Author Topic: Funds transferred to Schwab; what to do?  (Read 1258 times)

Villanelle

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Funds transferred to Schwab; what to do?
« on: April 08, 2020, 10:27:56 PM »
I have several investments with USAA.  Not currently investing in them.  It's taxable 2 Roths (spouse and myself) and a traditional IRA that was rolled over from a 403B.

USAA is shutting down the investment side of the business and I have until May to either let it happen, in which case they go to Schwab, or do something else with them

Any reason not to transfer all of them to Vanguard?  Is there anything I'm missing?  I feel a bit silly, but this is new to me and I'm not entirely sure if there's anything I need to consider. 

I'm also not sure who is working these days, and how possible this will even be, but I'm ready to start making phone calls.  Just making sure I'm not missing anything. 

ysette9

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Re: Funds transferred to Schwab; what to do?
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2020, 10:45:40 PM »
Oh good reminder! We have a couple of investment accounts still at USAA and I decided this was the push I needed to finally consolidate everything with Vanguard.

And then I promptly forgot about it. This is the kick in the butt I needed.

Personally I will be voting for Vanguard since I trust them and all of our other money is there.

cool7hand

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Re: Funds transferred to Schwab; what to do?
« Reply #2 on: April 09, 2020, 06:06:29 AM »
We have happily used Schwab for years. Before transferring our holdings, we negotiated a deal with the local branch adviser for 75 free trades. Because we did not rebalance frequently, that worked for years. Now that there is no fee to trade, we have access to Vanguard and many other low-fee options, far more than we would have if our holdings were solely with Vanguard. Given that we use Ray Dalio's all seasons portfolio, having access to cheap gold and commodities ETFs that Vanguard does not offer is a big plus! I hope that helps!

TomTX

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Re: Funds transferred to Schwab; what to do?
« Reply #3 on: April 09, 2020, 06:19:49 AM »
I have several investments with USAA.  Not currently investing in them.  It's taxable 2 Roths (spouse and myself) and a traditional IRA that was rolled over from a 403B.

USAA is shutting down the investment side of the business and I have until May to either let it happen, in which case they go to Schwab, or do something else with them

Any reason not to transfer all of them to Vanguard?  Is there anything I'm missing?  I feel a bit silly, but this is new to me and I'm not entirely sure if there's anything I need to consider. 

I'm also not sure who is working these days, and how possible this will even be, but I'm ready to start making phone calls.  Just making sure I'm not missing anything.

Lots of brokers offer to pay you a signup bonus if you move to them, plus other potential incentives. I moved from Vanguard to Merrill Edge, got paid the bonus - and became a "Preferred Rewards" customer with the affiliated Bank of America. The great thing about that is the boost to cashback on the BoA credit cards - as a top tier client, I get a 75% boost. As an example: my Cash Rewards card gives me 3.5% back at Costco instead of 2% back. Handily beats the Costco Citi card. I also get free stock trades.

Schwab, Etrade, etc also pay out bonuses for moving over investments. Be sure the offer is "attached" to your account(s) - with multiple accounts, I had to get a manual override to count everything across all the accounts.
« Last Edit: April 09, 2020, 06:22:01 AM by TomTX »

terran

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Re: Funds transferred to Schwab; what to do?
« Reply #4 on: April 09, 2020, 06:59:19 AM »
I would be comfortable with Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab, or Etrade. If you have a workplace retirement plan at any of those I'd move them there for simplicity. If you have an HSA I'd move them to Fidelity since that's the only one that has an HSA, so you could open that for investing in your HSA. If neither of those apply then I'd be picking between Vanguard and Fidelity. Schwab has a great checking account for international travelers that requires a brokerage account (though you don't have to keep anything in it).

Villanelle

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Re: Funds transferred to Schwab; what to do?
« Reply #5 on: April 09, 2020, 03:28:39 PM »
Thank you everyone!  I'm not sure why I find this so overwhelming. 

I would be comfortable with Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab, or Etrade. If you have a workplace retirement plan at any of those I'd move them there for simplicity. If you have an HSA I'd move them to Fidelity since that's the only one that has an HSA, so you could open that for investing in your HSA. If neither of those apply then I'd be picking between Vanguard and Fidelity. Schwab has a great checking account for international travelers that requires a brokerage account (though you don't have to keep anything in it).

No workplace funds (husband is military; i'm either on a sabbatical or FIRE) and no HSA. 

I guess I need to research to see who has free trades as that would be a relevant factor, even though our activity will be fairly low.  I'll start with Vanguard and Fidelity.  Thanks! 

MustacheAndaHalf

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Re: Funds transferred to Schwab; what to do?
« Reply #6 on: April 09, 2020, 05:24:36 PM »
I've contacted Vanguard a couple times this week, so they're open for business.  You could contact them to learn what forms they need to start the transfer from USAA.

Vanguard or Schwab are both good choices.  Vanguard introduced $0/trade for ETFs and stocks (online only), and Schwab followed.
https://www.schwab.com/pricing
https://investor.vanguard.com/investing/vanguard-brokerage

That means if you bought USAA's ETF (now Victory Shares), you can actually buy and sell those for free if you move to either Schwab or Vanguard.

terran

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Re: Funds transferred to Schwab; what to do?
« Reply #7 on: April 09, 2020, 09:17:36 PM »
I guess I need to research to see who has free trades as that would be a relevant factor, even though our activity will be fairly low.  I'll start with Vanguard and Fidelity.  Thanks!

They all have free ETF trades. All but Etrade have free trades of their in house mutual funds, and charge for the other's mutual funds. Etrade has a number of commission free Vanguard funds (I think all the most recommended ones are included), but probably not as many as Vanguard. Long story short, free trades probably won't be the deciding factor unless you're especially tied to using mutual funds from a particular company, in which case you should go with that company.