Robert Berger at X/Twitter.
https://youtu.be/QLBZoqTtQZ4

Good analysis by Robert Berger.
Paraphrasing here:
Flagship client used to mean something. Today it doesn't mean as much.
And now you add fees and all of this is happening and I ask you what new services or features or great website user experience or mobile app user experience have they added? Not much at all.
Every announcement coming out of Vanguard is either removing features or services making them less desirable or adding fees.
I don't know. Someone in PR at Vanguard needs to tell manangement hey how about some good news please.
Why don't we talk about what we're going to do for our customers rather than what we're going to charge them and what we're going to take away?
Having your accounts at Vanguard is becoming less and less appealing by the day.

Crash,
If a foreign country doesn't have a tax agreement with the U.S., it will withold a percentage of a U.S. investor's foreign dividends. This is different than a brokerage imposing fees for ADR / foreign security dividends.

Yes, understood. :)

Robert Berger at X/Twitter.
https://youtu.be/QLBZoqTtQZ4

Comparison should be with 5-yr T-Note (4.64%) and 5-yr TIPS (2.25% + inflation).
I suppose that's as good a reference as any. I can infer the rationale for five years - that after five years one can cash out an I bond w/o penalty. But an argument can be made for comparing with 30 year T-bonds. They, like I-bonds, have a rate locked for 30 years.
I view I-bonds as cash, much as one might view a 5 year CD with a 90 day early withdrawal penalty as cash. No interest rate risk. And that may be the biggest flaw in comparing I-bonds with 30 year T-bonds. The latter is extremely sensitive to interest rates.
At current rates, one will do better with a five year TIPS (2.25% + inflation) vs an I-bond cashed out after five years (1.3% + inflation). That's true (though a closer call) after accounting for the fact that you'll pay taxes annually on the TIPS, bleeding returns. I-bonds are tax deferred until you cash out.
(To do an apples-to-apples comparison, I'm looking at taxable accounts, since I-bonds can't be held in tax-sheltered accounts.)
It's the classic trade-off. Certainty vs. expected return. In normal environments, yield goes up as the length of the debt instrument increases. I bonds are like cash, while Treasuries, especially multi-year or multi-decade ones, have uncertain mark-to-market (cash out) value.
And I-bonds have no reinvestment risk (risk of reinvesting divs after rates drop). With I-bond's greater certainty (ability to cash out w/o loss, no reinvestment risk) and more favorable tax treatment (deferred), they should normally yield less than Treasuries.
As I noted in the OP, one can hold and still improve one's position by swapping older, lower fixed-rate I-bonds for new, 1.3% fixed-rate issues. Though there is a tax cost in cashing out those old I-bonds.

Vanguard's funds are overwhelmingly low-cost.
However, it feels as though investors are now being nickled and dimed by Vanguard Brokerage Services.
A $100 account closure and transfer fee is excessive IMHO.
Is it customary for other brokerages to impose fees for ADR and foreign security dividends?

Nickeled and dimed? Absolutely. It's beginning to feel like the airlines.
A quick search doesn't turn up a similar fee at other brokerages. Perhaps I could understand a fee for processing divs from a foreign security, but ADRs are securities issued by American banks (hence the 'A' in ADR) and the bank handles currency issues on divs. Nothing tricky here, just something for Vanguard to hang a fee on.
There are some real fees charged on ADRs, but these are charged before divs reach the brokerage. That's different. From Vanguard's Schedule of Commissions and Fees:

[Fees on] ADRs: Banks that custody ADRs are permitted to charge ... certain fees ....
"Pass through" ADR fees are collected from [the brokerage account] by the Depository Trust Company (DTC)

In addition, and perhaps unique to Vanguard is this new ADR fee:

[Fees on] foreign securities and ADR dividends: Vanguard Brokerage charges a fee of 1% on the gross dividend amount ... paid on a foreign or ADR asset held in US dollars

An oddity on dates is that this fee schedule is "Effective July 1, 2024", but contains a fee (tax filings for MLPs in IRAs) that is "Effective June 1, 2024". Perhaps that increase should also be stated in a separate document that's effective June 1?

AAII Sentiment Survey, 5/1/24
FLIP-FLOP: Bullish became the top sentiment (38.5%, above average) & neutral became the bottom sentiment (29.0%, below average); bearish became the middle sentiment (32.5%, above average); Bull-Bear Spread was +6.0% (average). Investor concerns: Elections, budget, inflation, economy, the Fed, dollar, Russia-Ukraine (114+ weeks), Israel-Hamas (29+ weeks), geopolitical. For the Survey week (Th-Wed), stocks down, bonds up, oil down, gold down, dollar flat. FOMC held rates; hikes unlikely. QT reduced from Jun 1 to -$60 b/mo (vs -$95 b/mo now). #AAII #Sentiment #Markets
https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/post/1458/thread

ADR? Yes, In my experience. TRP took 25% of a dividend, but the explanation was that it was withheld "at the source." Meaning the Norway Tax Authority. b>NHYDY. Yes, a partial or full refund was available. But you'll have to register with the Tax Authority in order to do it. TRP did not charge a fee. But they do not manage their own trades. They "clear" through Pershing.
Schwab tells me a different ADR (HQ in Luxembourg) will have 15% of dividends withheld by the foreign entity. As long as the stock makes me money, I'm willing to eat that much. TS....And I've been advised that the bank which oversees that ADR might charge a fee. We'll see about that, and whether or not it's a deal-breaker.

Vanguard's funds are overwhelmingly low-cost.
However, it feels as though investors are now being nickled and dimed by Vanguard Brokerage Services.
A $100 account closure and transfer fee is excessive IMHO.
Also, is it customary for other brokerages to impose fees for ADR and foreign security dividends?

@BaluBalu, bought at Schwab, yesterday in the A.M. It is not on the list this morning. .

Thanks. Last year I bought a few agencies and all those got called after rates bottomed in Dec / Jan. Fidelity is currently showing 6.1% for a first settlement on 5/15 and maturing in 2029.
Did you always get the new agencies at par or they charged a premium? At Fidelity there is no bid or ask price. So, you only know coupon when you submit an order for a settlement that is 2 weeks away and the order money is tied up until then, at least in MM at Fidelity- not sure if you have to move the order money to cash at Schwab.

There was a question on this - why hold rates (to keep the policy tight), but reduce QT (to make the policy a bit easier). Powell said that its main tool was/is the fed fund rates and QT is of secondary significance. Reducing QT also helps with m-mkt liquidity.
Both the rate hold and QT reduction were well telegraphed in advance (see weekend Barron's, Part 1, Up & Down Wall Street by Forsyth). The main takeaway today was that rates are unlikely to go up.
Stocks reacted well at first, but then reversed.

I had VWIAX at VG, but moved it to my existing Schwab account around 2015. I sold it last fall and have no VG holdings. From all the negative comments I hear online, I'll probably never have any again.

Post-Conference Notes by YBB
Rates are maintained - fed funds 5.25-5.50%, bank reserves rate 5.4%, discount rate 5.5%. Rate hike(s) unlikely, but may hold rates as long as necessary. Need more confidence in inflation data before rate cuts. Inflation target remains +2% average.
Treasury QT will be reduced from 6/1/24 to -$25 billion/mo (vs -$60 billion/mo now), but MBS QT will remain at -$35 billion/mo; total QT from 6/1/24 will be -$60 billion/mo (vs -$95 billion/mo now).
The Fed policy is restrictive (despite real rates < inflation rate or GDP growth). Stagflation fears are unreasonable.
Economy is strong. Weak Q1 GDP growth may be a fluke. Some differences between the government and private data are normal as there are leads and lags. For example, the market-rents lead the rolling-rents.
Labor market remains strong, but wage growth has moderated. The labor pool has increased due to higher labor-participation rates and immigration. This has contributed to both supply and demand side.
Consumers see high prices, loan rates and mortgage rates. But significant pain or dislocations aren't expected.
Divergent central bank policies aren't a concern because the economic conditions are different. Also, no turmoil is seen in the EMs. Discussions on Basel III are ongoing.
The FOMC achieves consensus through discussions despite the impression created by many open-mouths of the FOMC.
A customary denial - the Fed doesn't account for politics or elections.
https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/post/1456/thread

Would they transfer Admiral shares to Schwab?

That's a question best put to Schwab. I have been able to transfer Admiral shares of non-index funds to Merrill.
In addition to live accounts at Vanguard, I also have a couple of dead (empty) ones there that I haven't gotten around to closing. I wonder if Vanguard will charge me $100 to close those empty accounts that are just taking up space in its database?

"Our service is terrible ..."
And soon to get worse. One of the changes effective July 1 is:

VBS reserves the right to resolve Non-Trade Inquiries exclusively on its website or other available channels as opposed to providing such information by phone.

And let's not forget to blame the victim for poor phone service (if it's even provided):

You understand that excessive reliance on Our phone associates for tasks that can be accomplished online may negatively impact Your customer service experience, including but not limited to delayed response times, additional fees, and possible Account termination.

Here are the updates to the Vanguard Brokerage Account Agreement:
https://personal1.vanguard.com/pdf/vbaamd.pdf
Also, the brokerage commission and fee schedule commencing July 1:
https://personal1.vanguard.com/pdf/v414.pdf

FOMC Statement, 5/1/24
https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20240501a.htm

MINT sure has done nicely the last year (~6.5%) and ytd. For simplicity, speaking of which, if with slightly lower returns, I use only FZDXX at Fido and FIGXX at ML, the latter of which outperforms there for some reason (with highish ER, no less), ~5-1/4% the last year.

@chang Would they really have no yearly fee for this plan of yours?. If not how long will it last? I closed my 40 plus year Vanguard account to E-trade last year because of all the nardly issues previously noted on the board. So that move was timely and saved me the $100. What really got my gourd was the $25/ yearly fee I paid for mailed statements even with a multi 6 figure account. I have no regrets at all and the customer service is now much ,much better

The old trick is to leave $1 in the account.

+1
TRP’s might read, “We’ll transfer your funds, but our check may bounce.” :)
I’ve run into account closure fees at different fund houses before. $100 is exorbitant. But recent inflation distorts our perceptions. Looked at new cars lately?

New from Vanguard: "Account closure and transfer fee: A $100 processing fee may be charged for account closure or transfer of account assets to another firm."