On practicalities ... I'm not sure what you or Vanguard meant by "open a non brokerage account" in an earlier thread.... my gosh it's difficult to understand and take appropriate next steps as I consider how to access my IRA, take distributions from it (and what type) in due course, and transfer to appropriate account and minimise the impact on the HMRC and IRS fronts.
In its early days, Vanguard either didn't offer any brokerage options, or if it did, they were a niche add-on, and most everybody had a mutual fund only account. Over the years, Vanguard has extended brokerage features to encompass everything the old platform could do, so that a few years ago they made brokerage the default, and then only, account opening offering. As of today, they are actively pushing customers off the mutual fund only platform and onto brokerage, with the presumed intent of retiring the mutual fund only platform entirely.
Given this, a suggestion that you could transition from brokerage to mutual fund only seems ... odd. For what it's worth, I have the old mutual fund only platform, have not faced any $25 fees for using it, but that is probably because Vanguard will not let me transition to brokerage like everyone else (another Vanguard black mark there, then).
As for how to access the money itself, if you've not tackled this yet, I'd recommend Wise. A Wise 'borderless' account gives you an account with both a full UK sort code and account number facet and a full US routing number and account number, and one-click currency conversions between the two. The US side works fine with Vanguard's systems, since it looks to Vanguard just like any other US bank or credit union. Setting it up is (or at least, was, for me) quick and easy. I haven't tried other options (Revolut, for example) because for now Wise is fine, but I imagine similar multi-currency fintech offerings will work equally well.
Personally, if I had my time over again I would avoid Vanguard, and very probably also avoid saving at all in any form of US retirement savings vehicle. The one part that I have been happy with is my US SS payments. As of age 62 these arrive regularly into my UK bank, paid directly in GBP and at exchange rates that beat anything I could access if I had the paid instead in USD. And while it can take a while to get the attention of the FBU folk in the London embassy, once reached they are excellent. Being able to manage setting all of this up while dealing only with Brits in the same timezone makes things much smoother. (Yes, in this area the US government provides a far more user-friendly service than Vanguard -- who would have thought it!)
Statistics: Posted by TedSwippet — Wed Apr 10, 2024 3:29 am — Replies 68 — Views 20843