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Brokerage recommendations?

bigred

Penultimate Amazing
Joined
Jan 19, 2005
Messages
23,619
Location
USA
Long story short, I am done with Fidelity. Any others people use and are happy with?
 
I have been with Ameriprise since 1994. Of course, my agent is a close personal friend so there is a lot of trust there. He calls once a quarter and makes recommendations for adjustments, which I abide by, because I'm ignorant of any way to do it better. I think his fees ended up being about $800/year -- hardly a drop out of the substantial gains I have made.
 
I've been using Vanguard for 13 years now. I find it excellent. Their website is much less childishly simplistic than Fidelity, the selection of investments is great, and on the occasions when I've needed live customer service (moving my mom's investments into a trust, not simple stuff) Vanguard performed admirably. And when tax time comes around they give me a single document with all the necessary stuff consolidated into one PDF.

My past experiences with Fidelity, Charles Schwab, and "Victory" (USAA named it that after they sort-of spun off their formerly-good financial side) have been inferior to Vanguard.
 
Brewin Dolphin of London, established 1762. Regularly get 15% increase in portfolio (specifically instructed to avoid anything Musk related), this year 22%. That's on a balanced risk profile, 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. Those powdered and bewigged coffee drinkers really know their onions.
 
I have been with Ameriprise since 1994. Of course, my agent is a close personal friend so there is a lot of trust there. He calls once a quarter and makes recommendations for adjustments, which I abide by, because I'm ignorant of any way to do it better. I think his fees ended up being about $800/year -- hardly a drop out of the substantial gains I have made.
Thanks...I went to their site to see what mutual funds they offer, but you have to be a member to see that, so they're out.
 
Has anyone used Wells Fargo? I didn't even realize this was an option (they are already my bank)
 
Has anyone used Wells Fargo? I didn't even realize this was an option (they are already my bank)
After hearing about their shady practices a few years ago, I'd never consider it. But if they're being watched closely now, it wouldn't hurt to check it out if you already have an account.
 
But if they're being watched closely now
Yeah, we're truly in an era of competent, dedicated oversight of banks.

Seriously, nobody else here recommends Vanguard? It's the industry giant. It's like we're talking about theme parks and nobody's heard of Disney.
 
Thx - that had to do with inaccurately reporting mortgage info to credit agencies, which I'm not concerned with, so not a factor to me. i.e. it's not like they shaved money off of people's accounts etc.
 
Thx - that had to do with inaccurately reporting mortgage info to credit agencies, which I'm not concerned with, so not a factor to me. i.e. it's not like they shaved money off of people's accounts etc.
I thought it was coercing people to buy services they didn't need, and signing them up for them anyway even if the customer didn't approve it. (Wells Fargo.)
 
I don't recall that but too lazy to look it up so I believe you. :) Numerous brokerages have been known to pester members to sign up for this or that, though again I don't recall any "forcing" them on people.
 
Sofi lets me buy stocks and funds with no fees at all. I've done very well with the Sofi tech fund.

ETA: and they do crypto too.
 
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I use Fidelity but in my opinion it doesn't matter much which you go with. I have a work 401k managed by Fidelity and then a Roth ira that I manage myself that is largely various index funds like overall market, tech, and foreign market along with a little bit of other stuff like bonds and stocks that pay dividends.

My own managed one has always outperformed the Fidelity managed one and my returns are usually in the 15-20% range.

So basically go with whatever and put most of it into a couple index funds and you should make returns better than the vast majority that try to beat the market.
 
Thanks but I wasn't looking for investment advice.

I'm leaning to Schwab atm...
 
Schwab isn't as good as Vanguard, IMO. Their website is much clumsier, particularly when trying to get your money out. They also send tax documentation separately for each individual investment vehicle -- if you have two IRAs you'll get two separate sets of documents, mailed separately.
 
lol - weird, I haven't ever seen, but then again I don't have cable.
 

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