Even with careful instructions to the broker, if the fund sponsor doesn't approve, you may not be able to do a tax-free exchange from one share class to another of the same fund.
I ran into this with a Blackrock fund. I had service class shares. Then Fidelity made the A shares NTF (load waived, no fee). Those shares had a slightly lower ER. I asked Fidelity to do a non-taxable exchange.
Fidelity checked with Blackrock and told me that Blackrock would not permit that. I would have to sell and buy (and recognize gain on the sale).
When an OEF converts to ETF, that can be tax-free in most cases.
Typically, restructurings are nontaxable events. When PIMCO converted its D class shares into A class shares, that was a nontaxable event.
https://riaconnection.axosadvisorservices.com/uploads/6/5/8/0/65802149/2018.03.23_pimco_share_class_conversion_d_to_a.pdf
More notoriously, Vanguard did a tax-free merger of its institutional and retail target date funds (different funds, not different share classes) after making changes (changing ERs) that triggered huge cap gains distributions.
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2022/04/ny-times-holders-of-vanguard-target-funds-file-class-action-over-massive-capital-gain-tax-bills.html

Vanguard could have first merged the funds, then lowered the fees, the suit says. If the process had proceeded in that order, the lawyers argued, there would have been no flood of fund sales and no tax shock for retail investors.

Looking at the total assets of OEFs and ETFs (ICI data) as of 11/2024,
OEFs 73.42%, ETFs 26.58%.
But there are record amounts in the money-market funds, 16.92% of the total OEF + ETF assets, but that's all in OEFs, nothing in ETFs. Taking out the money-market funds (i.e. only stocks, bonds and alternatives),
OEFs 68%, ETFs 32%. (ex-money-market funds)
Amazing for the ETFs that have existed only since 1990s, while the OEFs go back to 1920s.

AAII Sentiment Survey, 1/15/25
BEARISH remained the top sentiment (40.6%, high) & bullish became the bottom sentiment (25.4%, low); neutral became the middle sentiment (34.0%, above average); Bull-Bear Spread was -15.2% (low). Investor concerns: Budget, debt, inflation (CPI +2.9%, PPI +3.3%), the Fed, dollar, geopolitical, Russia-Ukraine (151+ weeks), Israel-Hamas (66+ weeks; a cease fire seems close). For the Survey week (Th-Wed), stocks up (volatile), bonds up, oil up, gold up, dollar flat. NYSE %Above 50-dMA 39.43% (negative). Short-selling firm Hindenburg Research is shutting down - another casualty of the bull market? #AAII #Sentiment #Markets
https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/post/1833/thread

”Investors plowed more than $1 trillion into U.S.-based exchange-traded funds in 2024, shattering the previous record set three years ago and raising Wall Street hopes for an even bigger year ahead. Longer-term trends also played a role as investors extended a yearslong practice of swapping their mutual funds for the greater tax advantages and easy trading of ETFs. Total assets in U.S.-based ETFs reached a record $10.6 trillion at the end of November, according to monthly ETFGI data, an increase of more than 30% from the start of 2024.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/bc87aa1f-2106-3dc9-9dd4-533c498e5ead/a-record-shattering-1.html
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
(Robert Frost)

I left M* Legacy tab open for a while and it had this message:
504 Gateway Timeout ERROR
The request could not be satisfied.
We can't connect to the server for this app or website at this time. There might be too much traffic or a configuration error. Try again later, or contact the app or website owner.
If you provide content to customers through CloudFront, you can find steps to troubleshoot and help prevent this error by reviewing the CloudFront documentation.
Generated by cloudfront (CloudFront) HTTP3 Server
Request ID: Db_eR4Ko9tprNz11KMyzEQDZV5c45H06Dek7KWEgf3Q51GP0Qs025Q==

@Crash, I was quoting @gman57. Added that.

Or you could just calculate the amount yourself on one of the dozens of free calculators available online and then make a note on your calendar for the day you intend to pull it.
Or say, “Hey Siri: Remind me to …..”
If you’re able to manage your multi-million dollar diversified investment portfolio on your own, remembering to pull the RMD shouldn’t be that challenging! :)

Hello hank,
I do calculate my RMD myself each year. You are correct, it is not a very challenging process. I have always had it set up with VG to also calculate it and to withdraw it on a set date. I do this so that just in case it would slip my mind or if something were to happen to me it would be done on time and my wife would not have to deal with it.
The point to the OP is that the RMD was correctly set up for 2025, and then a few days later was deleted for some unknown reason. If I had not paid attention to the second letter, I could have had a big problem at the end of this year, since the withdrawal was scheduled for late December. The correction was done with a simple phone call. I only wanted to alert other investors that this could possibly happen to anyone and suggest they check their scheduled RMDsl.

@stillers,
Please indulges us with your "pay no tax" strategies.
With your RMDs being 16 years away and retirement starting in 2012 or at age 45, I am all ears.
Congratulations.

Thanks!
Let me correct your dates. Sorry if my post was confusing on that!:
Retired in 2012 at Age 56
RMDs will start in 2029 at Age 73 (unless gov't pushes back further)
Paid ZERO FIT 2013-2024 (12 years)
Plan to (and very likely will) pay ZERO FIT/SIT 2025-2028 (4 years)
Total ZERO FIT/SIT period (16 years)
Strategy was pretty simple (but takes a while to explain!):
Starting with first professional employments in 1980, got as much $ as humanly possible into tax-deferred accounts. We were DINKS, Double Income, No Kids.
ONLY worked for companies that had defined benefit pension plans as a bene. Collectively had four professional jobs and four defined benefit pension plans between the two of us between 1980-2012. Annually maxed out 401k's and 403b's and all other investable monies went to Roth IRAs.
Rolled all possible Pension monies to IRAs upon termination of service to control when we receive income. Final employers provided lovely parting gifts of Retiree Health Insurance, Retiree Dental Insurance and a RHSA (Retiree Health Savings Account). Retired with just enough $ outside the umbrella (in taxable a/c's) to bridge income gap in years until early SS began for both at Age 62 in 2018.
Started taking (effectively) tax-free IRA w/d's in 2013 to fully defray annual income gaps and/or maximize tax savings. Currently, SS and remaining pensions (that could not be rolled) cover all but a couple grand of annual living expenses.
98% of liquid net worth is still in IRAs and only 2% is in taxable accounts. We have generated negligible taxable income other than early SS starting in 2018 and remaining Pensions that weren't rolled starting in 2013. We have ALWAYS since 2013 kept total taxable income UNDER the taxable MFJ threshold.
And to answer question by @derf:
No formal employment since both retired in 2012. We do however have some friends and relatives throw at us a little cash, dinners, event tix and the like for our otherwise gratuitous mgmt of their ports. I have also done some yard work for some neighbors to keep busy and active for a ridiculously smallish hourly fee. Currently down to just one neighbor as I've tired somewhat of all that.

Hi Derf,
ARDBX has an inception date of 05/16/2022 so it does not yet have a 3 year history.
2023 performance - top 8% return in Foreign Small/Mid Blend category
2024 performance - top 11% return in Foreign Small/Mid Blend category
https://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/ardbx/performance
@David_Snowball wrote about ARDBX in Sept. 2023.
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/2023/09/artisan-international-explorer-ardbx-arhbx/

@Old_Joe, I first came across it on Apple News that I subscribe to. It explains the bond world in details with relevant graphs on each points. The rise of long treasuries (10 years treasury for example) since last October to near 5% today has negatively impacted the equities and bonds. It also presented the “ excess CAPE yield” at historical high, suggesting below average future returns on stock market in an already rich valuation environment.
Our local library subscribers to many newspapers. Generally searching by the title would find it.

I always forget about my library card.
Tip of the cap to @Observant1 for finding the MSN link.

@gman57: "Capone" (-:)

It's not just the big banks that play these games. Many institutions do. One can counter by being ever vigilant and moving money around from bank to bank. I did this for a time when I was between homes and had cash proceeds from the sale of my old home. Now I find it more practical to stick with an institution that consistently pays moderately high rates even if not the very top rates. (And to use MMFs, T-bills, etc.)
Whatever you do, keep your hand on your wallet at all times.
Speaking of wallets and not trusting Big Banksters with a penny of your money, what's in your wallet? If you have Fidelity's card, that's issued by Elan Financial Services, a subsidiary of US Bank, the fifth largest US Bank. Though you wouldn't know that by asking Google what it thinks are the largest banks; it omits US bank from its list.
Elan is behind CCs issued by 1300 different banks and credit unions. As CFSB writes, "The name that you are looking for [may not be] the actual issuer's name (for example, "ABC Card" is issued by XYZ Bank)."
Here's CFPB's page that has the institutions actually issuing cards.
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/credit-cards/agreements/issuer/us-bank-national-association/
250 largest banks and 250 largest credit unions by assets held (Dec 2023):
https://personetics.com/resource-center/largest-banks-and-credit-unions-in-the-united-states/
Bank holding companies with the 20 largest credit card loan portfolios (March 2024):
https://www.americanbanker.com/list/20-bank-holding-companies-with-the-largest-credit-card-loan-portfolios-at-the-end-of-q4

@Old_Joe, I first came across it on Apple News that I subscribe to. It explains the bond world in details with relevant graphs on each points. The rise of long treasuries (10 years treasury for example) since last October to near 5% today has negatively impacted the equities and bonds. It also presented the “ excess CAPE yield” at historical high, suggesting below average future returns on stock market in an already rich valuation environment.
Our local library subscribers to many newspapers. Generally searching by the title would find it.

Used my 2025 IRA contribution to purchase additional ARDBX shares.

S&P Returns by Year
2024 +25.02%.
2023 +26.29%.
2022 -18.11%. (neg)
2021 +28.71%.
2020 +18.40%.
2019 +31.49%.
2018 -4.38%. (neg)
2017 +21.83%.
2016 +11.96%.
2015 +1.38%.
”If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck …..”
Source of data
I like to look at some of TRP’s funds’ performance for insights because I know several pretty well from once residing there. Not a recommendation - but there might be some opportunity for long term investors in real assets (PRAFX at TRP) and in real estate (TRREX at TRP). I base this solely on the observation that they’ve fallen quite a bit from their 5 year highs. In a bit of a trough currently. No guarantees. I have very limited exposure to those two areas, Own neither of the funds mentioned.

As Yogi mentioned in his earlier post, it's a common practice of internet banks to draw money in with high rates, then lower the rates on those accounts while creating yet another new high rate account type. Capital One did this with its 360 Savings (old) and 360 Performance Savings (new). Several other banks have done this as well.
As much of a fan as I am of CFPB, its press release (as reported by Yahoo) is somewhat misleading. It compares the two Capital One accounts, but not over the same time periods.

The CFPB said Capital One lowered and froze its 360 Savings account’s APY to 0.30 percent from late 2019 to mid-2024, while it increased the new 360 Performance Savings account’s APY from 0.40 percent to 4.25 percent between April 2022 and January 2024.

Performance Savings always had higher rates, granted. However, the CFPB omits the fact that Capital One lowered the interest rate on Performance Savings account between late 2019 and autumn 2020, just as it did with the older Savings account rate. By late summer 2020 the rate difference between the two accounts had closed to 10 basis points. The lowering of rates was not an issue, regardless of the CFPB statement.
What were issues were the rate difference between the two account types (at all times) and the freezing of one account's rate while the other's was raised.
From friend's statements and depositaccounts.com chart here):

Month	360 Savings	360 Performance Savings
9/2019	  1.00%			1.90%
10/2019	  0.80%			1.90%
12/2019	  0.60%			1.80%
3/2020	  0.50%			1.50%
5/2020	  0.50%			1.30%
6/2020	  0.50%			1.00%
8/2020	  0.50%			0.65%
9/2020	  0.40%			0.50%
12/2020	  0.30%			0.40%
4/2022	  0.30%			0.60%  (and up from here)

I was taking RMD on Jan 2 or 3. But in 2020, the pandemic year, the RMDs were waived - first for those who took it after February or March, and finally for all around mid-2020. So, I was kicking myself for 5-6 months in 2020 for taking RMDs too early. Now I take them in mid/late-year.

Different strokes for different folks.
We plan on making QCDs when we're finally subject to RMDs. So had we been subject to RMDs by 2020, we would not have been very upset at having taken a distribution that wasn't required. The money would have gone to some good causes (at least we think so).
We make partial Roth conversions annually. Since those are generally best done early in the year, and since they cannot be done prior to taking RMDs, we plan on taking RMDs (for QCDs) early each year.
In 2009, RMDs were also waived. But this was announced at the end of 2008. So there was no confusion about what to do with 2009 RMDs already taken. Only two waivers in 50 years (RMDs started in 1974 with ERISA), and only one of those without advance warning. Those are pretty good odds of it not happening again in our lifetimes.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1593547/000139834425000661/fp0091875-1_497.htm
THE ADVISORS’ INNER CIRCLE FUND III
(the “Trust”)
Legal & General Commodity Strategy Fund
(the “Fund”)
Supplement dated January 14, 2025 to the Fund’s Prospectus (the “Prospectus”) and Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”), each dated March 1, 2024, as supplemented
This supplement provides new and additional information beyond that contained in the Prospectus and SAI, and should be read in conjunction with the Prospectus and SAI.
The Board of Trustees of the Trust, at the recommendation of Legal & General Investment Management America, Inc. (the “Adviser”), the investment adviser of the Fund, has approved a plan of liquidation providing for the liquidation of the Fund’s assets and the distribution of the net proceeds pro rata to the Fund’s shareholders. In connection therewith, the Fund is closed to investments from new and existing shareholders effective immediately. The Fund is expected to cease operations and liquidate on or about February 14, 2025 (the “Liquidation Date”). The Liquidation Date may be changed without notice at the discretion of the Trust’s officers.
Prior to the Liquidation Date, shareholders may redeem (sell) their shares in the manner described in the “Purchasing and Selling Fund Shares – How to Sell Your Fund Shares” section of the Prospectus. For those Fund shareholders that do not redeem (sell) their shares prior to the Liquidation Date, the Fund will distribute to each such shareholder, on or promptly after the Liquidation Date, a liquidating cash distribution equal in value to the shareholder’s interest in the net assets of the Fund as of the Liquidation Date.
In anticipation of the liquidation of the Fund, the Adviser may manage the Fund in a manner intended to facilitate the Fund’s orderly liquidation, such as by holding cash or making investments in other highly liquid assets. As a result, during this time, all or a portion of the Fund may not be invested in a manner consistent with its stated investment strategies, which may prevent the Fund from achieving its investment objective.
The liquidation distribution amount will include any accrued income and capital gains, will be treated as a payment in exchange for shares and will generally be a taxable event for shareholders investing through taxable accounts. You should consult your personal tax advisor concerning your particular tax situation. Shareholders remaining in the Fund on the Liquidation Date will not be charged any transaction fees by the Fund. However, the net asset value of the Fund on the Liquidation Date will reflect costs of liquidating the Fund. Shareholders will receive liquidation proceeds as soon as practicable after the Liquidation Date.
PLEASE RETAIN THIS SUPPLEMENT FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.
LGI-SK-001-0003

@WABAC
On the Osterweis (OSTIX) quarterly webinar today, they mentioned staying short, 1.5 years because they’re not being sufficiently rewarded for taking on additional duration risk.

Thanks for the info. We have that in my wife's IRA.
Not just higher for longer, but shorter for longer too.