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Making the switch to Fidelity this week

I am finally getting my daughter out from under a UGMA my parents set up. Decided to set her up at Fidelity. Needed a medallion signature. Had to have an account with Fidelity before they would stamp for me. So, what the heck? I'm moving the IRA out of Vanguard, and consolidating separate taxable accounts from Vanguard, Dodge & Cox, and Sequoia.

The taxable account will go into a family trust. At around RMD age I'll want to annuitize some of the IRA. I can't even begin to imagine trying to do any of that with Vanguard.

The bulk of my taxable account will remain with Wells Fargo for now.

So far, about as pleasant an experience as I could hope for.

Comments

  • Congratulations. Fidelity is very easy to work with and their phone supports is excellent.
  • I agree on Sven's comments re: Fidelity. But Schwab offers more trading options at lower cost. c
  • @Charles

    Having accounts at both, can you elaborate on those investments where Schwab has lower costs than Fido?

  • When I first started investing 30+ years ago, I was considering Vanguard, Fidelity and TRowe Price. Vanguard’s minimum investments were too high, and I opted for TRP because they were friendly to small investors. I later started an account with Fidelity for a rollover IRA because they had so many investment options, and never regretted that decision. A few years ago, I moved all of our investments to Fidelity because their customer service is so good, expenses are reasonable, and they have much more options than TRP. I would have kept our TRP account except they wouldn’t let me invest in PRWCX even though I had been a customer more than 30 years, so I moved those accounts to Fidelity and haven’t looked back.
  • beebee
    edited May 2023
    Prior to my TD Ameritrade account moving this week to Schwab, I seamlessly did an “in kind” trustee to trustee transfer from TD to Fidelity. Very happy to not be a Schwab customer.

    Schwab has always made me feel that people are products to be bought and sold.
  • edited May 2023
    Tarwheel said:

    I would have kept our TRP account except they wouldn’t let me invest in PRWCX even though I had been a customer more than 30 years, so I moved those accounts to Fidelity and haven’t looked back.

    +1

    That firm (TRP) is almost unrecognizable from what it was in the 90s. And not all for the better.
  • edited May 2023
    bee said:

    Schwab has always made me feel that people are products to be bought and sold.

    Kinda harsh @bee :) But let me add that (as a Fido client) I feel that Abigail cuts a better public image than Charlie does.

    I’ve heard a lot of positive things about Schwab from clients. Not meant to knock the firm. But, to bee’s point, CS seems to be a born salesman if ever there was. (It’s hard not to like Liz Ann Saunders.)
  • Been a Schwab customer for about 30 years. I stay for the service. Whenever I have a question or concern I can always reach someone who actually seems to care about my problem. Today I got a follow up call from yesterday’s question about POA on our multi accounts. The rep didn’t have an answer but his manager will be taking the question to customer concerns meeting next week. At least they are trying.
  • bee said:

    Prior to my TD Ameritrade account moving this week to Schwab, I seamlessly did an “in kind” trustee to trustee transfer from TD to Fidelity. Very happy to not be a Schwab customer.

    Schwab has always made me feel that people are products to be bought and sold.

    I’ve had somewhat the opposite experience with our local offices, which are literally located a quarter mile apart.. An FA at Fido reached out to Mrs. Ruffles about her accounts so we asked him some questions about Fido’s offerings. He merely sent us links to their website and when we followed up with some questions, he ghosted us and hasn’t been heard from since. (And he no longer shows up on her account when she logs in.)

    I went to my local Schwab office to take care of some paperwork which was handled very politely and promptly. Afterwards, I received a followup email from a senior FA in the office to check to make sure my transaction was handled to my satisfaction.
  • Fido was my best brokerage experience, and I remain with them. Vanguard became really terrible.

    Also, I would not leave a dime in any Wells Fargo accounts. That bank has a poor history, and I'm not convinced that the culture there has changed. If a bank is opening accounts that customers didn't approve, you don't deal with that bank.
  • edited May 2023
    Thanks to those who’ve posted great experiences with Schwab. I’ve heard the same from others. I guess a lot depends on who you happen to interact with. Despite my earlier good-natured jab, I’d have absolutely no problem dealing with Schwab.
  • JD_co said:

    [snip]
    Also, I would not leave a dime in any Wells Fargo accounts. That bank has a poor history, and I'm not convinced that the culture there has changed. If a bank is opening accounts that customers didn't approve, you don't deal with that bank.

    +1

    "Wells Fargo has been sanctioned repeatedly by U.S. regulators for violations of consumer protection laws going back to 2016, when employees were found to have opened millions of accounts illegally in order to meet unrealistic sales goals. Since then, executives have repeatedly said Wells is cleaning up its act, only for the bank to be found in violation of other parts of consumer protection law, including in its auto and mortgage lending businesses."

    "While Wells Fargo tried to frame the agreement with the CFPB as a resolution of established bad behavior, CFPB officials said some of the violations cited in Tuesday’s order took place this year."

    Link
  • beebee
    edited May 2023
    @hank

    Over the last few years I have been bought by Schwab twice… and counting. I was sold by USAA to Schwab 3 years ago. Instead, I moved to TD. Recently sold again.

    In a world where big (Schwab) eat little (USAA), I should appreciate the added value these efficiencies create. I was as unhappy with USAA, maybe more so. At USAA, the $1.6B (corrected) (what Schwab paid) went to improve shareholder experience at USAA. Hmm, I have heard that one before.

    Now, this time, big (Schwab) eats big (TD). Not sure who benefited from these sale proceeds, but it wasn’t me. I was the product.

    Being a Fidelity customer may have its own drawbacks, but it appears I am a bigger risk to them… being sold.
  • USAA was sold in 2 parts.

    USAA mutual funds, etc were sold to Victory Capital/VCTR. Victory even moved its HQ from Cleveland, OH to San Antonio, TX (the old USAA facilities).

    USAA Brokerages, wealth management, etc were sold to Schwab/SCHW for $1.6 billion (it was reduced from $1.8 billion during the pandemic) and the AUM involved was about $80 billion.

    USAA is now focusing on its services to military families and and veterans.
  • Another benefit with Fidelity, at least for us, is that they have many local offices where you can talk to real people in person. I have handled all of investments for decades, but my wife can take advantage of the local office and their advisors if I die before her. We meet with a Fidelity advisor once a year to review our investments and financial plan so my wife will be familiar with it all.
  • edited May 2023
    Thanks @bee for the clarification. Obviously I mistook your point earlier. Yes, I’ve been “sold” at least twice - most recently to Invesco by Oppenheimer. Neither worked to my advantage.
  • Both Schwab and Fidelity have local offices close to me, which is a big draw for me. I know others have said the local office isn't important to them because computer and phone service is adequate, but I will always prefer the 1:1 sit down with a real person or a phone chat with a person I know. I'm not presently a Fidelity customer so I can't compare the two.

    To bee's point, I have had a TD Ameritrade Roth IRA account for close to 20 years. I, contrary to bee, am looking forward to the TDA conversion to Schwab. I find the CS trading tools and web site as a whole more to my liking. I guess I've never felt like a product "of" CS. Contrarily, with the switch there are many more financial products open to me.

    Prior to the switch, I was tempted to transfer that TDA account to Fidelity just to have a comparative experience between CS and Fidelity. I still might. Just been lazy.
  • @MikeM If you're thinking about doing a full transfer of an account to Fidelity, it would be better to wait until the account is officially a Schwab account. TDA charges $75 for a full transfer, Schwab "only" $50. At Fidelity full transfers are free. (Partial account transfers are free at all three brokerages).

    https://www.tdameritrade.com/pricing/brokerage-fees.html
    https://www.schwab.com/legal/schwab-pricing-guide-for-individual-investors
    https://www.fidelity.com/trading/commissions-margin-rates

    Generally, fees at Fidelity are the same or slightly less than at Schwab. And Fidelity offers a relatively high paying government MMF as a transaction account, while Schwab requires you to use a bank sweep paying 0.45%.

    Of interest to mutual fund investors, Schwab charges its short term trading fee on NTF funds if you trade in under 90 days. At Fidelity it is only 60 days. And Fidelity enables you to add shares to a TF position for $5, while Schwab charges the full $49.95. OTOH, at least a couple of posters have said they've been able to get Schwab to waive its fund transaction fees altogether.

    Also, some funds offer multiple institutional share classes and Schwab may give you access to the cheaper share class than Fidelity does. For example, you can buy PIMIX at Schwab (TF), while at Fidelity you're stuck with the higher ER class PIPNX (TF).

    I think the service is excellent at both brokerages. In this regard one could not go wrong either way.

    WIth respect to brokerage acquisitions: I've not seen a company pay its customers when it was acquired. And I've rarely seen customers complain about that. Certainly Tweeters have complained about Twitter service since Musk bought it. But at the time he purchased the company I didn't see them saying they should get a share of his payment.

    FWIW, Schwab advertises that it has more locations than Fidelity. Of course what matters is whether it has a brokerage location near you, not how many it has elsewhere.
    https://www.schwab.com/compare-us

  • edited May 2023
    JD_co said:

    Fido was my best brokerage experience, and I remain with them. Vanguard became really terrible.

    Also, I would not leave a dime in any Wells Fargo accounts. That bank has a poor history, and I'm not convinced that the culture there has changed. If a bank is opening accounts that customers didn't approve, you don't deal with that bank.

    Never had that experience with Wells Fargo. At one time they sold us on an account to segregate funds from fraud online. Said account came with no charges on trades on mutual funds through their brokerage. At some point we said "What's this account all about?" And then we got rid of it. I still got the breaks for a few years after that. But I wish we had kept that account

    We did have two positive mortgage experiences with them. One was a refinance of Fort Knox on the Marin-Sonoma border. The other was our house in Arizona that we decided to pay off.

    These days, the ETF trades are free, and they charge less for non-NTF funds than Fido. But they don't have near the selection universe.

    The funny thing--to us--is that when we attended college in Minnesota. we both had bank accounts at the bank that bought Wells Fargo

    When we got to San Francisco in October 1979, our first bank account was with Crocker. They were bought by somebody, who was eventually bought by Wells Fargo. Old Joe might remember.
  • Crocker Bank - for which Paul Williams and Roger Nichols wrote We've Only Just Begun.
    https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/bank-commercial-inspired-the-carpenters-weve-only-just-begun.html/

    The Crocker commercial, performed by Paul Williams:


    Years ago, when we tried to open a Wells Fargo account, WF insisted that one of our SSNs was wrong. That they already had a customer with that SSN. They wouldn't open the account until we proved that the SSN was legit.

    Ironic, given WF's excessive zeal in opening accounts.

    It turned out that for three years, WF had been reporting mortgage payments (deductible) with the wrong SSN.

    And it's been downhill for Wells Fargo ever since.

  • @mfs, I missed the window to do so, but TDA was waiving account transfer fees for those that did not want their accounts going to Schwab.
  • @MikeM: our TDA accounts (representing quite a small percentage overall) are going to Schwab this weekend as a result of the buyout. Some time ago, I moved my Roth and a brokerage account to Schwab and would have moved the others sooner, but Covid reductions in service interfered. I disliked the TDA trading platform, compared to Schwab’s, and was constantly irked at TDA’s mobile app, which could not handle mutual fund trades. For many moons we’ve been well served by Schwab and I hope our satisfaction continues.
  • edited May 2023
    @msf. The year that song was released I had a pass-book savings account at the Webster Groves Trust Company.

    During the process of registering for SSI my wife discovered that she had two social security numbers. A second one had been issued for some unknown reason. It was never used.

    And finally, for the moment, Schwab did not have a location near us. Fidelity has about three about equal-distant from where we are.
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