Long time reader of this board, but first time posting. I value everyone's opinion on there, so here's the question:
Who is the better option to transfer my investments from EJ? Vanguard, Fidelity, Schuab, ect? I have investments also in Merrill, but they will not do automatic investing unless I am paying for the managed accounts, which I think is basically another version of EJ. I don't have any other issues with Merrill, but only there because I bank with BoA.
Here's what I am looking for:
- Able to easily do a back door roth
-Automatic monthly investments/purchases
-low fees (I've had enough of EJ)
- Able to transfer stocks as much as possible from EJ to lower tax issues and not have to sell
- Need to be able to open 529s (I'm betting this can be done anywhere, but it's something that will need to be done)
I am married with one 2 yr old, mid 30s. I am not a trader, and this will be mainly for retirement buy and hold type of purchases. I have a traditional IRA, roth IRA, and a taxed account.
I've done some reading online, but figured I'd just come ask the experts.
Thanks for reading and Gig'em

We went all in with Fidelity at the beginning of the year and like it. Every account we could consolidate we moved over...IRAs, HSAs, 529s, ordinary investments, savings, checking, 2% cash back credit card. The 401k plans are the only thing we could not move. We use one sub account (brokerage) as a joint checking account that receives all deposits and handles auto pays. We also have hard checks. Any cash parked there is in SPAXX/money market making 5%. The user interface is superior to Vanguard, where I previously had an IRA.

I'm with Merrill and am able to do all of what you want with them, including the low fees ($0 stock trades). But to get the low fees you need to invest +$250K, then you can do all of that using Merrill Edge. Except for the part about moving investments into low tax investments without having to sell, I'm not sure what you mean by that. But like was said above, if I wasn't comfortable where I am I'd go with Schwab or Fidelity, probably the one that has an office close by BC there will come a time when you need to talk to someone about something. Plus if something happens to you then you probably don't want to subject your wife to an online account transfer.

I had TD that became Schwab. My wife has a Vanguard account and EJ. I also have Fidelity for my current 401k. So I've seen it all. I prefer Schwab's tools, site, and apps (especially Thinkorswim) over all of them. I keep shifting more under that umbrella.

I wasn't very clear on this, but that point was about not having to sale what I currently own and just transfer from EJ to another account. That probably has more to do with where I am invested in EJ, than the actual place I'm transferring to based on what I've read online. I'll have to look more into Merrill because I like their platform and with this transfer I'd hit that limit. Thank you for the information, honestly I never looked further into Merrill.

Thanks everyone for the feed back, keep them coming.

Yeah, look at what investments products you hold. Are any of them EJ proprietary? For example, if I wanted to leave Fidelity and transfer all assets somewhere else, there are a couple of Fidelity funds that I hold that are not transferrable. I now no longer invest in those products specifically because of this reason.

Good advice so far, here. I have experience with most of these, and it kind of depends what is most important to you. From what you mentioned:

1) Any broker should be able to transfer either cash, or existing holdings (for the most part, see #2 below), whether it's a retirement account or an after-tax brokerage account.

2) Make sure a rollover will allow you to keep your current investments without liquidating any. Do this BEFORE you give the final order to move the account. Proprietary funds, penny stocks, thinly traded holdings, and others may not be transferred intact. If you don't mind liquidating them, no big deal, but get it all in writing up front. I transferred one account from Schwab to Merrill, and they forced me to liquidate about 5 holdings - I didn't mind, as it was mostly tax neutral, but this can get very dicey tax-wise if it triggers capital gains.

3) For ease of trading, I'd recommend Schwab. They have a wide variety of tools, and allow pretty much every type of transaction.

4) For best treatment of cash, I'd recommend Fidelity. They automatically sweep all uninvested funds into high yield money market, while Schwab and many others don't (you have to manually buy and sell money market mutual funds, which can unnecessarily delay making investments).

I believe the 529 should be a separate issue from who you choose as a broker. Not having any state income tax benefits for a 529 in Texas allows one to freely pick the best state plan out there and I believe Utah's plan consistently ranks at the top.

As far as brokers go I have been very impressed with Schwab since I began setting up accounts there last year for my widowed mom. She was able to set me up as an authorized trader for her accounts so I had my own login to handle her investments. I was so impressed with their basic trading platform, compared to my own accounts at Vanguard, that I decided to move all of my Vanguard accounts over as well. Vanguard confirmed my decision when they began adding more fees recently, even for account closure, which hastened my complete exit. I even pulled my wife's Roth IRA out of Vanguard over to Schwab. As an authorized trader I can now manage my entire family's accounts with my one login. Having Thinkorswim at my disposal has also been a great learning experience. That along with Schwab's basic platform makes my Vanguard experience look like someone keeping a ledger with notepad and pencil.

With regard to handling or moving investments:

• My mom inherited some annuities and other private investments when my dad passed. Schwab will not handle those. We have a family member at EJ who helped setup an account just to handle those specific holdings. When I've been able to liquidate them, I've just done an ACATS transfer from EJ to Schwab.
• Doing ACATS transfers from EJ to Schwab involved having to sign and upload a physical form, which is relatively easy if you have a scanner. Doing ACATS transfers from Vanguard to Schwab was even easier since it was all electronic, no physical signature required.
• When I began moving my own investments over from Vanguard to Schwab, I discovered that Vanguard mutual funds would incur fees to buy and sell. Not wanting to run afoul of this, I either liquidated those shares or converted them to ETF's. And since moving over to ETF's I've had no inclination to go back to investing in conventional mutual funds.

I'm sure Schwab would be able to setup recurring investments. I know that I haven't had a single fee for any of the accounts I've setup within the last year either. One of the only downsides is that Schwab doesn't automatically sweep uninvested cash into a high yield money market account, you have to manually buy shares of SWVXX.

I'm at Merrill in downtown Houston. As mentioned, there are several options available, and all accounts at BofA, Merrill, and our self directed side Merrill Edge are linked.

Whatever your investment style, needs, service requirements can all be accommodated. Happy to answer any questions directly.

Go over to Bogleheads dot net.

Great site/board.

B$Weigem said:

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I'm at Merrill in downtown Houston. As mentioned, there are several options available, and all accounts at BofA, Merrill, and our self directed side Merrill Edge are linked.

Whatever your investment style, needs, service requirements can all be accommodated. Happy to answer any questions directly.

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Yeah OP, if you currently don't have a dedicated Merrill FA and are close to Houston PM this guy. If you're in another city you can normally meet any Merrill Edge FA in a BoA branch if you call ahead. But, they will be the new guys and sometimes they're still learning but they'll get the account set up right if you ask the right questions, plus they are able to hook you up with an experienced FA. I retired from ML after a long time and had more than a few clients that had a self-directed account with Edge as well as accounts held by me. Shoot, I have one myself but I quit using it a few years ago.

Iv'e been very happy with ML. I have Edge and can trade for Free there but that may be a function of the $
Amount I have in managed accounts . They hav always been happy to talk with me and help me tale
Care of just about anything related to money/finance.