Advice switching from financial company to Vanguard

[grebilb]

Hi there,
Very, very new here - but after just a bit of reading and doing our own research, my husband and I realize that investing in index funds is the way to go for building wealth.

We hired a financial advisor a few years ago, and we're glad we did, as we probably wouldn't have started investing at all if we hadn't. It all seemed too overwhelming at the time. However, we now see that you can just let your money ride in the index funds, and so we don't think the advisor, or their fee, is necessary any more.

My question is, how do we transfer our funds? We have two IRAs with them. As I understand those can be a direct transfer from their IRA accounts, to IRA accounts we open in Vanguard, correct?

We also have a regular brokerage portfolio in stocks and bonds - no tax advantage. To change those - does the financial firm sell everything, give us the money, and then we invest ourselves in the index funds? Do we just take the gains or losses on that sale this year and "start fresh"? Or is there some other strategy?

Thanks for any help! Much appreciated!

[nereo]

Contact Vanguard and have Vanguard initiate the transfers. You will sign and fill out a few forms and they will take care of the rest. You can instruct Vanguard to invest your taxable accounts into vanguard index funds which are equivalent

[Dicey]

Why Vanguard?  There are lots more low-fee options than there used to be. Fidelity and Schwab have really upped their game as Vanguard has changed. There's a recent thread on the topic floating around here somewhere...

[grebilb]

Contact Vanguard and have Vanguard initiate the transfers. You will sign and fill out a few forms and they will take care of the rest. You can instruct Vanguard to invest your taxable accounts into vanguard index funds which are equivalent

Thank you! Seems easily enough :)

[grebilb]

Why Vanguard?  There are lots more low-fee options than there used to be. Fidelity and Schwab have really upped their game as Vanguard has changed. There's a recent thread on the topic floating around here somewhere...

Just following the path laid out on MMM's site. He says use Vanguard and/or Betterment. We won't be doing anything fancy. Pretty much just letting it ride in VTSAX for now. We need simple and easy. :)

[Telecaster]

That's the way to do it.  VTSAX and forget about it. 

[Rob_bob]

Contact Vanguard and have Vanguard initiate the transfers. You will sign and fill out a few forms and they will take care of the rest. You can instruct Vanguard to invest your taxable accounts into vanguard index funds which are equivalent

That could depend on where you are currently invested.  Some places use proprietary investments which cannot be transferred and will need to be sold first and could result in tax unpleasantness.