That's actually a question from one of their reps. In our TMSRX profile, I refer to them as "Price." They think of, and hence refer to, themselves as "T. Rowe" or "T. Rowe Price." They admit to seeing "Price" used occasionally in the financial media, but were wondering how investors thought of the firm.
A funny side note: we publish in WordPress and if the WordPress software sees the freestanding letter "T" as the first character in a paragraph, it interprets that as a command to create a bulleted list out of the rest of the article. On whole, Chip would rather prefer that I not do that.
Curious, as ever,
David
Comments
- T. Rowe sounds more “official.”
- TRP is easiest to type.
- Price is easiest to say - but vague sounding and could be confused with fund manager Michael Price.
- When talking to one of their reps, it’s usually just “you guys“.
May I further submit ... Damned Good would fit just fine.
"Price" sounds a bit New England prep school to me (i.e., "Choate", "Kent", "Groton").
I've been a major T. Rowe Price investor for going on 20 years. I call them T. Rowe Price. That's their name.
rono
I type TRP and say T.Rowe.
I also say "the guys who run PRWCX, nyah-nyah...." /ducks
The next time I write, I'll use the more "Dear Tom".
For us we have Vanguard 13 years, schwab 11 years, and merrilledge 7 years. All are easy to talk to representatives, low cost trading, good bonddesks, schwab offers excellence research for stocks/mutual funds. All maintenance fees extremely low (for instance merrilledge charge you 0.7% annually fees but you need only 100ks And 1%if less 100k in acct [rest can be self managed without financial advisor])
Mama has Fidelity and we use it to buy etf and bonds, its reasonable but I heard they have best cd/ visa cards 2% cash back
Which firms do you folks prefer
I think Vanguard, D&C, possibly Tweedy, FPA, IVA, and FMI are at the high end of the fiduciary scale. TROW and Grandeur are above average. Royce is at the low end.
Best trow funds for retirement
https://money.usnews.com/investing/funds/slideshows/best-t-rowe-price-funds-for-retirement
Things may have changed, but a very small spot check (1 bond) suggests that this pricing differential remains. Calif (Sacramento) muni, callable starting in two years, maturing in five, CUSIP 786073BG0. Schwab price: 118.636 (2.394% YTW), Fidelity price: 118.536 [sic] (2.407% YTW). Both charge a $1/bond commission. I've bought bonds at Fidelity. Because of the higher cost, I haven't at Schwab.
If you're looking at keeping $100K at Merrill, BofA credit cards can come out better. Their cash rewards cards (with the $100K balance) pay 5.25% on the category of your choice (e.g. online purchases), 3.5% on grocery and warehouse purchases, and 1.75% on everything else. (The higher rebates are limited to $2500 in purchases/quarter). Of it you travel a bit (which can include mass transit, zoos(!) and other oddities), there's a cash back card that pays 2.625% on everything. The catch there is that the rebate must be used to cover travel costs.
With respect to mutual funds, Merrill Edge is limited in its offerings. Essentially, just NTF share classes are available. So you can't buy lower cost institutional shares even if the total cost of ownership would be less for you. Fidelity and Schwab are better in this regard. Fidelity also enable you to buy additional shares of a TF fund for $5 while at Schwab it's still $50. Vanguard's advantage is that it offers some institutional shares with lower mins than at Fidelity or Schwab. My impression is that T. Rowe Price's third party fund offerings are slim, but TRP hasn't posted its "catalogue" for years.
ETF and stock trading are free at Merrill, Fidelity, Schwab, and Vanguard. At TRP they can cost $20, unless the ETF is on their NTF list.
IMHO where TRP shines is in it broad offering of fine mutual funds. Essentially what @rforno said. In addition, it offers a free individual 401(k) plan with Roth option, as does Vanguard. Schwab doesn't allow Roths, nor does Fidelity. Merrill doesn't offer a free individual 401k.
I've found TRP's service to be on par with Fidelity and Schwab. I have found service at Merrill and Vanguard wanting.
John wrote that he is using Merrill as a brokerage. Assuming that he has at least $20K in that account, he should be getting 3.75% (or better) back with BofA's preferred rewards.
With other rebates, I believe he was referring to special one-off promotions. These are not rotating categories, but rather one-time or limited promotions for individual stores. For example, I can get 5% in addition to the usual cash back for purchases at Starbucks up to $30. The nice thing about this particular promotion is that I can load $30 on my Starbucks card now and get that extra $1.50 back. I don't have to remember it at all.
The BofA travel card gives a flat 1.5% back. After you multiply it by the preferred rewards bonus, it can be as much as a flat 2.625%. No rotating categories.
There is a gotcha with this card which I tried to explain tersely above. Say you spend $50K/year, and that earns you $1,312.50. So long as you have charged at least that much in "travel" expenses (which is a very broad category), BofA will credit the full amount against your credit card bill.
These days, that's the cost of a couple of round trip airline tickets. I know, who's flying?
I'm sure I must be misunderstanding something but I've had a full-scale Roth Brokerage account at Fidelity since they became available. Are you referring to some other type of Roth account?
I had written: "In addition, it offers a free individual 401(k) plan with Roth option, as does Vanguard. Schwab doesn't allow Roths, nor does Fidelity. Merrill doesn't offer a free individual 401k."
From Schwab's individual 401k adoption agreement:
To the ongoing discussion here, what I demand of my one credit card is: friendly 24-hour service, reps who speak English and are easy to access, honest dealing, no sales pressure or product promotions. My company (Elan) throws in a few hundred dollars a year as some kind of bonus. That’s nice, but not the reason I chose them. Now, just think of all the investment research and strategic decision making you might be doing with the time otherwise allotted to deciding which cc to use this week or next? An investment in knowledge always pays the best dividend.
Hi @msf
You noted:IMHO where TRP shines is in it broad offering of fine mutual funds. Essentially what @rforno said. In addition, it offers a free individual 401(k) plan with Roth option, as does Vanguard. Schwab doesn't allow Roths, nor does Fidelity. Merrill doesn't offer a free individual 401k.
I don't follow the meaning of the bold above regarding Roths at Fidelity.
Thank you.
Catch
I keep a very simple system with credit cards.
Penfed for any gas at the pump = 5% cash back. I used this card abroad too with no fees.
Everything else Fidelity 2% cash back. I don't want/need more cards with more complication and calculation
Wait, Amazon has a 5% back so I opened an account last year but the card is not in my wallet. I buy more every year.
When abroad I use Schwab ATM for cash. Schwab pays for all fees globally and why I only take out small amounts several times.