Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
Fido has another quirk. Often if I begin to sell shares of a NTF fund held more than 60 days a message pops up: "If you believe you may be entitled to a fee wavier contact a representative." I did a couple times. They basically said to ignore the …
The charge I saw was on a fund for which Schwab was supposed to be waiving my fees. So discovering this was accidental.
I let Schwab know that they hadn't gotten my household waivers in place correctly (waiting on that correction). I also notif…
I would imagine that in the case of heavily traded ETFs brokerages settle for the funds earned from payment for order flow, just as they do for commission-free stock trades.
Schwab and Robinhood certainly rake in the PFOF dollars. In September, aro…
My own owned ETF is an iShares beast connected to BlackRock. I'm wondering what will happen to my stake in EWS. Paying a fee to buy, sell or add shares is a no-go for me.
Fidelity and iShares have a partnership deal that goes back around 15 years, …
Finally had time to dig up Schwab's disclosure statement:
Most NTF funds pay Schwab's standard OneSource/NTF fund fee of 0.40% per year; however, the annual fee can range up to 0.45% of the fund assets held at Schwab. ...
Fees on new institutional …
How do these etf fees compare to OEF fees charged for brokerage platform availability?
The rack rate for shelf space at brokerages like Fidelity and Schwab is 40 basis points for NTF and a lot lower (10-15 basis points?) for TF funds. Some famili…
The piece says that Fidelity makes "15% of what ETF issuers get or a $100 transaction fee charged to investors." It links to another page on the same site that clarifies(?): "ETF issuers are required to share 15% of their revenue with Fidelity for …
Performance fees in mutual funds are called fulcrum fees. The adjustments must be symmetric (same magnitude for under- and over-performance), like a seesaw and a fulcrum. And like a seesaw (that can't drop below the ground), the maximum adjustmen…
With "near cash" funds (think, e.g. ICSH) in taxable accounts, I take all divs in cash. These funds tend to have monthly distributions.
Any time I wanted to take cash out of a "near cash" account, I would have to sell shares. If those shares w…
Vanguard is getting sloppy. What it says about the differences in the two funds is:
Differences in scale, certain investment processes, and underlying holdings are expected to produce different investment returns by the funds. VDIG prospectus
But…
Do you mean GS or MS?
Unless there's a service that you can't get at your main brokerage, I don't think there's a big need (perhaps reliability?) to use multiple brokerages. For simplicity in the future (when RMDs kick in) we've consolidated T-IRA…
One subtlety that was left out from this column but does appear in an earlier Kitces column is that MAGI for the purpose of the OBBBA "below the line deductions" includes tax exempt interest from territories (Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, etc.) an…
As usual, the analysis on the Kitces site is outstanding. I spot checked a few areas that I'm focused on this year or have been in the past and the subtleties and calculations are presented with great clarity.
I've exercised options in that past …
I haven't seen what DFA is saying.
@WABAC I'm confident that DFA says it requires investors to a DFA-trained advisor so that investors get sound guidance. Lately I haven't been able to find this on any "authoritative" source. The best I can do ri…
DFA generally restricts access to its mutual funds to investors working with a "select group" of investment advisors.
ETFs are on the opposite end of the spectrum - vehicles that everyone has access to and ones that are more likely to be used for s…
'''Why EGRIX and then switch to EIGMX? because after a decline, a more volatile fund would make more.""
OR just possibly continue to lose more?
I don't think FD would disagree with that: "A fund with higher SD loses money quicker."
Given that the…
M* AI writeups of pillars are IMHO next to useless. For process, when done by human beings ...
Analysts look for strategies with a process distinctive enough to generate standout results in the future. More specifically, analysts seek to underst…
This subject came up in another thread a couple of weeks ago:
Fidelity (and Schwab and ...) provide individual investors the same opportunity to generate income. This page describes both how to set that up at Fidelity and more broadly the risks and…
To force typewriter-like WYSIWYG formatting, surround the text with and . Then whitespace won't collapse and tabs will be treated as tabs. The only trick needed is to get the right number of tabs (or whitespaces) in each spot so things space out …
our health insurance is provided through the City of San Francisco contract with Blue Cross of California.
I sort of guessed that from your description of SF insurance company changes. For additional "fun", take a look at how NYC has been trying …
For someone who is 70, 80, 90, or 100, especially if their health isn’t great, receiving calls and bills from the hospital, even though they are not legally responsible for payment, can be confusing, frustrating, and stressful.
True enough. Somet…
Comments below on Medigap are from what I remember from helping someone a couple of years ago. Little time to check all of the details now, so not everything may be spot on:
IMHO what is most important is type of pricing, attained age, issue age o…
I agree with you that the risk of something bad happening is just too great to go without coverage. I'm not the type of person who bets double or triple leveraged funds.
There are at least four different sources of increases in what you pay. Two …
Double whammy given all health plans' substantial default rise next year due to the administration's awful attitude toward ACA
Honestly, I didn't think that bad attitude was that much of a factor. But it turns out that this attitude (in the form…
Worst case: if coverage becomes an issue, you can relocate or establish residency in another county to qualify for Original Medicare. In your situation, the Humana Gold Choice H8145-069 (PFFS) plan is available in several counties across Georgia and…
Hi OJ (@Old_Joe). Good talking with you as well.
You are of course right about the numbers (scope of control of various SF health care organizations). And I hadn't realized that UCSF was capturing remaining available hospitals.
The reason why I…
HMO or a Medicare Advantage Plan
People tend to conflate these terms. An HMO is a type of policy, whether it is an employer plan, an ACA plan, or a Medicare Advantage Plan. Likewise, PPO, EPO, PFFS, etc. are types of policies that may be packa…
“There’s nothing inherently wrong with share-based compensation.
It’s prevalent in Silicon Valley and biotech because of startup culture.
With limited cash, a company operating out of a garage needs to dangle
the possibility of a bonanza to attract …
The givebacks are all over the map. Here's one for a Humana PPO plan covering parts of Georgia and South Carolina for 2026. The amount is $130/mo. I've seen much smaller ones as well, though I've never seen one as low as yours.
https://www.hum…
Yes, they do. Which is why the I calculated the increase in the Humana PFFS plan not as infinite ($0 2025 to $27 in 2026) but as 26%, all in.
https://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/comment/200450/#Comment_200450
Some plans actually "giv…
Humana's HMO plan H4141-017-003 isn't an option.
If your wife's employer(?) is giving you added benefits but offering fewer options, I can't speak to that. H4141 is generally available to subscribers in most of Georgia (Metro Georgia). See first …
If you have the same plan as Mona's, it's a PFFS plan. That Humana plan costs more in 2026 than 15 other Humana plans.
If you are flexible and willing to go to whatever providers are in an HMO network, you can save even more money to invest. C…
The beauty of QCDs is that they let you take RMDs and get the effect of a deduction without itemizing.
More precisely, you declare your total IRA withdrawals including QCDs on line 4a (IRA distributions). Then subtract out the QCDs from the tax…
. Friction costs such as higher expense ratio and bid/ask spread are the primary factors.
The comparison being made here is between an index ETF and an actively managed ETF. From the retail investor perspective, while ER differences are real, bid/…
It seems to me that before Charles arrived with Premium , MFO took donations with a certain % tax deductible.
MFO received its certification as a 501(c)(3) in 2015 and also initiated Premium that year. There was little if any period of time where…
Would a QCD to MFO qualify? Seems part of subscription to Premium is tax deductible.
You cannot not fund a membership this way. Part of the membership is not deductible because you receive benefits of value. QCDs must go to something that's 100% …
Below is largely esoterica. That's where the fun is :-)
QCDs can be made only from TIRA
QCDs can also be made from Roth IRAs if the distribution would have been taxable. For example, if you only opened your first Roth less than five years ago. …
There's also at least one interval fund: AARTX. Just in case you want to up your risk (and reward).
Thus, while the interval fund’s expected returns are higher, its risks are also higher.
https://www.morningstar.com/bonds/catastrophe-bonds-strategi…
It's a pay package that accrues over time, not $1T all at once. Still, no one is worth $1T over an entire lifetime.
Even made of solid gold, he'd only be worth about $13M
$4K/oz x 16 oz/lb x ~200lb ≈ $13M
