Poll: Which Brokerage(s) do you use? Switching? See 1st Post for Poll Details.

[Montecfo]

Yep, and I use the cash management features with a dedicated brokerage account only for cash management. I have other brokerage accounts for investments, to avoid mixing cash management and investments in the same account.

Can you elaborate on that? I'm not sure what you mean, having a separate brokerage for cash management.

 

[big-papa]

Over time I've been at:
Fidelity - Brokerage of choice where I have a taxable account, our IRAs, my current employer's 401K plan, HSA
Vanguard - previously held a taxable account there, but sold everything in a TLH maneuver years ago and closed the account. Other employer's 401K plans have been here, but I rolled over to Fidelity IRA upon termination
Schwab - back in my early, silly, stock trading days this is where I did what I did. Sold everything a few years ago and moved proceeds to Fidelity. Well, almost everything. Seems I made a roundoff error and to this day I still hold a fractional share of DuPont valued at $0.01
E-trade - Every employer who had a stock purchase plan, ESPP, or Stock options used E-trade. I retired this year and will close the account in 2024 after tax season is over, since I retired this year.

 

[foxfirev5]

Fidelity 50%. Vanguard 35%, others 15%. 95% of trade activity is with Fidelity. Vanguard holds the set and forget Roths. Along with employer HSA's & RMSA's we have Treasury Direct accounts which are used for annual Series I purchases.

 

[rwdflynavy]

All our investments are at Vanguard except for my TSP, which I may be moving to Vanguard soon and my small Robinhood account.

 

[COcheesehead]

Yep, and I use the cash management features with a dedicated brokerage account only for cash management. I have other brokerage accounts for investments, to avoid mixing cash management and investments in the same account.

The benefit is that the cash balance is always invested in a sweep MM fund earning almost 5%.

I looked at the cash management account and didn’t see any benefits over using a brokerage account.

The only benefit that I see to having a separate cash management account is it puts your cash into a different silo. So if someone gets your debit card (which I don’t use) or your checking account number, they can drain all your investment cash. If it’s in a cash management account, only that cash is susceptible. Technically you’ll get it back, but when and how long.
I also have margin on my brokerage (which I don’t use either) but in a pinch I can pull out a boatload of cash. Can’t do that with a cash management account.

 

[Surewhitey]

We're mostly in Vanguard, Fidelity and Etrade. Probably about 25-30% each

Secondary would be Marcus & TreasuryDirect. The remaining 10-25%

Fidelity is my personal favorite as we use them for easy check deposit & CD's on their app. Also the 2% cash back card. Vanguard are only 401ks...

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I am still vacillating on what to do with our IRAs when they mature in 6 months time. Originally, I was going to consolidate them into Schwab that has all our other cashish. But based on a lot of posted here I may put the IRAs in Fidelity and leave the Taxables in Schwab.

I do like Schwab's 2FA that uses a physical key fob to generate a code. I do not like to use a Cell phone or Computer to do this.

Does Fidelity have a similar system with a physical key fob style code generator?

 

[latexman]

Does Fidelity have a similar system with a physical key fob style code generator?

I've been at Fidelity > 40 years. I don't have a key fob, maybe others do. From what I see, the normal 2FA is a notification is sent to my Fidelity app. From that, I can say, "it's me, let me in" or "it's not me, don't let them in". I can also choose to use the old standard 2FA (text or call a code to a phone number, then enter the 6 digit code).

 

[tulak]

Can you elaborate on that? I'm not sure what you mean, having a separate brokerage for cash management.

I have two brokerage accounts at Fidelity. One is named "cash" and the other "investments."

There are no investments in the cash account, only cash. This is the account that I use for direct deposit/debit, where I have a debit card, etc. It's the only account that has permissions to transfer funds in/out of Fidelity. I don't use Bill Pay, but it is supported. I don't write checks, but it looks like it's an option, from Fidelity's website:

Checkwriting is available on nonretirement brokerage and cash management accounts with individual, joint tenant, business, and trust registrations; custodial accounts, health savings accounts, mutual fund accounts; and traditional and rollover IRAs. You must be at least 59½ years old to add checkwriting to an IRA. Checkwriting is not available on Roth IRAs.

The investment account is where I hold investments. I don't have a debit card for this account and no cash management features are used with this account. I'm not even sure if it's possible since it's locked from transferring in/out of Fidelity?

The only benefit that I see to having a separate cash management account is it puts your cash into a different silo. So if someone gets your debit card (which I don’t use) or your checking account number, they can drain all your investment cash. If it’s in a cash management account, only that cash is susceptible. Technically you’ll get it back, but when and how long.
I also have margin on my brokerage (which I don’t use either) but in a pinch I can pull out a boatload of cash. Can’t do that with a cash management account.

As I noted above, I create the same silo using two brokerage accounts. As far as I can tell, the only differences are the FDIC insurance and the sweep account. The cash management account is FDIC insured and doesn't sweep to an MM fund, so you don't get as good of a yield on the cash balance.

I don't have a large balance in the cash account, so I don't care about FDIC and if someone gets access, it's no different than any other checking account. I'm guessing that checking accounts have better regulation around them if they are compromised, so maybe that is another difference between the cash management and brokerage accounts? But this isn't something I lose sleep over.

I've read that there's some way to always have a zero balance in the cash management account and automatically transfer funds from the brokerage's MM fund when needed, but not having done it, idk know the details on how it works.

 

[Surewhitey]

I am still vacillating on what to do with our IRAs when they mature in 6 months time. Originally, I was going to consolidate them into Schwab that has all our other cashish. But based on a lot of posted here I may put the IRAs in Fidelity and leave the Taxables in Schwab.

I do like Schwab's 2FA that uses a physical key fob to generate a code. I do not like to use a Cell phone or Computer to do this.

Does Fidelity have a similar system with a physical key fob style code generator?

I use biometrics for my second security request when available. Don't want to carry around a fob or worry about losing it.

 

[rayvt]

Fidelity, E*Trade, Vanguard, Schwab. E*Trade has the best trading app among them.

Yup, those are ours. Also Merrill to get the top bonus on BAC credit cards.

Plus a small account at ALLY opened a couple of years ago to get the new account bonus. Will be moving out of that because their trading features suck.

 

[rayvt]

I looked them up and I'm surprised Schwab is as big as it is, and Fidelity as small. I thought VG and Fido were neck-and-neck for the biggest. I guess the TDA-Schwab merger was bigger than I thought.

Assets under management, August 2023:

Vanguard $8.2T
Schwab $8.0T
Fidelity $4.5T

But does AUM include self-directed accounts? I thought AUM was only for managed (by them) accounts.

 

[GLM]

Recently moved the bulk form Vanguard to Schwab. Vanguards waning service coupled with Schwab actually acting like they want our business motivated the change.

 

[hpnutty]

Recently moved 2 tIRAs, Roth and a couple of brokerage accounts from Vanguard to Fidelity. Almost all assets are with Fidelity now. Moved them because 1) Better customer service and web site 2) Better fixed income options 3) Implemented my 'survivor plan' for DW that has a face and name with a B&M office near us 4) 5 figure bonus for move 5) Free estate planning, charity giving process and HSA account support. 6) Vanguard did not allow certain types of 'risky' holdings in tIRAs. 7) Active Reddit community. We were with Vanguard for over 25 years. It was a good ride but they have fallen behind.

I started with Fidelity 2 years ago when I needed a home for our HSA. Then as HOA treasurer they were very helpful in setting up the corporate account for our investments. They earned our business every step of the way. It was an easy decision to move.

 

[ken830]

I have various accounts all over, but I've consolidated most of my regular trading account to Interactive Brokers (don't think anyone mentioned them here) and all of my (t/roth) IRAs are with Scottrade, which became TD Ameritrade, and now Schwab.

 

[unclemick]

1966 - Dean Witter. Since the 1970's mostly Vanguard.

Heh heh heh -

 

[Ncc1701]

I looked them up and I'm surprised Schwab is as big as it is, and Fidelity as small. I thought VG and Fido were neck-and-neck for the biggest. I guess the TDA-Schwab merger was bigger than I thought.

Assets under management, August 2023:

Vanguard $8.2T
Schwab $8.0T
Fidelity $4.5T

https://money.usnews.com/investing/...rticles/the-largest-brokerage-firms-this-year

This comparison is flawed. Schwab's figure includes it's institutional business (custody for RIAs) while Fidelity's figure excludes it. If you include Fidelity's institutional business it would be much larger than all.

 

[swakyaby]

50% Vanguard, 30% Fidelity, 20% T.Rowe Price and American Century and Schwab.

 

[indiajust]

fob drift

I use biometrics for my second security request when available. Don't want to carry around a fob or worry about losing it.

I used the fob for many years with Schwab. Over time they drift fast/slow and need a call to resync with time truth oracle.

This cannot happen with phones or pads.

I migrated to using authentication app, and now I have dozens of accounts that use the auth app ecosystem, so schwab trained me to be more security conscious.

 

[indiajust]

dual option

In a related question, do Schwab, Vanguard and Fidelity also have a bank and savings account option like E*Trade does?

Schwab does either way... I have a cash feature integrated into my brokerage account, checks etc. But not an explicit bank acct.

My ex wanted a brokerage account with a bank acct attached. It is just a check box on the online application.

Behaviour is substantially the same.

Keep in mind... schwab bank is captive. Not possible to open ONLY a bank account. They offer bank services to brokerage clients.

 

[indiajust]

The Schwabitrade merger has improved schwab's website and service functions dramatically. I have been happy customer and advocate almost 30 years now. Helped some friends with the migration from TD and was very impressed with process.

I started with no load mutual funds, started investing, did boodles of ira/roth rollovers, and have been using their robotraded accounts for a while now for a chunk of my NW. It's becoming my anchor to asset allocation.

 

[teej1985]

The Schwabitrade merger has improved schwab's website and service functions dramatically. I have been happy customer and advocate almost 30 years now. Helped some friends with the migration from TD and was very impressed with process.

I started with no load mutual funds, started investing, did boodles of ira/roth rollovers, and have been using their robotraded accounts for a while now for a chunk of my NW. It's becoming my anchor to asset allocation.

So you are using Schwab Intelligent Portfolios? Are you using different allocations for different accounts, or same allocation across all accounts?

 

[Broland]

Background: I have equities in TDAmeritrade which was consumed by Schwab, Equities in eTrade (consumed by Morgan Stanley). Equities also in JPM and Interactive Brokers. Banking at Chase. Never hear from JPM, IB. Schwab (which got a pretty good chunk of equities in the merger) hasn't even contacted me since 9/1.

Morgan Stanley immediately contacted me about setting up the equities any way I want (I manage my own equities, for the most part). They're also offering tons of perks (attorney's to help set up the estate which needs updating anyway), checking with attached 5% savings for "living expense monies" etc.

I'm considering moving everything over to MS due to the "one stop shop" they appear to have. I know MS is very large, but I can't find many reviews about them. Anyone in this forum use them? Good, bad or

Thanks for any input!

 

[DrRoy]

Fido

 

[RE2Boys]

About 45% in a taxable Fidelity account, about 45% in retirement accounts at Vanguard, most of remaining at a local credit union and a bit at banks.