Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
Oh, I wasn't talking about Fidelity/Elan. I was thinking, perhaps of one of the AAA cards, though they are provided by Bread Financial/Comenity Bank. That is not well regarded either. So a AAA card may not be a better alternative.
I'm looking f…
Yes, but there is a downside to staying within the 25% MLP limit.
40 Act Funds – RIC Compliant – Less than 25% MLPs
Funds that own less than 25% MLPs do not pay taxes at the fund level, enabling them to pass through the entire return to their inves…
I bit the bullet and bought into an MLP NOT in my IRA. I don't like waiting for the k-1, but the stock is worth the "hassle." The company lets you sign-in to access the k-1 before it comes in the mail. THIS year, the k-1 came atrociously late via th…
If any fund (mutual fund, closed-end fund, or ETF) owns more than 25% MLPs, the fund will be taxed as a corporation. Accordingly, there are two types of MLP funds – those structured as RICs, which own up to 25% MLPs, and those structured as corpora…
Jeff DeMaso discusses Vanguard's new CEO among other topics.
https://www.independentvanguardadviser.com/a-new-leader-comes-to-vanguard/
Thanks for the link. Always appreciated.
He writes: it certainly feels like Vanguard's culture has been chang…
The CPI index this morning (May 15) was down a bit, which is good; but Bloomberg cited that the very large increases in auto insurance (which is a portion of the index) had an affect on the CPI not being lower. So, as has been discussed here; auto i…
Just got my Fidelity offer in the mail. These come so frequently that I usually just toss them without looking. My offer is for only 12 months 0% interest, though with a $150 bonus if I charge $1K within 90 days. As MrRuffles observed, that's e…
And they don't tell you much about how much they get paid. Most "directors" are listed as directors for dozens of funds
You may be confusing executive management (full time job) pay with the compensation given to The Vanguard Group's board of direc…
IOW, the usual once a decade (or more) unexpected shocks.
https://www.ft.com/content/5148cd1e-cf01-11e4-893d-00144feab7de
At least we made it to 36,000, also predicted in 1999.
https://www.amazon.com/Dow-36-000-Strategy-Profiting/dp/0812931459
The …
Following are short excerpts from a current New York Times Report:
In a letter to a federal judge, the department said that Boeing had failed to “design, implement and enforce” an ethics program to prevent and detect violations of U.S. fraud laws …
I recall my Fidelity Visa card had been 2% from the getgo, but evidently my memory is faulty. Never had to ask for 2%.
It all depends on timing. Fidelity had offered a MasterCard paying 1.5% and an Amex card paying 2% through FIA Card Services. …
FWIW, I have never received notifications for voting for VG BOD
VFIAX owns AAPL, but if you own VFIAX you don't own AAPL directly. So you don't get to vote for AAPL's BOD. Your fund does.
Likewise, Vanguard funds own The Vanguard Group, so you…
A problem with relying on a one year impact rule is that the institutions saying this almost always equivocate - "may" affect your score, "usually", etc.
Experian recently (2023) wrote: "While a hard inquiry will stay on your credit report for two…
My experience is that the credit hits are at least that bad. When my current balance across all cards approaches 10% of my total credit limit across all cards (and not more than 25% on any given card), my credit scores take 20 point hits. I have…
Many brokerages carry "excess of SIPC" coverage. For example, Fidelity writes:
Excess of SIPC: In addition to SIPC protection, Fidelity provides its brokerage customers with additional "excess of SIPC" coverage. The excess coverage would only be u…
There are a few small gotchas.
In 2016, Fidelity changed bank providers from BofA (FIACardServices) to Elan. Do a little web searching and you will find many less than kind things said about Elan's customer service. If you don't run into a pr…
The old program started benefits at $100K; the newer Summit program starts at $250K. At that level you can get into closed funds; at $500K you can get into cheaper institutional shares with "just" $50K min.
https://www.troweprice.com/personal-inve…
Reiterating, "Unfortunately, the industry has done a good job of conflating two different concepts: cost basis and share (lot) selection."
Schwab makes total hash of this distinction in the page I quoted. Again reiterating: "This page conflates co…
Schwab did not carryover my cost basis settings and defaulted stocks and ETFs to FIFO and mutual funds to average cost basis. Strangely, the cost basis settings at Schwab look very primitive relative to how they were at TD. I do not see a way to c…
The San Francisco Chronicle is today reporting that State Farm has raised their rates across California, with the amount of the raise dependent upon Zip codes
Nice piece. However, the article doesn't say that State Farm is setting rates by zip cod…
Regarding Progressive and USAA lowballing fair market value of totaled cars, here's a non-paywalled version of the SF Chron story:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/alameda-county-da-pamela-price-insurance-scheme-undervalued-totaled-vehicle…
I have lost al hope that most organizations can keep up with hackers. The only hacks we probably hear about seem to be health care institutions that are probably legally mandated to report.
Unless one lives in California ...
California law requires…
Looking at the portfolio data, a couple of top line figures stand out. (Yogi also commented on much of this; he posted as I was composing.)
M* reports that FMSDX has 45% of its assets in its top ten holdings, but that's misleading. Its top 4 hol…
However, there was caveat, which is the minimum initial investment amount is $100,000. This is on Schwab's website.
https://www.schwab.wallst.com/Prospect/Research/mutualfunds/summary.asp?symbol=ARTKX
Perhaps that page was just changed, but it no…
The CD in the TOD account could be covered for even more if you've got multiple beneficiaries on the account. As I described above, that CD gets $250K coverage for each beneficiary, up to a max of 5 ($1.25M). That's in addition to the $250K for…
The FDIC coverage is for all personal assets held at a bank with the new max $1.25 million considering various tricks.
That's the bank limit for all trusts only. Each ownership category still gets its own $250K per owner, except trust coverage …
Is it working for you? When did you switch?
If it was on Dec 29 (Dec 30, 31 was a weekend), then yes, it is working for you.
If it was 6 months ago, then you're behind, +7.33% vs. 10.67%.
If it was 3 months ago, then you're behind, +1.13% vs. …
I put in an order pre-market this morning at Vanguard to transfer cash to Fidelity. By the time I checked Fidelity at 2PM today, the cash was not only there, but was available for withdrawal (not just internal trading).
How far does $1M go in to NYC (Manhattan)? Not very. A $50K salary elsewhere would need to be $150K in NYC. Use this Calculator (linked below) to compare costs to where you live now.
cost-of-living/index
Doesn't that figure really depend on where …
I had always assumed that when they said "Fidelity charges a short-term trading fee each time you sell or exchange shares of a FundsNetwork NTF fund held less than 60 days." they meant actual share lots. Is there a Fidelity link where the FIFO logi…
Yes. Your lot selection is for tax purposes only. STTFs at Fidelity are FIFO.
For example, if you purchased lots on Jan 3 and Feb 22, and sold the Feb 22 lot on April 12, you would not incur a STTF even though you held those particular shares f…
Merrill? 4.71%, but that's non-sweep and requires a $100K min.I think this is in reference to their Preferred Deposit account. If so, this is only an initial investment min, hence one would conceivably put in $100K then take them out leaving, say, …
Until the FDIC stops protecting uninsured depositors, this change is largely form without substance.
A few sentences from a NYTimes subscriber-only opinion piece (May 1, 2024)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/opinion/fdic-insurance-banks.html
Whe…
You can't buy life insurance for some random person off the street - that invites fraud and homicide. Rather, there must be some economic interest you are insuring. Studios may insure their actors because the studios have money on the line. Th…
Federal protection for rollover IRAs (i.e. where the source of money is identified as an employer-sponsored plan) only applies in bankruptcy cases.
Outside of bankruptcy, traditional contributory IRAs and Roth IRAs and inherited IRAs, have protect…
From the Artisan statutory prospectus:
You may open a new account in a closed Fund only if that account meets the Fund’s other criteria (for example, minimum initial investment) and:
- you beneficially own shares of the closed Fund at the time of y…
You will only be charged a transaction fee when you buy a FundsNetwork TF fund, not when you sell one.
The charge wasn't a transaction fee.
Fidelity does not charge a fee when selling any mutual fund - even if there is one for purchasing - unless …
All are effective July 1, except for the IRA MLP filings. See thread:
https://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/62244/our-service-is-terrible-but-we-ll-charge-you-100-to-transfer-your-account
Many firms charge closeout and/or transfer fee…
But it also used to be that a Private Client customer at Fidelity was assigned a specific rep. No more at either brokerage. Fidelity still assigns you an individual Premier Services Advisor.
@msf did they also used to assign another kind of "…
