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livingalmostlarge · 03-03-2021, 12:41 PM

Which brokerage account do you use? Did you switch before or after retirement? I stupidly moved my money out of TD ameritrade in September because i thought I was refinancing with BofA to ML. I ended up not doing that and now I am considering moving back I don't like ML website or dashboard. But since I'm now not stuck at TD, I figure I might as well research moving to somewhere else. Possibly Fidelity or Vanguard.

What do you have? Did you switch? And what are the pros and cons?

**braumeister** · 03-03-2021, 12:44 PM

The majority of folks here use Fidelity, Schwab, and Vanguard (in alphabetical order) or some combination of two or more of them.

disneysteve · 03-03-2021, 12:59 PM

Our main brokerage is Vanguard. That's where about 55-60% of our holdings are.

We also have accounts with TD and Schwab (which are the same company now I suppose).

flintnational · 03-03-2021, 01:01 PM

Vanguard

Edit to add: I forgot I have an old 401k still with Fidelity.

OldShooter · 03-03-2021, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by livingalmostlarge

Which brokerage account do you use? Did you switch before or after retirement? I stupidly moved my money out of TD ameritrade in September because i thought I was refinancing with BofA to ML. I ended up not doing that and now I am considering moving back I don't like ML website or dashboard. But since I'm now not stuck at TD, I figure I might as well research moving to somewhere else. Possibly Fidelity or Vanguard.

What do you have? Did you switch? And what are the pros and cons?

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.

We're 100% with Schwab now. DW was a megabank SVP and kept her IRA there for a number of years, but incompetent reps finally drove her out. 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.

I also have my checking at Schwab Bank, which is well integrated with their other services.

Fido is probably similar. Both have brick & mortar offices which I like, but truth be told I haven't' seen our rep face to face in at least a couple of years.

From reports, VG is less personal and has only a couple of US offices. Fees for advisory services seem to be lower than Schwab & Fico. I circulated an RFP to provide investment services for a $5M nonprofit portfolio and VG came in cheapest at 40bps. We chose an advisor who was set up for more personal service at 59bps and are very happy with the decision, but YMMV.

My personal opinion is that the big banks like ML, Morgan Stanley, etc. view retail investors as cows to be milked, ancillary to their main business. Morgan Stanley chortles about running a 25% net profit on their "wealth management" business line.

Fast Eddie, Raymond James, etc. do not have good reputations around here for various reasons. High costs, pushing expensive products, etc. Here is a completely unfair but hilarious video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDyDDBv2HzE

Here is a humorous approach to a serious subject from investment icon Dr. William Sharpe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv4HQG2Hz0I

MRG · 03-03-2021, 01:09 PM

I use both Fidelity and Vanguard for my investments both have brokerages. For trading I use Fidelity.

Dawg52 · 03-03-2021, 01:14 PM

Fidelity.

tulak · 03-03-2021, 01:17 PM

Not Robinhood.

JRon · 03-03-2021, 01:24 PM

Schwab here and happy about it.

W2R · 03-03-2021, 01:28 PM

Vanguard. Totally satisfied thus far, so I never used anybody else.

pb4uski · 03-03-2021, 01:30 PM

Vanguard (26%), Schwab (14%) and Fidelity (3%).... rest is mostly credit union CDs (53%). The brokerages all have their plusses and minusses... I'm not particularly happy with any of them right now.

bloom2708 · 03-03-2021, 01:31 PM

Vanguard

Fidelity has my active 401k.

SloHan · 03-03-2021, 01:44 PM

Vanguard here

aja8888 · 03-03-2021, 01:51 PM

Schwab for 38 straight years. Great service.

**Gumby** · 03-03-2021, 01:52 PM

Vanguard and TD Ameritrade (probably won't keep it)

1242Vintage · 03-03-2021, 02:05 PM

I’m with Merrill Lynch. I went through MBA school years ago with a focus in finance. Another guy there had the same passion. He ended up at ML and I went into public sector finance, finding $$$ for big transportation infrastructure projects.

Have been with him and ML for nearly 30 years and have done very well in the private client group.

jollystomper · 03-03-2021, 02:08 PM

I consider TD Ameritrade my broker because that is where I keep what individual stocks I have left from the 90s (started at E-Trade, moved to Amertrade when they became cheaper).

I should use Vanguard or Fidelity as brokers as our other investments accounts are with these companies. It is laziness on my part. It is a relatively small amount and I trade individual stocks so infrequently. Maybe this is the year to do it, as I continue to simplify my finances.