Vanguard Customer Service - Good This Time

[Midpack]

I know Vanguard customer service is a shadow of its former self, I’ve had some disappointing experiences too. And their phone tree/menus are aggravating but that’s the norm nowadays. But…

My sister passed away a few weeks ago, and I’m her successor trustee, executor and sole beneficiary. She had a brokerage and rollover account at Vanguard, the bulk of her estate. I called her PA to ask a few questions and notify them, and he immediately cut off my online access to her account and refused to answer ANY questions. Fortunately I anticipated that, and I’d printed out her last household statement and the cost basis of all her holdings the day after she passed away before calling the PA.

After a couple members of the PA team refused to provide info and even gave me misinformation, I finally got a hold of Vanguard’s Trust/Change of Ownership team. The first rep was polite and well meaning, but realized my case was over his pay grade and he passed me on to their advanced team.

Armando could not have been more competent and helpful. He basically walked me through everything, filled out three forms for me (brokerage transfer, IRA transfer, access to sisters final 1099 and other tax docs), sent them to me to finish, DocuSign and attach supporting docs (death certificate and Trust doc). Then told me what would happen next. The whole process was about 20 minutes - though it helped that I was well prepared with docs and Trust EIN. I was very impressed with Armando.

I can tell you as I handle all my sisters other matters - bank, credit cards, mortgage, HOA, utilities, subscriptions, funeral home, SSA/Medicare, final medical and nursing home expenses, email, social and dozens of other online accounts - most are much more work than Vanguard was. It’s shocking to me how many of them won’t do anything online, insisting on snail mail or old school fax. WTH?

So there are still some great customer service people at Vanguard…

[And I stopped PAS immediately…]

 

[VanWinkle]

I had a similar experience when my wife passed in 2019. The rep made it much easier than I
had anticipated to transfer our joint account to my single account with a step up in basis on
half of the funds. They also rolled her Roth IRA into my Roth IRA to complete the process.
They were very consoling and professional. I have had a couple times when service was not
optimal, but most times they have been great.

 

[Yegey]

When my sibling passed away, Vanguard did pretty ok in handling the small ira. I didn't find that much difference between Schwab, fidelity, and Vanguard but have only call them a handful of times. It seems dependent on the agent. I did find Vanguard to be lacking when you ask them questions about security.

 

[Texas Proud]

Sorry to hear of your loss...

Yes, some of the specialty teams at Vanguard are very good... but even your post says a lot of time how they would NOT help.. nor send you to the person who could..

When I did my mom's estate I was sent to the 'good' team right away... but I was already the executor and had the necessary forms etc... but it was easy to distribute funds to the beneficiaries...

 

[ncbill]

when I setup revocable living trusts for relatives after they received terminal diagnoses I made myself a co-trustee (not successor)

so when they died I just paid their final bills then distributed the remaining assets to their beneficiaries.

 

[SecondCor521]

My condolences on the loss of your sister, Midpack.

My experience was similar when my Mom passed away in 2016. They called it the transitions team back then, but I think the current terminology is "change of ownership team". They are specialized to handle inheritances and presumably other changes of ownership situations like divorce. Getting in touch with them seems like the best course of action and most front line Vanguard reps should recognize the need and transfer you. It does seem to require a referral though - a few times when I've asked to talk to the transitions team for a specialized question, the front line rep seemed to need to ensure that my question truly required specialized assistance.

Anyway, it all went very smoothly and compassionately and professionally with my Mom's Vanguard accounts. But it was pretty easy because it all just went to my Dad. When my Dad passes away it will be more complicated for a variety of reasons.

 

[rk911]

PA??

Condolences on your loss.

 

[JoeWras]

I had to call last week. It went smoothly with a well informed USA agent who answered all my questions.

This is huge improvement from 3 years ago.

Also, they have slowly improved the web user interface.

It is great to see them improve. Perhaps the CEO does matter for these detailed issues.

 

[Midpack]

PA??

Condolences on your loss.

Vanguard uses the term Portfolio Advisor…just a basic FA.

 

[BigBob]

I just completed a wire transfer via the vanguard rep and it went flawlessly. Good experience for me.

 

[orbops]

I just became the successor to my father and step mother's trust. I tried calling th Change of Ownership Dept at Vanguard 2 weeks ago, and the automated response told me the hold time was 90 minutes, so I hung up. I'm going to try just going online to see if I can get all the paperwork.

 

[TripleLindy]

I’ve used Vanguard’s Personal Advisor Services for about a decade and have always had very good service. My experience with PAS is greatly influenced by an interaction I had during the pandemic while the market was crashing. I scheduled an ad-hoc call with my advisor and told him I wanted out of the market. It was down around 30% at that point, IIRC, and no one knew how bad it might get. My logic was that we had never seen anything like the pandemic, at least not in a century, and didn’t know how long it was going to take to turn things around. I had also only retired a couple of years earlier.

My advisor talked me into not only staying invested, but to reposition the portfolio by selling off some bonds and moving the $ to equities. That day was the bottom of the market. Was it luck? Maybe, but I would have made a very different decision on my own.

Every time I think about leaving PAS because of the cost, I remind myself of that. I’ve never had a service issue that would make me consider leaving.

 

[shafer9]

I’ve used Vanguard’s Personal Advisor Services for about a decade and have always had very good service. My experience with PAS is greatly influenced by an interaction I had during the pandemic while the market was crashing. I scheduled an ad-hoc call with my advisor and told him I wanted out of the market. It was down around 30% at that point, IIRC, and no one knew how bad it might get. My logic was that we had never seen anything like the pandemic, at least not in a century, and didn’t know how long it was going to take to turn things around. I had also only retired a couple of years earlier.

My advisor talked me into not only staying invested, but to reposition the portfolio by selling off some bonds and moving the $ to equities. That day was the bottom of the market. Was it luck? Maybe, but I would have made a very different decision on my own.

Every time I think about leaving PAS because of the cost, I remind myself of that. I’ve never had a service issue that would make me consider leaving.

Nice to hear. I’m not a terribly sophisticated investor and I moved all my money into Vanguard a number of years ago because it was easy and among the least expensive outfits that would keep me invested in a relatively conservative manner and where I could get a PA who would answer all my questions and walk me through anything I needed. It has been literally exactly as I expected, I have no squawks about them at all. They have been excellent and I would be surprised if it didn’t remain so. I’m 80 years old so who knows how long that’ll be. Lol.

 

[USGrant1962]

When Dear MIL passed a few years ago her small VG holdings were distributed to beneficiaries quickly and easily. They should be good at it, they must have dozens of new beneficiary distributions every day. AI tells me that 6,300 people aged 65+ die every day in America. Even if only 1% have VG accounts, that is 63 distributions a day.