To answer the questions posed here.
1. Yes I have Vanguard accounts and I am very familiar with their web site. My own IRAs, Roths, 529 plans and money market taxable accounts have been with Vanguard for decades. And my 403(b) plan from my former employer was with Vanguard. My wife is with Fidelity but that is because her employer's various retirement plans are with Fidelity. And my daughters are also with Fidelity. But that was mainly because Vanguard's web site was glitching when we opened Roths for them and so we went with Fidelity. Comparing the two, I find Vanguard simpler and easier to navigate. Fidelity feels much more like I'm on TD Ameritrade or E*Trade and I think will be less user-friendly for my parents who aren't particularly online beyond reading Facebook and doing email.
2. I will talk to my parents about the issue of foreign exposure. It now occurs to me that perhaps the best way to decide between the 100% domestic VBIAX balance fund and the global VSMGX life strategy fund is to just split the difference and put one of their IRAs in VBIAX and the other one in VSMGX They are going to be separate accounts anyway so that doesn't add any additional complexity. That would give them more foreign exposure than VBIAX but less than VSMGX.
3. I will discuss with them the issue of account access and how much they want me involved. I think that honestly, the answer is quite a bit. They basically want me to take over the role of their former financial advisor who is retiring. Which I am happy to do. I will do my research and see what level of access is appropriate. At the very minimum I will have access to all of their login and password information since I already do that for their Google, iCloud, and other online accounts so that they don't constantly get messed up. But I will share with them the options and let them decide. I suspect it will be "full authority" so that they can just call me and ask me to move money from Vanguard into their personal local checking account when they need money.
4. I'll look into the comparison between Fidelity and Vanguard when it comes to dealing with powers of attorney and so forth and see if that is a meaningful enough difference to recommend one over the other.
1. Yes I have Vanguard accounts and I am very familiar with their web site. My own IRAs, Roths, 529 plans and money market taxable accounts have been with Vanguard for decades. And my 403(b) plan from my former employer was with Vanguard. My wife is with Fidelity but that is because her employer's various retirement plans are with Fidelity. And my daughters are also with Fidelity. But that was mainly because Vanguard's web site was glitching when we opened Roths for them and so we went with Fidelity. Comparing the two, I find Vanguard simpler and easier to navigate. Fidelity feels much more like I'm on TD Ameritrade or E*Trade and I think will be less user-friendly for my parents who aren't particularly online beyond reading Facebook and doing email.
2. I will talk to my parents about the issue of foreign exposure. It now occurs to me that perhaps the best way to decide between the 100% domestic VBIAX balance fund and the global VSMGX life strategy fund is to just split the difference and put one of their IRAs in VBIAX and the other one in VSMGX They are going to be separate accounts anyway so that doesn't add any additional complexity. That would give them more foreign exposure than VBIAX but less than VSMGX.
3. I will discuss with them the issue of account access and how much they want me involved. I think that honestly, the answer is quite a bit. They basically want me to take over the role of their former financial advisor who is retiring. Which I am happy to do. I will do my research and see what level of access is appropriate. At the very minimum I will have access to all of their login and password information since I already do that for their Google, iCloud, and other online accounts so that they don't constantly get messed up. But I will share with them the options and let them decide. I suspect it will be "full authority" so that they can just call me and ask me to move money from Vanguard into their personal local checking account when they need money.
4. I'll look into the comparison between Fidelity and Vanguard when it comes to dealing with powers of attorney and so forth and see if that is a meaningful enough difference to recommend one over the other.
Statistics: Posted by texasdiver — Sun Feb 18, 2024 2:06 pm — Replies 8 — Views 589