Vanguard vs Fidelity

[BGordon]

From what I have read on here it appears that most people prefer Vanguard over Fidelity and I think this is due to the lower cost associated with funds.  I'm just curious if there is that much of a difference?

[tarheeldan]

I think cost-wise they're quite comparable. But there's also this: https://about.vanguard.com/what-sets-vanguard-apart/why-ownership-matters/

[tralfamadorian]

Cost-wise they are virtually the same.  Fidelity is supposed to have slightly better customer service.  Vanguard is the originator of low cost index funds that we are rely upon, so there is where I believe the loyalty comes from for many. 

[spokey doke]

They are close but mixed on costs...to compete with the low-cost king, Fidelity has cut prices a bunch, with some funds beating Vanguard...but others funds they still don't come close.

The whole vision and ownership thing is a factor for many.

The main criticism of Vanguard that I see (and experience a bit...I have money in both), is it's website, IT, customer service is not as well developed and robust as Fidelity.  In response is that I would rather not be paying for things I don't use or benefit much from (like the shmancy brick and mortar Fidelity shops, and all their service staff...who I keep asking to stop contacting "reaching out" to me).  But Fido's service and website are better...

[TreesBikesLove]

My job's 401k is through Fidelity and I was pleasantly surprised about their low-cost "Spartan" index fund options. Having read all about Vanguard, fees, and money-leeching mutual funds before starting work here, I was prepared for the worst with Fidelity but the fees are so low I put as much as possible in the 401k (not maxing yet as I'm saving for a wedding). Vanguard is where my tIRA and brokerage accounts are.

I agree with Spokey Doke, Fidelity's website is much better but they're both crap compared to any modern web app.

[Aggie1999]

Depending on the size of your stache, you may consider opening an account at each brokerage.  The SIPC limit over coverage at a broker is $500K.  So amounts over that are not  necessarily insured.  Not that I expect either in a million years would ever mis handle your securities, but, *cough* Madoff *cough*.  You can just never be too sure or trusting.

+1. No reason not to minimize risk, IMO, not matter how small.

[honeybbq]

I have both and I'm happy with both. ERs are comparable.

I tend to like the website use slightly better with Vanguard.

[NoStacheOhio]

I have Fidelity through work, so we just hold all of our investment accounts there.

Ironically, I hold a bunch of Vanguard funds in my 403b (institutional plus shares!).

But yeah, we're pretty much all ITOT for the other stuff. Very low ER, free to trade. If they start changing stuff, we'll move stuff to Vanguard, but until then Fido is perfectly good.

[BGordon]

Depending on the size of your stache, you may consider opening an account at each brokerage.  The SIPC limit over coverage at a broker is $500K.  So amounts over that are not  necessarily insured.  Not that I expect either in a million years would ever mis handle your securities, but, *cough* Madoff *cough*.  You can just never be too sure or trusting.

Theft is the reason why I am with a commissioned financial advisor.  You may remember from that other thread I said my retirement money was with a financial advisor that was a friend.  Hence my hesitancy to transfer it.  When I went through the issue with the theft, I moved everything to him.  However, as you recommended in the other thread, I need to make the transfer and probably will in the next couple of months.

[PeteD01]

I use Fidelity and the only changes they informed me about after moving abroad where that I can't invest in any mutual funds and that they cannot provide any financial advice anymore because I'm not a US resident anymore. I wasn't receiving any financial advice nor do I want to invest in mutual funds; so there were no changes for me because I only use them for banking transactions and invest in IEFA and ITOT.
Vanguard may be more difficult to deal with as an expat but I do not know for sure.
(In another thread the OP mentiones being interested in becoming an expat at some point so this might be of interest as one should have established all US accounts one wants to use, before changing residence status)

[tarheeldan]

I use Fidelity and the only changes they informed me about after moving abroad where that I can't invest in any mutual funds and that they cannot provide any financial advice anymore because I'm not a US resident anymore. I wasn't receiving any financial advice nor do I want to invest in mutual funds; so there were no changes for me because I only use them for banking transactions and invest in IEFA and ITOT.
Vanguard may be more difficult to deal with as an expat but I do not know for sure.
(In another thread the OP mentiones being interested in becoming an expat at some point so this might be of interest as one should have established all US accounts one wants to use, before changing residence status)

There seems to be some cut-off year (when did the legislation or enforcement tighten up?) where if you had an existing Vanguard account and moved abroad, they don't seem to care.

Along these lines though, Charles Schwab has an ex-pat friendly account and they also have low-cost index funds.
http://international.schwab.com/public/international/us_investing/us_expat_essentials
I opened up an account with them for this reason (and for the worldwide ATM fee reimbursement on the checking account) and would move assets from Vanguard over to them if I had any trouble with Vanguard while living abroad (this is some years down the road, I'm kind of ridiculous in preparing sometimes lol).

[BGordon]

I use Fidelity and the only changes they informed me about after moving abroad where that I can't invest in any mutual funds and that they cannot provide any financial advice anymore because I'm not a US resident anymore. I wasn't receiving any financial advice nor do I want to invest in mutual funds; so there were no changes for me because I only use them for banking transactions and invest in IEFA and ITOT.
Vanguard may be more difficult to deal with as an expat but I do not know for sure.
(In another thread the OP mentiones being interested in becoming an expat at some point so this might be of interest as one should have established all US accounts one wants to use, before changing residence status)

Thanks!  I assume IEFA and ITOT are ETFs?

[NoStacheOhio]

I use Fidelity and the only changes they informed me about after moving abroad where that I can't invest in any mutual funds and that they cannot provide any financial advice anymore because I'm not a US resident anymore. I wasn't receiving any financial advice nor do I want to invest in mutual funds; so there were no changes for me because I only use them for banking transactions and invest in IEFA and ITOT.
Vanguard may be more difficult to deal with as an expat but I do not know for sure.
(In another thread the OP mentiones being interested in becoming an expat at some point so this might be of interest as one should have established all US accounts one wants to use, before changing residence status)

Thanks!  I assume IEFA and ITOT are ETFs?

Yes. There are a good number of iShares (Blackrock) index ETFs available to trade at Fido with no transaction fees. ITOT is the US total market fund (similar to VTI or SCHB), I forget which index IEFA tracks, but I know IXUS is a broad ex-US index that's available.

[Cwadda]

Fidelity is also great IMO. I have my father set up with them. They offer almost the same Vanguard index funds called the Spartan series. They also have great customer service.

[Frankies Girl]

Just to clarify: the Fidelity index funds are no longer called "Spartan" series. They relabeled them around 6 months ago to be just Fidelity index funds.

You can find their list of index funds that are similar to Vanguard's selections here:
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Fidelity

And I believe there is even a note about the name changeover in there.

For the record, I have my entire portfolio with Fido, and am perfectly happy with them (I self manage, have maybe 1 rep contact me a year just to ask if I need anything, and I pay no extra fees or anything other than the VERY low expense ratios on my funds).

[Lis]

I have my Roth IRA with Vanguard (the 2055 retirement target one) and the fees are 0.16%. I've never had issues (I literally just deposit money with them twice a month) so I can't speak for their customer service, but if I can figure out the website, anyone can. My company's 401k is through Fidelity (again, 2055 retirement target fund), and the fees are 1.02%. The Fidelity rep they had come in (owner of the local branch) was super obnoxious, singled me out (I was the youngest attendee at the meeting) claiming I probably wasn't saving enough for retirement. When I told him that I was close to maxing out my contribution for the year, he scoffed and said I probably didn't have any other accounts. I told him I did, a Roth IRA with Vanguard, he rolled his eyes again and responded along the lines of "Vanguard sucks." I realize this is one idiot who doesn't represent Fidelity as a whole, but ick.

I'm not making enough money to have another account (this should be the first year that I fully fund both my Roth IRA and my 401k), but I'll keep my eye out on both in the next couple of years.

[BGordon]

Theft is the reason why I am with a commissioned financial advisor.  You may remember from that other thread I said my retirement money was with a financial advisor that was a friend.  Hence my hesitancy to transfer it.  When I went through the issue with the theft, I moved everything to him.  However, as you recommended in the other thread, I need to make the transfer and probably will in the next couple of months.

I'm sorry to hear that you were a victim of theft.  I understand your hesitancy to move. 

If it helps you make any decisions, I think these days a self-service discount broker like Fidelity or Vanguard leaves a very small footprint visible to outsiders.  You can sign up for e-delivery of all documents, so there is little visible paper trail around the house or in the mail. They do not require you have a dedicated person who gets to know you.  You can place your trades and orders through an electronic trading ticket.  The log in security is fairly good, so long as you don't share your credentials.  Its at the point where the only other party who gets to know anything about your accounts is the IRS and your state taxing authority since they might send of a 1099-R, consolidated 1099-B/Div, or 5498 if you have taxable transactions, etc.

I guess my point is that at Vanguard or Fidelity your brokerage account business can remain very confidential these days.  So you can be less of a target.

It was a relatively small theft of about $30k and the money was returned (I got lucky).  My financial advisor had been borrowing from client accounts to fund some of his own Realestate investments.  I found out that my financial advisor was under investigation and was able to get him to return custody of my money before the wheels came off.  And oh did they come off.  I think he got a 10 year prison sentence.

I am completely comfortable with Fidelity or Vanguard, I just have a preference for Fidelity since they have an office a few miles away.  I opened an account their the other day so that I could play with some individual stocks.  Since I already have that account, I would prefer to transfer the retirement fund to that account, but it may be worth spreading the money some.

[protostache]

I have accounts at both. I've been using Vanguard for almost a decade and Fidelity for about two years. Of the two I've found that Fidelity's customer service is far and away better than Vanguard's. I can get on Fidelity's chat and accomplish basically anything I need to do with zero fuss and very little waiting. Every time I've called Vanguard they either direct me to the website or just don't answer my question.

I haven't bothered transferring all of our accounts over to Fidelity because my wife's IRA is currently in a Vanguard target retirement fund and Fidelity's equivalent is somewhat expensive. At some point I'll probably switch, just to make tracking and maintenance easier.

[Mezzie]

I have my Roths at Vanguard and everything else at Fidelity. Fidelity is easier to navigare and has better customer service, so this works out as I only touch the Roths to deposit once a year and am much more active on Fidelity. I'm happy with both.

[RedmondStash]

I have accounts at both. Haven't really noticed much relevant difference. I do like that Vanguard pioneered the low-cost broad-based index funds, so we do most of our investing there.

We do have a 2% Fidelity cash-back credit card, which dumps a small amount of money into our Fidelity account every few months. That's kinda fun.

[letired]

Like apparently everyone else, I have accounts with both. I use Fidelity's 'money management' aka checking account and they handle my work retirement account. The IRA I contribute to and a taxable account are with Vanguard. They're both great. Fidelity was super helpful a few years ago when I had to get some stuff transfered into my name, and were easy to work with when I needed to roll over an old retirement account. Vanguard did a great job with IRA custody transfer many moons ago, it was entirely painless from my perspective. So they're both great!