Who's your broker?

I have 57% with Fidelity, the rest is split between ETrade & Vanguard. I also have a smaller amount with TD Ameritrade so I guess I'll be a Schwab customer.

I think ETrade has the best interface for making trades and getting performance information. Vanguard has the worst web/app interface. TD Ameritrade's interface is slick/complicated, even for a small software developer like me.

If I had to consolidate my accounts, I would keep ETrade & Fidelity.
 
I’ve always used Fidelity and have been happy with their service and planning/research tools.
 
OldShooter said:
TDAmeritade is no longer; bought by Schwab and getting integrated as we speak. I would not consider them simply because you don't know which people and which offices will survive. They will certainly be rebranded regardless.
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This is a somewhat false statement. Yes, they have been bought by Schwab and are being merged. As of now, they are still separate.

I am a TD Ameritrade, Schwab, and Fidelity customer. Ameritrade's Think or Swim (TOS) platform is significantly better than Schwab's Street Smart Edge (at least in my opinion) and Schwab has announced that TOS will live on post-merger.

It will be interesting to see how they handle merging of customer data and the non-TOS (i.e. web/simplified mobile) platforms.

I've been a customer of all of three of these for a long long time, and each has their advantages. From a trading perspective, TOS/Ameirtrade shines. From an overall asset management perspective, Schwab or Fido. A Fidelity advantage would be if I decided to consolidate (in terms of brokerage) my individual holdings with my ex-mega corp-holdings). I can't really comment on Fidelities active trader product as I don't use it, the vast majority of my Fidelity account is 401K/403B holdings, and my individually managed account only has a few long term holdings. I have heard from some "active" traders that it (Active Trader Pro) is quite good.
 
bbqcoder said:
I have 57% with Fidelity, the rest is split between ETrade & Vanguard. I also have a smaller amount with TD Ameritrade so I guess I'll be a Schwab customer.

I think ETrade has the best interface for making trades and getting performance information. Vanguard has the worst web/app interface. TD Ameritrade's interface is slick/complicated, even for a small software developer like me.

If I had to consolidate my accounts, I would keep ETrade & Fidelity.
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I agree with Etrade and Fidelity (I have no experience with TD Ameritrade or Schwab).

I'm only with Etrade because the place I started with eons ago was bought out, and that repeated about 4 times, and it's been Etrade since (made me look!) 2006.

Fidelity has the advantage of brick and mortar presence, and you never know when you may need it. And even though I rarely trade, the Etrade site just seems so much easier to find what I'm looking for than Fidelity (or Vanguard).

I was also able to get a low rate LOC from Etrade (Fidelity had only high rate margin loans), which I'm using for a new (to us) home purchase.

-ERD50
 
Vanguard, we have been very happy with them.

We just retired effective 1-Feb-21.

To simplify things, we consolidated all monies from megaoil corp to Vanguard upon retirement.
 
Etrade, which I opened as Morgan Stanley Discover Brokerage in 1998, which was sold to BMO/HarrisBank, which was sold to Etrade. And Vanguard, which has most of my business. Also, DW has an HSA at Fido.
 
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TDAmeritrade, which is alive and well though owned by Schwab now, and E-Trade, which is also alive and well after being purchased by Morgan Stanley. A bit at Fidelity.

Did not change. I'm happy with what I have-the largest portion is at E-Trade. I also have a lot of experience with the Schwab platform as I was trustee of our company's 401(k) which was on the Schwab platform. I think Schwab is okay but I think the interface is clunky compared with E-Trade or TD Ameritrade.

Kiplinger and Barron's each do annual reviews on the brokers. I believe NerdWallet does one roo. Those are excellent places to go to learn the pluses and minuses of each platform. Vanguard does not participare in these.

Brokers have improved so much tbat for folks that at not active traders I think it comes down to which interface you like best. More on that can be gleaned from the reviews.

Also TD Ameritrade, E-Trade and Ally pay significant money to people opening new accounts there, depending on how much money is transferred. That can be something to consider as well.

You might want to look in particular at customer service. There were reports of very long waits for customer service late last year with Fidelity and Schwab, at least. I can verify that there were very significant hold times at Fidelity, 45 minutes to an hour. So that is something to look at.
 
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Vanguard for us. We like it's unique ownership structure..
 
Vanguard and Morgan Stanley (for when I want to discuss something that I need more familiarity with)

Rich
 
Mostly Fidelity - some Schwab for us.
 
Vanguard for IRAs and Ameritrade for taxable. If I was starting over I would probably just put everything in Vanguard.
 
TRowe for nearly 30 yrs. Personally, I like them as they NEVER bother me. If I want something I ask and they respond very quickly.
 
I use Fidelity, TDAmeritrade, and Schwab. I opened the Schwab account specifically after Schwab announced their acquisition of TDA to get a promotion on new accounts by transferring money from TDA to Schwab without poliferating accounts. I'll consolidate when merger is done. They did even better than the promotion of $500 for $100k move, and also matched a generous promo Chase was offering at the time for another move of TDA money. That required a call to the 'back office' so YMMV. As a retired person it's great to have a way to get more money into roth and ira accounts.

I've liked all 3 brokerages about equally, but found recently when gifting stock that it was super easy to gift from my TDA account to giftee's TDA account. First time I've done it, so maybe super easy is normal.
 
Folio Investing just rolled us over to to IBKR. I recently opened an account at Fidelity because I've heard you all talk about them and also I like the ability to trade fractional shares. I am planning on rolling my IBKR funds over to Fido.

This is just my individual equities, non retirement.

I use Vanguard for the retirement accounts and another taxable account.

Question for you Fido people. How is their customer service? Seems here lately I've had a couple of questions regarding setting up the account that is taking over 10 days to get an answer via private message on their site.
 
OldShooter said:
We have a good Schwab rep who deals quickly with questions and administrivia. That is key. IIRC he recently told me that the new Schwab threshold for assigning a named rep to a customer is $1M in the customer/household accounts. At that level you are also a "pinnacle" customer and get what is claimed to be higher priority telephone service.
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I have small brokerage accounts at FIDO and TDAmeritrade. Also most of my IRA funds split between both companies. Before the TD/Schwab merger, I opened a brokerage account at Schwab to take advantage of a bonus. When TD is merged into Schwab, I won't have enough there apparently to have a named rep although I've had that at both TD and FIDO. I'm guessing at that point I'll do my final consolidation at one or the other.
 
Over time I have used Schwab, Fidelity, E-Trade, and Vanguard as online brokers. I am not entirely sure about Vanguard but the first 3 all offer zero commission trades and provide good platforms. I do not think you could go wrong with any of those four, it might depend on which user interface you like the best (which changes over time) or which perks are most valuable to you.

For example Schwab, Fidelity, and E-trade all offer on-line bank/checking accounts but I believe Schwab and Fidelity have better ATM card services. To be clear I am not sure what E-trade offers with its online bank account but years ago it was not as good as what Schwab and Fidelity offer now.

E-trade was recently bought by Morgan Stanley, and there is still consolidation going on as well as upstarts like Robinhood. The continuing changes are worth keep tabs on.
 
Well, my broker is E.F. Hutton, and E.F. Hutton says…
 
schwab since 95. I have used almost all their products and services at this point. never a problem.
 
Ian S said:
I have small brokerage accounts at FIDO and TDAmeritrade. Also most of my IRA funds split between both companies. Before the TD/Schwab merger, I opened a brokerage account at Schwab to take advantage of a bonus. When TD is merged into Schwab, I won't have enough there apparently to have a named rep although I've had that at both TD and FIDO. I'm guessing at that point I'll do my final consolidation at one or the other.
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The Schwab threshold is a change. As of about three years ago, $100K and $250K were the thresholds at Fido and Schwab but I don't remember which was which. You may well lose your named rep at Fido as these firms maneuver for profitability. If that happens then could you combine your Schwab and Fido assets to get back on the premium service tier?
 
We use T Rowe Price for everything and finally they have free trades! Better late than never!
 
Fidelity for IRA's.
Mass Mutual for 401k.
 
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