A Question about Switching from VG to Fidelity

[MercyMe]

I've been frustrated with Vanguard (the company, not the funds) for a good while now and I'd really like to switch to Fidelity for a lot of reasons. I understand that I can move my existing Vanguard funds to Fidelity at no charge, but all future purchases of VG funds at Fidelity would have fees. Luckily, Fidelity has a lot of funds that compare to the VG funds I currently hold and I'm fine with buying Fidelity funds going forward. But the question is really about simplifying all of my taxable account holdings so they are all Fidelity funds.

Since nearly all of my VG funds are valued now for less than I bought them, it seems like a fine time to sell the VG funds and use the proceeds to buy equivalent Fidelity funds.

Does that make sense?

 

[mathjak107]

If I remember , fidelity can’t handle admiral shares

 

[Morgan22]

If I remember , fidelity can’t handle admiral shares

Fidelity can handle equivalent ETF's. So if you have VTSAX mutual fund, convert to VTI before moving to Fidelity. (Call Vanguard to make sure you do this properly and don't create a taxable event in any taxable accounts). Then transfer VTI to Fidelity.

 

[Phroig]

Yes, realize the losses. Sell the Vanguard funds, and buy similar (but not identical) ETFs. You can then transfer the ETFs.

 

[mathjak107]

Fidelity can handle equivalent ETF's. So if you have VTSAX mutual fund, convert to VTI before moving to Fidelity. (Call Vanguard to make sure you do this properly and don't create a taxable event in any taxable accounts). Then transfer VTI to Fidelity.

I did just that . I converted my s& p fund to voo and transferred it .

I won’t do business with vanguard as a firm but I will use their etfs .

Vanguard has some of the worst customer service I ever experienced plus they have company policy’s that are just crazy and self serving so I pulled my money away

 

[Montecfo]

Fidelity's poor customer service has been a topic here in recent years. I myself have experienced 45 minute+ waits on phone when needed support from Fidelity Charitable for my DAF (my broker is E*Trade for which O have no complaints).

Kiplinger's annual ratings of brokers last year had Merrill Edge at #1 for customer service, Firstrade was 2nd and Schwab 3rd.

Fidelity was 8th in customer service. Vanguard never participates in these surveys which may tell you something.

 

[HadEnuff]

aye yi yi....I have been a loyal VG customer for decades. Once upon a time I had a "Flagship Representative", who was available when I needed to manage the account (not investment advice, just there to help me navigate the details of the how to set up accounts)...It's been 4 years since I've needed to talk to him. Well, he's gone. There is no longer a spot on the web page where his spot used to be.
And, I'm having an issue. I want to buy some CDs, a feature I once enjoyed on VG, but now I can't get it to work, and I don't see any numbers to call.

So, I did a search on this site, and while the newest thread is nearly a year old, I gather that personal service has disappeared at VG, and isn't much better at Fidelity or Schwabb.

All of my accounts at VG are IRAs. Between DW and myself we each have a rollover, I have an old traditional IRA, and I have two Inherited IRAs.

How much of a PITA will it be to transfer to Fideltiy, or Schwabb, and is their service enough of an improvement to make it worth the effort?

 

[plex]

It isn't difficult to do a direct transfer of an IRA, it is much easier to switch to something transferable, and there are no tax implications to worry about. Just don't do an indirect transfer, all sorts of snafus can happen.

 

[PatrickA5]

I transferred everything from VG to Fido a couple of years ago. Took about a week for everything to go through.

IMO, Fidelity's customer service is light years better than VG's. I rarely wait more than a few minutes by phone and I also have the ability to Chat. Their front line customer service reps seem to be better trained than what I was getting with my Flagship rep(s).

Also, there's an office in my town - which I've used a few times.

 

[Morgan22]

When we consolidated our retirement accounts to Fidelity, we did everything online. Opened up Roth IRA and rollover IRA accounts online at Fidelity first. Then initiated pulls on the Fidelity side from Vanguard. The accounts came over less than a week if I recall correctly.

For my 401 accounts from employer though, the providers would only allow checks to be cut and mailed. One check was mailed directly to Fidelity and deposited with no issues. Two other checks were mailed directly to myself and I was able to deposit them using my phone.

When we set up our accounts we had an advisor automatically assigned to us. He did reach out. I chatted with him for a few minutes. He could see we were into index funds, but did make a suggestion to look into MYGA's. He let us know to contact him at any time if we felt we needed assistance, or had questions. I did let him know that I would be starting a 72t in a few years. He let us know that he would double check our calculations before we implemented. So overall it's been a great experience so far.

 

[mathjak107]

Fidelity blows vanguard away in service .

When I have a question whomever I have either gets someone on the line or has someone call me back .

I had a question for the rep at vanguard , she couldn’t answere it, so they all passed me around like a hot potato….no one wanted to own the question .

They finally passed me to a number that said please hold .

No one ever picked up …for fun I left it on speaker after calling back a second time .

I hung up after two hours .

Then vanguard made the decision to drop all beneficiaries on joint accounts and never notified anyone .

There answer was we would all be better served with trusts which they can do for us .

Bull , I don’t need a trust …

My fidelity rep couldn’t believe vanguard did that so she called and yep they said we need a trust or we have to split the account in to two individual accounts .


Are you kidding ? I pulled our money out

 

[OldShooter]

If I remember , fidelity can’t handle admiral shares

I think that is old news. Schwab was the same, Admiral shares not available. But a couple of years ago VG eliminated the Investor class shares and now offers only Admiral, though maybe not for every single fund. When that change happened, our Investor shares were automatically reclassed as Admiral.

I'd guess the same thing happened at Fido; it was driven by VG, not Schwab.

 

[MRG]

Fidelity was awesome till about 6 years ago when they apparently started recruiting EJ Jones guys without retraining them. My Fidelity representative calls me when he wants something.

 

[wanaberetiree]

I think that is old news. Schwab was the same, Admiral shares not available. But a couple of years ago VG eliminated the Investor class shares and now offers only Admiral, though maybe not for every single fund. When that change happened, our Investor shares were automatically reclassed as Admiral.

I'd guess the same thing happened at Fido; it was driven by VG, not Schwab.

I am in the process of moving assets from VG to Schwab and AFAIK you can hold Admiral MF but can't buy more of them.

Is it what you meant?

 

[OldShooter]

I am in the process of moving assets from VG to Schwab and AFAIK you can hold Admiral MF but can't buy more of them.

Is it what you meant?

No. As I said I don't know if every VG fund's Investor Shares were rolled into Admiral but that is what happened to us at Schwab. Our investor shares in a couple of funds were automatically switched to the Admiral ticker (which confused Quicken quite a bit!). The past few years we have concentrated our equity position in VTWAX, "Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund Admiral," buying, selling, and reinvesting with no issues at all.

I'd suggest that you check with your Schwab rep ref your personal situation.

 

[mathjak107]

Fidelity was awesome till about 6 years ago when they apparently started recruiting EJ Jones guys without retraining them. My Fidelity representative calls me when he wants something.

I have been with fidelity since the 1980s ..

Not one issue …

Vanguard on the other hand was awful …

I gave them a 10% share and ended up pulling it away.

It is like everything vanguard promotes they find reason to dump on you .

First it was trusts when they got in the trust business and removed our beneficiaries.

Then the grand pappy of do it yourself investing told us how we can all beat the pros indexing .

Then they got in the money mgmt business and produced a study that said do it yourself investors can benefit from having pros manage our money because of investor behavior and better planning .

Then they told us how managed funds cost us money with odds of doing better then indexing are small .

So now they are promoting their managed funds in advertisements.

Get th Pattern here ..

 

[target2019]

I've been frustrated with Vanguard (the company, not the funds) for a good while now and I'd really like to switch to Fidelity for a lot of reasons. I understand that I can move my existing Vanguard funds to Fidelity at no charge, but all future purchases of VG funds at Fidelity would have fees. Luckily, Fidelity has a lot of funds that compare to the VG funds I currently hold and I'm fine with buying Fidelity funds going forward. But the question is really about simplifying all of my taxable account holdings so they are all Fidelity funds.

Since nearly all of my VG funds are valued now for less than I bought them, it seems like a fine time to sell the VG funds and use the proceeds to buy equivalent Fidelity funds.

Does that make sense?

Your best source for information would be Fidelity. Take your list of Vanguard mutual funds and ask Fidelity specifically if they will accept all of the MF shares. In the new account you can probably re-invest dividends for free, but new purchases of shares might incur a fee. Every situation is different. One caution is that the cost basis info may get messed up, so you need to capture that from Vanguard before transferring.

If your gain/loss is essentialy zero, then of course you can liquidate at VG and move the cash to Fidelity with not much consequence. If you're talking about substantial carryover loss, then it is questionable to sell for losses you may never use.

YMMV.

 

[Chuckanut]

I have been with fidelity since the 1980s ..

Not one issue …

Vanguard on the other hand was awful …

I gave them a 10% share and ended up pulling it away.

It is like everything vanguard promotes they find reason to dump on you .

First it was trusts when they got in the trust business and removed our beneficiaries.

Then the grand pappy of do it yourself investing told us how we can all beat the pros indexing .

Then they got in the money mgmt business and produced a study that said do it yourself investors can benefit from having pros manage our money because of investor behavior and better planning .

Then they told us how managed funds cost us money with odds of doing better then indexing are small .

So now they are promoting their managed funds in advertisements.

Get th Pattern here ..

Yet, other than a promotional email every week, I never hear from Vanguard. Perhaps I don't meet the asset level necessary to get extra attention?

 

[mathjak107]

Yet, other than a promotional email every week, I never hear from Vanguard. Perhaps I don't meet the asset level necessary to get extra attention?

I never heard from them either

 

[ownyourfuture]

I have been with fidelity since the 1980s ..

Not one issue …

Vanguard on the other hand was awful …

Similar situation for me. Opened an IRA at Fidelity in 1986 & it's been smooth sailing ever since. Lump sum pension payment rolled into my existing IRA, transferring my HSA account from HSA bank to Fidelity, transferring mutual funds from Wasatch, T. Rowe Price, transferring small brokerage accounts from small local banks, etc.

All went very smooth with Fidelity.
Only have my 401(k) at Vanguard & seriously considering transferring it.

I'm guessing the customer service issues at Vanguard & others started after Charles Schwab announced that they were eliminating commissions, & the rest had to follow suit.

Charles Schwab is cutting its U.S. equity, ETF, and options base commissions to zero, effective October 7, 2019.