My recent sale of non-Vanguard OEFs at Vanguard have been settling late and Vanguard has not been allowing me to schedule electronic (ACH) transfers to my bank account until T+3 or T+4. For example, the cash from my sell trade on Monday was not made available to transfer out until Thursday AM and I promptly scheduled the cash transfer out at that time but as of Friday night Vanguard still shows the cash transfer as pending (allowing me to cancel the transfer if I wish). I do not encounter similar delays at other brokerages. Vanguard customers, please share your experience.
The Vanguard note for ACH transfer says, "The money from your settlement fund should leave your account no later than the close of the next business day, and you should expect the money to be in your bank account in 2-3 business days afterwards." [Bold added] Vanguard system shows the transfer as still pending.
Bank of America says the following regarding ACH transfers: "When successfully submitted, ACH Credits always post to the Receiver's account by 8:30 AM (Central) on the following banking day – or the same day if you're using Same Day ACH."
With these recent issues at Vanguard, I am less reluctant to make new buys at Vanguard. Is there anything I can do to improve future cash transfers out of Vanguard? In the future, I will use wire transfer instead of ACH, which will also alleviate any holds at the receiving bank. My bank does not charge for incoming wires. What else?
Thanks.
Comments
Their systems are slow, clunky and full of restrictions that "Mommie" Vanguard claims are necessary to "protect" investors from horrible errors, like no inverse or leveraged ETFs
The Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors reports horror stories every month of arithmetical mistakes, poor customer service and other ridiculous problems
We converted funds to brokerage account without any issues.
It's cheaper to trade TF funds at Fidelity: $5/purchase using automated investing, $0 to sell vs. $20 to buy or sell at Vanguard.
Here's Investopedia's comparison of Vanguard and Fidelity. While clearly recognizing the superiority of Fidelity's platform, FWIW they consider Vanguard's platform adequate for its target (buy-and-hold and retirement) investors.
https://www.investopedia.com/vanguard-vs-fidelity-4587961
On the other end of the spectrum, looking at option trading, Fidelity and Schwab pay for order flow. Vanguard does not. Schwab receives payment for order flow on equity orders as well.
There are features that one loses by moving to Vanguard's brokerage platform. On the fund platform, one can (or could, last I checked) convert an exact dollar amount from a traditional IRA to a Roth. On the brokerage platform, one specifies the in-kind conversion by number of shares.
Checkwriting is affected. From the brokerage agreement: https://www.vanguard.com/pdf/vbsaac_042016.pdf
Power of attorney may not transfer over to the brokerage platform. In that case, one would have to set up power of attorney again, including paper forms and signature guarantees. This only affects a relatively small number of Vanguard customers. But I happen to be among them, and would not have known had I not asked. This alone is sufficient to dissuade me from converting.
https://www.finra.org/investors/learn-to-invest/brokerage-accounts/understanding-brokerage-account-transfer-process
https://www.sec.gov/reportspubs/investor-publications/investorpubsacctxferhtm.html
Vanguard told me that aside from the exceptional circumstances pertaining to a small number of investors' POAs including mine, POAs would be retained when converting fund platform accounts to brokerage platform accounts. That was Vanguard's explanation for why it did not not mention this in its conversion emails.
I misspoke in saying that Vanguard requires a signature guarantee. You are correct that it requires notarization not a signature guarantee, but it also requires witnesses. My recollection was from 2020 when "shelter in place" was the norm and getting a third party involved was problematic regardless.
I am sorry but I can't remember if we had to get it notarized, or if you can do it all online. There is a process to add an agent online, but I think it is limited only