news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=665074Last week M* asked what you would like your brokerage or fund company to do better and the link is the summary of the comments they received. I'd like to know which brokers or fund companies do a great job of addressing your concerns.
My accounts are at E*TRADE and they've been really good about helping me with any technical issues I've had. They even waived the fee for processing a trade by phone when I wasn't able to make it work online. They have made funds available at my request, although in these cases I was asking about newer funds from a fund family they already carried. While I'm happy with what they offer and the cost, I'm particularly pleased with the service I've received when I call or write a message.
Comments
Merrill Lynch needs to get their portfolio positions screen right. I've told them several times it sucks.
I wish Vanguard would get their "rounding" right. They mess up big time. Their calculator rounds one way and the rest of the worlds another.
Schwab, Fidelity, Scottrade win by keeping things simple. Note to Schwab. Don't do too much and mess things up. Merrill Lynch has already done that.
They have a mutual fund department, and you can call them and ask about getting into an institutional share class with low minimums. On one occasion, they even called the mutual fund company to see if it was ok. TD Ameritrade can be flexible in some ways that a huge company cannot be.
Been with them a very long time, and never had a single problem.
Surprised @VintageFreak that your experience was otherwise.
With E*Trade...I will not buy a pencil from them.
http://brokerage-accounts.findthebest.com/compare/11-20/Lightspeed-Trading-vs-Just2Trade
One of my previous employers had 401k at Fidelity, which had exposed me to their customer service, which is also excellent. Basically that account was rolled over into an IRA and is still at Fidelity.
I also have a account with American Century Brokerage which is actually Pershing. No issues with them either.
I have had accounts with Fidelity for over 35 years with nary a problem. Fast, efficient, courteous customer service all the time and nearly all hours of the day.
I also have accounts with Scottrade. My complaints here are minor such as they are. Their website presence, tools and navigation seem like something out of the 80's and they will not reinvest dividends on equity holdings unless they are distributed in shares only. For some the reinvestment issue may not be important but if you are looking to build up a position slowly over time having to pay a commission every time you want to add a few shares can be a hassle and expensive.
Thanks to everyone for the input!!! I find the negative comments I read most of the time good to know, but I think it's important to pay attention to the things they do well too.
Scottrade:
- Poor website, functionality. Must call to cancel mutual fund trades.
- Customer service is the local office. Limited hours, but good service.
- Excellent selection of institutional funds with low initial investment (often $100).
- Summary: A must have for institutional share class access (I hate 12b-1 fees).
Merrill Edge:
- 30 Free Equity/ETF trades per month with $50K (Platinum Privileges status).
- Web site/functionality has progressed dramatically, but quirky.
- Fund distributions don't work well with Quicken. Often must be manually fixed.
- Customer service has been good, but fund selection is rather limited.
- Summary: Keeping this one for BoA Platinum Privileges status, but rarely use.
ETrade:
- Good website + tools, but Active Trading tools are limited to frequent traders.
- Won't even hold most institutional class funds.
- $25 fee for outgoing partial transfers.
- Summary: Currently pretty useless for me. Won't hold most of my funds.
Ameritrade:
- Used to use this for Active Trading, but I preferred their older tools to the newer ones.
- Better selection of funds than ETrade (for my own purposes), but still limited.
- Funds trades are expensive. (unless you have a grandfathered TOS account).
- Usually great customer service, but there have been a couple of times I wasn't happy.
- Summary: Was happy here in the past, but it doesn't fit my current needs so well.
Schwab:
- Fees are expensive.
- Won't let me purchase funds listed as institutional.
- Summary: Haven't used this one much. Fully featured, but doesn't fit my needs.
WellsTrade:
- Limited website functionality. Must often call to take care of things.
- Grandfathered PMA account give 100 free trades per year (including fund trades).
- They'll hold almost any fund, and will let me purchase most.
- No break on initial minimums for institutional class funds, but can transfer in.
- Summary: I use this for funds I can't hold at Fidelity. I wouldn't use it without the free trades though.
Fidelity:
- Excellent trading tools + functionality. Slightly confusing website.
- Best fund trading fees if you take advantage of "automatic investments".
- Best customer service in my own experience.
- Great fund selection, but no low initial minimum for institutional, so I transfer in.
- Some funds are classified as "Advisor Funds", and they won't let me transfer them in.
- Summary: My current favorite, but the "Advisor Fund" thing is a huge frustration.
Had no idea regarding Scottrade: Excellent selection of institutional funds with low initial investment (often $100).
- Summary: A must have for institutional share class access (I hate 12b-1 fees).
What do you mean about Fidelity having the "Best fund trading fees if you take advantage of automatic investments"? I haven't found Fidelity's fees on purchasing/selling a mutual fund to be that great.
- I schedule it for Quarterly with the first trade scheduled for tomorrow.
- After the trade is submitted, I cancel the automatic investments schedule.
Now you have $5 for purchases, and no fee to sell. With Fidelity, you're not charged a fee for selling a fund, only purchases. It's much cheaper this way than managing funds anywhere else.
except of course for ntf funds, with no charges either direction, and many of them non-Fido
The only advantage I see with M* is that I can divide up my investments into portfolios of my choosing to keep track of how, my mutual fund selections or stock selections, perform and then combine the various portfolios into one for the overall picture. I guess the X-ray function is helpful as well, although being a bit anal I do it manually in a spreadsheet to capture details that M* doesn't and to compare to my own selection of benchmarks.