Looking into adding Fidelity as a Brokerage to complement VG

[rhythmmethod]

Greetings Big-Bang Group-Think, I currently hold all of my port at Vanguard. While I understand they are behind the curve on technology, customer service, I’m basically okay with them. I like the VG funds and especially the Admiral shares available. My wife inherited a modest trust fund that is housed at Fidelity. It was managed by a “pro” and had 40 or so extremely small holdings of individual stocks and some indexes. I’ve had that liquidated and is in cash. I’m thinking about keeping some $ at Fidelity and perhaps moving some VG funds there as well. My question is what is advantageous at Fidelity, as far as funds that is not available at VG? Of course, all the Fid. Funds will be NTF, I guess. I have my eyes on PTIAX, which is available at Fid but not VG. Although when I compared the performance of PIATX with PIMIX I’m not seeing a lot of compelling reason to change. I know Fidelity has superior research tools, etc. I’m also looking at FPURX. Are there any compelling multi-cap/global balanced funds at Fidelity people are liking? What are your favorite Fidelity funds? Thanks for your consideration. Stay well. -RM

[yogibearbull]

You will be happy with keeping Fido brokerage.

You won't be able to access Vanguard mutual funds NTF but you can now buy ETFs commission-free everywhere.

Fido has so-so allocation/balanced funds - FBALX, FPURX, Asset-Manager series, Freedom series [TDFs]. While FBALX and FPURX seem to be doing well, they have really become aggressive-allocation [instead of moderation-allocation] according to the effective-equity measure that I use.

Fido eliminated its world-allocation/global allocation fund few years ago, but you can fund such non-Fido funds as no-load/NTF.

[anitya]

Vanguard CEO did a webcast in the past one week. Replay may be available at their site. You may want to listen to the last 5 min or so where he talks about the firm direction for the future and what investments they want to make.

p.s.: This past week I learned that Vanguard makes political contributions and some of them have been to those that have off center views.  I guess their criteria must have been who ever can influence for them - makes business sense.  They are trying to run Vanguard like a business.  Their service has improved quite a bit in the past 1-2 years.

[chang]

Some thoughts:

- Fidelity is a great complement to VG. There are many things that one has/offers that the other does not. Definitely a good pairing.

- FPURX is a very good, much under-mentioned fund. Ready to be shocked? HERE is a chart of Puritan vs. Wellington from Puritan's inception in 1947. $10,000 in VWELX turned into $7.3M while the same investment in FPURX became $22.9M!

- "Are there any compelling multi-cap/global balanced funds at Fidelity?" Not that I know of. FLPSX is kind of global-multicap, as I think you know better than I.

- "What are your favorite Fidelity funds?" I am not a big user of Fidelity funds. I think VG has the much better collection of in-house funds. Fido has a great supermarket, of course, platform, service, fees, etc. For many years I did not own a single Fido fund. Now, coincidentally, I own several: FHKCX (China region), FISMX (Intl SC), FSHPX (HC), FSMEX (HC) and FPURX (owned since the 1980s).

[rhythmmethod]

Thanks to everyone that chimed in. chang , - Fidelity is a great complement to VG. There are many things that one has/offers that the other does not. Definitely a good pairing. Thanks. My observation as well. I did call Fidelity and was on hold for about 5 minutes after which I decided to try later. Too bad. I suspect once I connect things will go better. I assume Fidelity has levels of service corresponding to money invested there. The response here was in alignment with my peripheral research. Thanks again.

[Capital]

rhythmmethod Im' mostly an EFT holder. Fidelity has been my lead Brokerage for 30 years. It is now my lead Banking institution as well. I have a Vanguard Brokerage account on the side. I find that MM Fund rates in normal times are about 25 basis points higher at Vanguard. Right now with rates so low I do not have a reason to be at Vanguard; however, I expect the future to be different from today.

[chang]

Couple of other factoids:

- Fidelity index funds are actually cheaper than Vanguard's: some at 0.03%, 0.025%, 0.015% and even 0%.

- Fidelity now allows you to hold VG Admiral class funds, but of course they will be TF.

I have read a lot of conflicting stories about Fido's customer service. Maybe I am lucky but they have rarely been less than perfect for me, and not only the Private Clients Group. I have called the regular 1-800 number (because my daytime is your nighttime and Private Clients is only 8-5) and never waited more than 30 seconds.

[ignatz]

I've heard a few stories recently about longish waits at Fido customer service.

I've had accounts there for over 30 years and cannot recall waiting more than a minute or two on the standard 6666 line. I call in once or twice a year for one reason or another.

Their cash management setup using My Smart Cash is pretty slick..as are Bill Pay and transfers in and out from and to external banks.

[anitya]

Jan 14, 2021 23:01:02 GMT rhythmmethod said:

Thanks to everyone that chimed in. chang , - Fidelity is a great complement to VG. There are many things that one has/offers that the other does not. Definitely a good pairing. Thanks. My observation as well. I did call Fidelity and was on hold for about 5 minutes after which I decided to try later. Too bad. I suspect once I connect things will go better. I assume Fidelity has levels of service corresponding to money invested there. The response here was in alignment with my peripheral research. Thanks again.

Fidelity codes your account based on the amount of money you invest with them but that is true for Vanguard (and other brokerages) as well.  I used to get excellent service at Fidelity when I had little money there and so I voluntarily moved a lot of money to Fidelity over the years - never asked for a bonus.  There is no difference in fees charged at Fidelity whether you have an entry level account or the highest level of account - you just get a different phone line to call. 

Of the brokerages I have, TDA is the one that has given consistently excellent customer service over 20 years.  But Vanguard service has increased quite a bit in recent years.  The per transaction fees I pay at Fidelity is much higher than what I pay at TDA and Vanguard, even though my Fidelity account is much larger than the other two.   You can get down to $0 per transaction fees for TF funds at both TDA and Vanguard.  Vanguard fees is posted on their website.  At TDA, they cut deals separately with each customer and then they code your account to charge the agreed upon fees.  They do not have a rate sheet to share like Vanguard does.  Some posters at M* had posted that Schwab can also give you $0 transaction fees - I never tried but could be worth trying.

For completeness, I am posting more info than you asked.