Brokerage Firms

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investor231i
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Brokerage Firms

Post by investor231i »

Hi All, can the fellow BHs please let me know of brokerage firms which allow investing in VG mutual funds and have no load/no cost. I am looking for firms which have better customer experience in general as compared to VG. I guess Schwab most likely does that and Fidelity does not. Want to get more insights.
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dollar_elbow
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Re: Brokerage Firms

Post by dollar_elbow »

Generally, brokerages will charge you to buy mutual funds from another company so if you go with Fidelity or Schwab you’ll pay a transaction fee ($50 at Fidelity) to buy Vanguard funds, so it only makes sense if you make large purchases where the fee is a tiny percentage of the transaction. Most Vanguard index funds have an ETF version available and you can buy these at no cost, which is what I do (I use Fidelity). If you want to buy actively managed funds, such as Wellington, then you’ll need pay the fee, since they are not available as ETFs.
student
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Re: Brokerage Firms

Post by student »

Chase You Invest, recently changed its name to JP Morgan Self Direct, allows you to buy most Vanguard funds with no fees.
livesoft
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Re: Brokerage Firms

Post by livesoft »

student wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 8:55 pm Chase You Invest, recently changed its name to JP Morgan Self Direct, allows you to buy most Vanguard funds with no fees.
But Chase probably fails on the "Better customer experience" aspect, right?
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Nicolas
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Re: Brokerage Firms

Post by Nicolas »

You can buy some on E*Trade fee-free except for a $49.99 fee if you sell before 90 days. They don’t seem to have all of the Admiral share funds available, however. I was only able to buy the investor shares of the Wellesley Income Fund, even though the amount was well in excess of the minimum for Admiral. My contact at E*Trade said he couldn’t even buy the admiral shares of that fund, though he’s an employee.
student
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Re: Brokerage Firms

Post by student »

livesoft wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 8:59 pm
student wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 8:55 pm Chase You Invest, recently changed its name to JP Morgan Self Direct, allows you to buy most Vanguard funds with no fees.
But Chase probably fails on the "Better customer experience" aspect, right?
I actually had a good enough experience with Chase. I transferred money to Chase for the bonus. There was an issue and two calls to the CS did not result in a resolution. I went to my branch and talked to a manager. He took care of things for me.
dfrohman
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Re: Brokerage Firms

Post by dfrohman »

livesoft wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 8:59 pm
student wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 8:55 pm Chase You Invest, recently changed its name to JP Morgan Self Direct, allows you to buy most Vanguard funds with no fees.
But Chase probably fails on the "Better customer experience" aspect, right?
I've had an account there for a few years without any issues. I have simple needs, buy and hold ETF's and back door Roth transactions and they do fine.
fwellimort
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Re: Brokerage Firms

Post by fwellimort »

Fidelity and Schwab should have their own version of Vanguard funds.
Fidelity: https://www.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/i ... ndex-funds
Schwab: https://www.schwab.com/research/mutual- ... hwab-funds

I assume as Vanguard funds are more tax efficient, they should be a hair better even after the lower expense ratios from the funds at Fidelity and Schwab (at end of day, an index fund is an index fund so the difference isn't going to be 'life changing').
None of that should matter in a tax advantaged account if you plan to invest there instead (in which case, the only thing that matters is the fee + benchmark index).

That said, Fidelity allows you to invest 'partial shares' in any ETFs.
This is huge because it means you can purchase Vanguard ETFs like they are Vanguard mutual funds.

Say you have $23.12 and you want to invest in VTSAX equivalent at Fidelity.
You have a few options:
1. In tax advantaged, invest in FSKAX or FZROX with full $23.12.
2. In taxable account, invest in ETFs like VTI/ITOT/SPTM/SCHB with the $23.12 (you might have a penny or two left over). The penny or two left over from time to time can be invested in FSKAX (though to be quite frank, a penny after 10 years is going to be like 2 pennies total).

VTSAX == VTI/ITOT/SPTM/SCHB
VTIAX == VXUS/IXUS
VTWAX == VT
VBTLX == BND (or AGG which is similar enough)

I find Fidelity has great customer service and I love its cash management account.
The ability to use as both brokerage + everyday checking account with access to any ATM without fees is quite a comfortable experience.
Also, Fidelity has been trying to update its UI to be more modern (and quite aggressive compared to major brokerages) and has a lot of free tools available (its own retirement calculator, etc.).
If you are lucky, it also gives Turbo Tax Premiere for free every year (the main reason I love the brokerage). I don't see my Vanguard brokerage do any of that.

Plus, I particularly enjoyed the fact that when my Fidelity credit card was spoofed, Fidelity quickly sent me a new credit card with overnight delivery. No other brokerage or bank has done that to me. Its customer service from my personal experience has been quite unparalleled overall.

You can always convert your Vanguard mutual funds to Vanguard ETFs at Vanguard then move those to other brokerages (in which case, I would rather recommend brokerages that give starting bonuses like Merrill Edge, etc.). I believe this is more or less tax free (you cannot go the other way around) but you need to phone call Vanguard for this. Ask about how leftover fractional share will work. I'm not sure if those are liquidated to realized gains or not (especially when transferred out because you can't transfer 'fractional shares').
livesoft
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Re: Brokerage Firms

Post by livesoft »

I re-post my brokerage criteria from 2008, 2014, 2017, 2019 ... with some minor edits to update it.
livesoft wrote: Fri Apr 19, 2019 11:38 am
Let's face it, what a Boglehead would want from a brokerage is not what a trader would want from a brokerage. Here are some criteria in order of importance:

1. Low cost. The lowest cost is now free, so if you have to pay any commissions, then that scratches the broker off my list. This includes all stock transactions, all mutual fund transactions, all fund transfers in and out of the account. Free is free for you. The broker is free to charge an arm and a leg to any other account holders to make money, but they should not charge you anything.

2. Availability of Vanguard funds for free. That is, if you buy and sell Vanguard mutual funds, you do not want to be paying any more than you would at Vanguard itself. See criteria #1.

3. Quick and painless ACH transfers in and out. If the broker has a piss-poor interest rate on cash holdings, then ACH transfer elsewhere for higher rates.

4. Good interest rates on any cash holdings. You don't want to be earning 0.1% interest rate when others are paying 5%. But see #3 previous.

5. Good trade executions. Who can tell what a good trade execution is anyways? For me, it's when I enter a limit order and I get a better price than I expected. It's when I enter a market order to buy/sell and I get a better price than the current ask/bid.

6. Decent web site that's reasonably easy to navigate with no delays when you click the mouse.

7. Decent statements and capital gains/loss tracking.

8. Specific lot identification on trades.

9. Bonus points for real-time Level II quotes and order flow presentation.

10. Walk-in office to handle those donations of stock shares to charity. [especially on December 31st]

Things not needed or unnecessary:

a. Good research. Research is free on the web anyways. It doesn't matter what research tools your broker provides because you are not going to use it anyways.

b. Lots of No-Transaction-Fee funds. Who cares? You aren't gonna buy any of them anyways.

c. Phone support. Who cares? You don't have time to call anyone up. You want better e-mail support.

For me I need a combination of 2 different brokers to give me what I want because no one broker has it all.

And some additional things:

11. Trivial upload of 1099-DIV and 1099-B into tax software. This includes not only the sale price and date, but also the "Date acquired" and the "Cost basis".

12. No delays in paying dividends and other distributions (see this case study: http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtop ... =1&t=87742 ) This includes good reinvestment prices for dividends paid out by ETFs. It does no good to use no-commission ETFs if the broker is giving you a bad price for shares you buy with reinvested dividends.

[new for this thread]

13. You can always tell where your money is which means that pending transactions and orders are reported accurately and updated in real-time. Also money that is "available to trade" is reported accurately and in real-time.
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ImUrHuckleberry
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Re: Brokerage Firms

Post by ImUrHuckleberry »

student wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 9:23 pm
livesoft wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 8:59 pm
student wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 8:55 pm Chase You Invest, recently changed its name to JP Morgan Self Direct, allows you to buy most Vanguard funds with no fees.
But Chase probably fails on the "Better customer experience" aspect, right?
I actually had a good enough experience with Chase. I transferred money to Chase for the bonus. There was an issue and two calls to the CS did not result in a resolution. I went to my branch and talked to a manager. He took care of things for me.
If I had to make two calls and then an in person visit to a branch, I would have a hard time calling that a good CS experience. :confused
student
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Re: Brokerage Firms

Post by student »

ImUrHuckleberry wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 6:53 am
student wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 9:23 pm
livesoft wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 8:59 pm
student wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 8:55 pm Chase You Invest, recently changed its name to JP Morgan Self Direct, allows you to buy most Vanguard funds with no fees.
But Chase probably fails on the "Better customer experience" aspect, right?
I actually had a good enough experience with Chase. I transferred money to Chase for the bonus. There was an issue and two calls to the CS did not result in a resolution. I went to my branch and talked to a manager. He took care of things for me.
If I had to make two calls and then an in person visit to a branch, I would have a hard time calling that a good CS experience. :confused
It was good enough for me. Maybe I just have low standard. The bank manager also called me with progress reports while waiting for a resolution.
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