

[Mr._johngalt]

unclemick2 has moved up even higher in the food/financial chain in my opinion.  IMHO Vanguard is a good place to be. I have had a decent Oppenheimer fund and a couple decent American Funds but I feel I can relax more with Vanguard.
Now the great side comment, I had a 1969 Datsun 2000. Red, of course, and used. It ran good for a while but became  a  bit of trouble  before it was totaled by girl friend. Great memories of my first sports car. Our current Miata is so reliable that it misses that critical adventure element of wondering whether I would get anywhere. But unclemick "done good" if the fund paid for the car, mine was funded by a credit union loan, I didn't know about avoiding debt then.

I have owned two (2) Miatas - both bought used and both 100%
reliable. Honestly, I can't think of a better buy for the money.
I've been tempted to buy another one, but I need to do some
towing and hauling and can't justify the cost of owning an extra
vehicle.

JG

 

[Spanky]

I have both Vanguard and Fidelity accounts. They both offer good funds. Either one will be fine.

 

[modlair]

Not too many posts from people who actually have TRP.

I do. Have for a long time. Met Brian Rogers (runs their Equity Income fund (PRFDX)). Nice enough fellow. I heard good things from the TRP people at a seminar.

They do NOT say in response to challenge about index funds "well you can't invest in the index", like most fund managers. I think the TRP position phrases like this:

An index is an investment philosophy. It is not sacred and it is not necessarily "the market". It is the index and it is a discipline. TRP has a process that it follows and it is also disciplined. Rogers, does not have total discretion over where he puts money. There is an investment committee that decides asset allocation to be followed and he and his staff work within that, but even that discretion is also constrained by a process that they adhere to.

So the defense is that TRP imposes process across its entire fund family and this protects investors from mavericks. The comparison year to year is not Rogers vs the S&P. It is the TRP process vs the fundamentally weighted S&P process. He feels they can outperform on the downside and that may matter most to some people. PRFDX has done well vs the S&P since 2001, or so the Morningstar chart shows. Nice job in 2002.

YMMV. It's treated me well for a long time, but I know it underperformed the S&P pre 2000.

 

[brewer12345]

FWIW, I have met some of the high-ups in TRW's fixed income management ops. Just like with Wellington, I think highly enough of them that I would not hesitate to let them manage some of my money. Since my new crappy 401k at work had only one halfway decent fund choice that happened to be a TRW fund, I will be putting my money where my mouth is.