What happened to T. Rowe Price?

[disneysteve]

For many years, in financial forums, the big companies mentioned were always Vanguard, Fidelity, and T. Rowe Price. And Schwab sometimes. Now, I don't think I've heard anyone mention T. Rowe for years. They're still around. What happened to make them fall out of favor as a top contender? We don't have an account with them and never have. I'm just curious why their name doesn't seem to come up anymore.

 

[Sorcerer]

Marketing.

Not to mention, I never heard of a workplace using their services for retirement. Most places I've worked for used fidelity.

Vanguard...well it's vanguard. They own everything.

 

[jazz4cash]

I never put them in the category with VG and Fido. They were more regional. In fact I looked them up recently to confirm they still have HQ in B’more along with Legg Mason. TRP had some nice niche products and workplace plans. I don’t think they ever aspired to fill every need. I kept looking at their MD muni fund but ended up with Fido’s version.

 

[braumeister]

Schwab, Vanguard, Fidelity, and JP Morgan are the big four.

Below them are dozens of fairly large brokerages. Nothing wrong with TRP; they're just not as competitive.

 

[MRG]

They're still out there. I don't know if they shrank. When I worked I was familiar with their business volume and I never thought of them as high volume. Middle of the pack at best.

I saw someone posting on a reddit financial sub, they pay over 5% divy.

I know a guy who worked in a "C" level position there. He'd say its because he left.

 

[marko]

Family has been with TRowe since the 1940s. Coincidentally, my company had put our 401ks through them. I've been with them forever.

TRowe just has a different clientele that prefers less DIY and leans more toward institutional investors.

 

[NW-Bound]

Most of my money (75%) is with Merrill Edge, a self-directed service of Merrill Lynch which has been a part of Bank of America since the subprime crisis. Next is Schwab where I have 15% of my money.

Some years ago, I opened some small accounts at Vanguard, was not happy with the service so never transferred more. It could have been because of the small trial accounts that they did not care about me. Fine. I don't need them.

Fidelity has some remnants of our 401k, left behind when we transferred most of it out. I never use Fidelity much, so have no opinion on their service.

This thread made me curious, so I looked up the AUM (asset under management) of these brokerages. According to Investopedia as of April 2026:

Vanguard: $12T, 50M accounts
Schwab: $11.2T, 38.5M accounts
Fidelity: $7.1T, 57M accounts
JPM: $7.64T
Merrill Lynch: $3.5T

T Rowe Price is much smaller at $1.71T

By the way, while I am happy with the service at both Schwab and Merrill Edge, I use Merrill Edge more because of the lower fee for option trading ($0.35/contract vs. $0.66/contract).

 

[Dtail]

Fidelity good for me with a little at Merrill.

 

[Souschef]

I have been with TRP since around 2017. They held my 401k until I retired. I rolled the 401k into a self directed IRA and the funds I put the money in have done quite well.
The have been very responsive to my inquiries, and cutting checks for QCD's.
The only difference between them and Fido for me is on Fido I can request the QCD check on line in their website, while with TRP I have to mail them a form.

 

[jazz4cash]

Just saw a tv commercial for them. Could be something I didn’t notice before but I don’t think so.

 

[audreyh1]

I knew T Rowe Price funds still existed. Interestingly, Fidelity Charitable uses one of the T Rowe Price funds in the DAF fund offerings.

 

[junkanoo]

I still have a small account there, but thinking about moving it over to make things simpler.

T Rowe Price was always a strong OEF company that was slow to catch on to the ETF business. They also didn't market themselves as an account for trading, thus missed out on customers that wanted one-shop simplicity.

To their credit, they closed (or soft-closed) many of their more popular funds to restrict an ever-growing AOM. Better for customers, but not great for gaining new customers.

 

[MRG]

I have been with TRP since around 2017. They held my 401k until I retired. I rolled the 401k into a self directed IRA and the funds I put the money in have done quite well.
The have been very responsive to my inquiries, and cutting checks for QCD's.
The only difference between them and Fido for me is on Fido I can request the QCD check on line in their website, while with TRP I have to mail them a form.

Straight out of 1990. I guess it's a form of a fraud deterrent.

 

[anethum]

T. Rowe Prices closed all of their walk-in offices. My parents had accounts with T. Rowe Price. When my dad died prior to the pandemic, I made an appointment and drove my elderly mother to one of their nearby offices in the DC area to initiate the transfer of accounts that were in my dad's name to her name. She was both the Successor Trustee for my dad, and the sole beneficiary. When my mom died in 2023, all of their customer offices had been closed, and customers were not even permitted to enter their main offices in Baltimore or Owings Mills, MD. I was my mom's Successor Trustee and I had to send them a ton of paperwork, and also had to obtain for them a medallion signature guarantee from my own bank, which was a royal PITA. Both Fidelity and Schwab still have physical offices in my area. I believe that Vanguard has no walk-in offices, either.

 

[Car-Guy]

Been with Schwab for over 40 years now. They haven't ever given me a reason to switch.

 

[marinauser]

We had accounts with them starting more than 30 years ago. They pretty much refused to get onto the low cost index bandwagon and that eventually cost them our business even though they had some good managed funds that I used. When I raised the question with them asking why couldn't they just offer some fee competitive index funds, they told me that had no interest in that and didn't really care if I took my money somewhere else. So i just sold got out of their funds entirely and merged those holdings into my Schwab account.

 

[swakyaby]

I’ve had T.Rowe Price mutual funds since the 1990’s. When another brokerage locked me out of my IRA account, T.Rowe Price pried the funds out of their tenacious grip for me. When my workplace gave me the choice of contributing to their pension plan or contribute to a self-directed pension plan at the custodian of my choice, I found that neither Vanguard nor Fidelity had individual self-directed workplace plans, but T.Rowe Price did. So I had a tax-deferred retirement account with them. And lastly, I inherited an IRA from TRP. I found they have very good customer service and some very highly rated funds. But their expense ratios can’t compete with the lower cost Vanguard or Fidelity funds.

 

[socca]

A few months ago I reviewed TROW's financials. It looked like a cash cow so I bought some stock. It wasn't clear how TROW makes its money. $1.7T AUM is respectable until you compare it to the "big guys".

 

[freedomatlast]

I had money with TRP in the 90's but during a dip in the market, did some TLH, sold it all, and transferred it all to Vanguard. Looking back, I'm glad it did.

 

[xDetoursx]

I have T Rowe Price as my 401k administrator. I retired at the end of March. Haven't started distributions yet, but I spoke with a rep a couple of weeks ago and he went over my options. I rolled over a large sum from a prior employer to TRowe when I started with the company I retired from and everything has been really smooth with them.

 

[meleana]

For many years, in financial forums, the big companies mentioned were always Vanguard, Fidelity, and T. Rowe Price. And Schwab sometimes. Now, I don't think I've heard anyone mention T. Rowe for years. They're still around. What happened to make them fall out of favor as a top contender? We don't have an account with them and never have. I'm just curious why their name doesn't seem to come up anymore.

Well Kiplinger has several of their funds on their top 20 list and has referred to them in some of their articles as well.

We’ve been with them for many years and very happy with them.

 

[disneysteve]

Well Kiplinger has several of their funds on their top 20 list and has referred to them in some of their articles as well.

We’ve been with them for many years and very happy with them.

I just recently ended my Kiplinger subscription after many many years. I think I posted about it. I just find that the vast majority of articles no longer interest me now that I'm retired. I'm not saving for retirement. I'm not saving for college. I'm not saving for a house. I'm not looking for tips to cut spending or pay off debt. I don't need stock picks or fund picks. It's a great publication but I just feel like I'm no longer the target audience.

 

[meleana]

I just recently ended my Kiplinger subscription after many many years. I think I posted about it. I just find that the vast majority of articles no longer interest me now that I'm retired. I'm not saving for retirement. I'm not saving for college. I'm not saving for a house. I'm not looking for tips to cut spending or pay off debt. I don't need stock picks or fund picks. It's a great publication but I just feel like I'm no longer the target audience.

We get a free subscription - as preferred customers of T Rowe Price! Lol!

 

[PhrugalPhan]

My 457 plan's administrator is TRP, but the brokerage window in the account is administered by Schwab . The rest of my accounts have migrated to Schwab (due to mergers), so this works well for me. I rarely need help, but when I do they've always been helpful.

 

[TrvlBug]

I knew T Rowe Price funds still existed. Interestingly, Fidelity Charitable uses one of the T Rowe Price funds in the DAF fund offerings.

How do you access the individual fund offerings? When I recently did a deep dive into our DAF, the options were not individual funds but by asset allocation. Even the customization offerings appear to be by asset class. I guess I need to spend more time here .