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.
I have used Schwab for three decades and have been pretty well satisfied. I also use Fido and Vanguard.
I think their customer service is better than Vanguard, at least there are fewer restrictions on accounts at Schwab so less maneuvering. Fido is pretty good too but we have less money there.
the account executives at Schwab leave you alone unless you ask for help. When asked they are knowledgeable and professional and it is nice to talk to the same person. Having said that there is a lot of turnover. I have been thru three in ten years.
Statements are better than Vanguard which consolidates all the accounts in one statement, including retirement non retirement etc
The only problem I have ever had with execution ( I mostly use market orders and MFs) was a mutual fund changed the NAV two days later after I sold it. Both Schwab and Vanguard said it was not their responsibility. The Mutual fund refused to answer. I went to the SEC and they were interested but as it was only a few bucks I decided I had better things to do. I posted on this earlier so you can reference it if you want
My major complaint about Vanguard is the limited selection of funds. Schwab and Fido have much better lists, and usually have A shares without a load and lots of funds with huge minimums available for a song. I haven't compared Fido and Schwab but I think they are close.
Schwab wants $75 a mutual fund buy vs $35 at Fido. ( Vanguard Flagship is only $8), but when I asked, in the guise of a "500 free stock trades for two years from Fido" my Schwab rep immediately said they would drop the $75 to $30. If you have a large account I would ask before you move.
The website is a little irritating as you get this drop down menu that hangs there unless you move off of it. I find Fido's clearer and easier to maneuver around. Both beat Vanguard hands down.. There you have to click thru three screens to find the cost basis and can hardly ever find daily return. I guess they want investors who only are in it for the long term, not daily.
All in all I think Fido is a little better ( cheaper, cleaner web) but it is slight.
One thing to keep in mind if you are truly paranoid like I am, Schwab as a public company has to disclose it's quarterly results, so if it were ever to get over leveraged or make an insanely bad acquisition, you would know.
At Fido, you are at the mercy of the Johnsons. While Abigail seems like a nice gal, with her cute bob haircut and horn rims, you are not picking her up in a bar( well if you live in Boston and get a chance, go for it) . You are giving her your hard earned money and it makes me a little nervous you really can't tell and will never be able to tell what is going on behind the scenes.
I have the same general concern about Vanguard with all their propaganda about the "funds" owning the company. Maybe, but try to find out who really makes decisions there and what they get paid. Notice shareholders do not get much say.
Hope this helps. Bottom line... don't put your eggs all in one basket, unless you really do meet Abby in a bar and she seems to like you.. but get it in writing.
I'm very happy with Schwab and think they meet most criteria you list. One thing I like: they refund 3rd party ATM fees, so I can use my Schwab ATM for free anywhere in the world (and they give an excellent exchange rate on foreign currency.) I've found their service to be excellent.
But I would make sure they carry all the funds that you like. And their transaction fee for funds that aren't on their no fee list is $76 for buying. So even thought it's $0 for selling, if you're planning to DCA, that's probably a deal killer.
I've been a Schwab customer since Olde bit the dust in the late 90's...Olde being a remnant from my dad's influence.
I find Schwab to be very forward thinking in terms of their offerings and service. I have only one complaint...there are a few funds I can't access...Vanguard Tax Managed Balanced or Vanguard Wellington to be precise.
To be honest, I don't have a comparison to reference. When I left my employer of 40 years, I pulled a good portion of my 401k proceeds (not all) and put them in a Schwab IRA. The 401k is with T. Rowe Price who I like very much, but no brick and mortar presence. I already knew Schwab had a good reputation. I could see they had a boat load of NTF funds plus their own brand of ETFs with zero trade cost. I didn't need it then or now to be honest, but they have plenty of other banking options too. But the most important criteria for me was they had a local branch. I prefer 1 on 1 contact when talking to someone about my investments. Screw the phone and email conversations. I like to sit across from a human and explain my thoughts and listen to theirs. I welcome a second opinion as a sanity check. If you are into seminars and work shops, which I am, they have plenty.
After I had already transferred assets to Schwab, they came out with their robo-portfolios. This may not be a plus for you, but I did like the idea. I acknowledge I have made plenty of fund buying and portfolio management mistakes. I wanted a side by side, disciplined approach to compare. I put 1/2 my money into the Intelligent Portfolio and it has worked out well.
I would suggest you go to 1 or 2 of the branches in your area just to talk with them. See if there is a connection or not. Yes, their prime goal is for you to move your money to them, but knowing that you can still get a comfort level and gain knowledge to see if they are a good fit. Reading through your criteria, I think Schwab would be a good choice for you.
We have an account at Schwab and 5 accounts at TD Ameritrade. Both companies are good and I would not reject the idea of being moved to TDA, especially if you don't have to initiate transfers. The latter can be a hassle, so I'd avoid them. Service, choice of NTF funds, order execution, paper statements (yes, I insist on them), almost no cold calls; I really have had no complaints. TDA has been very good with the RMD on a small roll-over IRA in my wife's name. Ample warning, the amount figured out, and easy to transfer the amount into the brokerage account. Other than a couple of accounts I hold directly with 3 MFs, I have no experience with other platforms. Personal note: I like Chuck better than Ted Ricketts.
Many brokerages have improved significantly in the past decade or so. These days it seems to be (with a few exceptions) a choice between adequate, good, and really good. I put Schwab in that latter category.
Though I don't use Schwab much, I have been with them for many years - I even have an old "No annual fee - free for life" IRA there. (When's the last time you saw an IRA account with an annual fee?)
As others have said, they've got good execution, don't bother you (maybe that's because I don't have enough invested with them), a good selection of NTF funds. They seem pretty fast in making newly load-waived funds available NTF.
For me, the biggest plus, outside of the high quality service, is the rebate ATM card that expatsp mentioned. What wasn't mentioned was that not only does Schwab rebate the ATM fees, but it also eats the 1% foreign exchange fee imposed by the network (VISA/MC) when you use the card abroad.
A small plus is that Schwab bank is a real bank. That matters in a few situations where other financial institutions only allow EFT linking to a real bank. (Sometimes you can't link a third party to a Fidelity account, since Fidelity doesn't run a bank.) Be aware though that virtually no Schwab branches are Schwab bank branches. I don't know if this list is accurate, but it shows just 11 bank branches: https://www.branchspot.com/charles-schwab-bank/
The biggest minus for me is that Schwab doesn't seem to have a backdoor like Fidelity where you can buy shares of a TF without paying a large fee (here, $76) per purchase.
Finally, since Vanguard Brokerage Services was mentioned - it's true that they offer fewer funds, but they seem to sometimes offer institutional class shares with lower mins than Schwab or Fidelity. Notably PIMCo ($25K vs. $100K at Schwab/Fidelity.)
I'm a longtime legacy ThinkorSwim (now TDA) customer and been quite pleased w/their offerings, fees, and customer service. Not had any problems that I can think of ... and yes, they have a good selection of NTF funds and offer lower-level access into advisor-class shares, too. So they get my endorsement still.
I have multiple brokerages. Schwab, Scottrade are very accurate in reporting. Vanguard is the worst I have. They don't know what rounding means. E*Trade - I'm not going to even talk about them.
TDA was BAD BAD BAD. Now I have no choice with Scottrade takeover. I will hope for the best.
TIAA-CREF has limited NTF funds and minimal website, but it works if you are not doing too much trading.
Is there a publicly accessible list of NTF funds available through TIAA? I'm curious because I sometimes see M* list a fund as NTF at TIAA that's not NTF at other discount brokers. (I find the M* brokerage availability pages among the least reliable data M* publishes, so it would be good to verify.)
Regarding TDA - we have an HSA account that lets us invest through TDA. No complaints, good selection of NTF ETFs. For retail investors TF fees are a bit high ($49.99 each way) and it has a 180 day short term trading fee on NTF funds (not of concern to me). Our fee schedule is different since it's through the HSA.
I am a Schwab enthusiast--banking, brokerage and retirement accounts all there. Some of my favorite things about Schwab:
1. Awesome customer service 2. An extensive list of NTF/load-waived funds, including T. Rowe funds now. 3. Minimum fund investments as low as $100 4. Cheap equity trades: $4.95 5. Seamless transfers between banking/brokerage 6. Intuitive website
I also have (and like) Vanguard, but Schwab is still my favorite.
Been a customer since early 80's always great service . One of first brokerage firms to make buying individual stocks available to common man! (Affordable buying)!!
I wish Schwab had been able to keep offering the 2% cash-back on all transactions VISA card. The proceeds went right into my brokerage account. Can't remember when it was dropped.
I've been with Schwab since 1997 and love it. I had a brief dalliance with VG a few years ago with part of my portfolio, but did not care for them. Among other reasons, you can call Schwab 24/7, not so with VG.
Schwab people on the phone are probably the most polite people you will ever talk to. In the 20 years I've been with them, the only time I've been to one of their offices was last fall. I was encouraged by the local rep to come in so I did, but aside from a good conversation it was a waste of time. Everything I need to do is available on the website, or is a quick phone call away with a very nice person (who speaks English).
Their website and its portfolio tools are pretty good. They have a huge selection of NL funds (they don't have everything, nor does anyone else). ETFs are now $4.95 per trade (not really relevant to me, I'm not a trader).
@BenWP Interesting about the 2% cash back VISA at Schwab being dropped. Fidelity had a simple 2% cash back card offer through AmEx. I think it was in 2014 or 2015, they negotiated a deal with VISA for the same offer, and upon implementation dropped AmEx.
The Schwab card wasn't exactly dropped; it remained a VISA card, but most of the terms were changed.
Its affiliation with Schwab was dropped. Instead of dealing with FIA Card Services (a subsidiary of BofA), you now deal with BofA. Instead of it being a straight 2% rebate, it's a BofA Cash Rewards card (1%, 2% on supermarkets and warehouse clubs, and 3% on gas). The higher rebates only apply to the first $2500 per quarter.
While all that may sound worse than the Fidelity card (or Citibank's Double Cash), it added one benefit and retained one legacy benefit from the Schwab card. If you've got various combined balances with BofA/Merrill (including Merrill Edge), the rebates will be multiplied by 1.25, 1.5, or 1.75.
For foreign travel, the card retains the Schwab VISA 0% foreign transaction fee. ("Real" BofA Cash Rewards cards carry a 3% fee.)
As it turns out, what I keep with Merrill Edge is a fund that they won't sell me (they'll only hold it). A good place to drop a fund that I'm just going to let sit for years. Also, while brokerages make money lending securities that can be sold short, generally mutual funds cannot be shorted.
So Merrill, and its parent BofA are stuck servicing an account that they can't make a dime from, that costs them money to maintain, where I won't be trading (so they'll have to send me periodic inactivity notices costing them more money), and servicing a credit card where they're paying me over 2% on everything I charge on their cards (including Costco).
The only way I can see that I'm helping BofA is that they're able to count me as an account holder when they present to shareholders the number of accounts that are held with them. I think I can live with that.
@MFO Members: One man's cup of tea is another man's poison. All brokers be it full service or discount have their strengths and weakness. There is no perfect brokerage house on this planet. It all depends on what your looking for. The same for credit cards. Regards, Ted Best Full-Service Investment Firms Ranked by Investors: J.D. Power — 2017: http://www.thinkadvisor.com/2017/04/06/best-full-service-investment-firms-ranked-by-inves?page_all=1
@msf: Thanks for reminding me why I am no longer a BoA credit card customer. Never have we had a card that was compromised more often, requiring issuance of a new card. Worst experience was the day we arrived in Vienna to find the card refused; believe me, you don't want to have to contact customer service from overseas on a hotel line charging you big Euros.
Pretty happy with Jennifer Garner and Capital One, 1.5% reward in $50 increments. I'm too dumb to figure out cards with airline miles; or maybe I just don't trust the b€|£¥s.
We could not do without your knowledge, msf. Back in the days when "Car Talk" was live, Tom and Ray used to say that Ray Suarez (PBS) knew everything. They didn't know our guru.
Thanks for the praise, though rather overstated. Thanks also for the reminder that the biggest problem (at least for me) with the BofA cards has been their simultaneous paranoia on card use (e.g. refusing a $500 car repair charge 15 miles from home) and frequent issuing of new numbers (due to security breaches on their end).
To protect against problems abroad, I try to always carry cards from two different issuers. Capital One is an excellent card for that, with 1.5% and no foreign transaction fee.
Rather surprisingly, Discover Card is also becoming a reasonable alternative (1% and no foreign transaction fee), since it's been working hard at expanding its overseas presence in the last couple of years.. The current Fidelity VISA card's also reasonable (2% rewards reduced by a 1% foreign transaction fee).
We have used Schwab (almost) exclusively for our client accounts for 20+ years. No company is perfect, but the combination of technology, pricing, and service has been darned good over the years. My view is that Vanguard and Fidelity (to some extent) have been late to the party in terms of services they offer. Vanguard has a brokerage account capability, but it is light years behind TD, Schwab and a handful of others from a technology standpoint.
Is there a publicly accessible list of NTF funds available through TIAA? I'm curious because I sometimes see M* list a fund as NTF at TIAA that's not NTF at other discount brokers. (I find the M* brokerage availability pages among the least reliable data M* publishes, so it would be good to verify.)
yeah, there is. Impossible to find, but someone on MFO linked it for me once.
The reason I forgot about it was that it listed fund companies, not funds. And second, the list was not accurate. The NTF list is quite small. I just didn't have much of an option. I needed to open another brokerage account and TDA I'm not going to be able to avoid with Scottrade move, and E*Trade I am fed up with.
Gosh BobC, am I sensing a little hostility here? You used to say (correctly) that TIAA Traditional (what you called the "traditional bucket") provided "limited options to make changes". But now here you are saying that they always "treat client dollars as TIAA-CREF dollars and put up all kinds of roadblocks to retain them."
That's a rather curious observation in a thread ostensibly addressing retail customers, and discussing nonTIAA funds that one might invest in through them. If I invested in, say, TWEIX through a TIAA DIY brokerage account, how would they treat my client dollars as their own?
When I look at their retail after tax VA (Intelligent Life), I see a product that Kitces praised as being clear and flexible when it came out a decade ago. As far as putting up roadblocks to getting dollars out is concerned, I see TIAA doing just the opposite. With most annuities, at death (if not annuitized), it's possible to keep the money there for years. With this annuity, if it doesn't go to the spouse, the entire annuity must be cashed out immediately.
It is true that the annuity discourages people from leaving (while alive) by dropping the annuity fees to a mere 10 basis points after a decade. If that's the kind of roadblock you were talking about, give me more roadblocks
Have been with Schwab for a long time now, almost ten years! Before that I have used Scottrade, TD, WellsTrade and also have an IRA at Fidelity. I echo observations by others, being very satisfied after consolidating essentially all our assets at Schwab. Great personal support! Helped my daughter open an account and explained in great detail all options, walked her through all paperwork in person. Nice website, good access to research, broad fund availability! As msf and others have mentioned, their ATM/debit card is great for international travel. Really no negatives so far (touch wood)!
I hesitate to wade back into a discussion on TIAA, since some folks obviously have had good experiences with them. The reason for my earlier comments are simply that, based on our experiences over the last 30 years, working with clients who have accounts at TIAA has not been positive. Acknowledging that all these accounts were 403b, mostly in the traditional fixed-annuity bucket (which is a decent product), our experience was and is that working with TIAA customer service people has been worse than having teeth pulled. And then you have the salespeople who fail to disclose the roadblocks of moving dollars from the traditional bucket to the CREF bucket, or the 10-year withdrawal requirement at retirement. Perhaps they have a different service culture on the retail brokerage side of their business. I shut up now.
Comments
I think their customer service is better than Vanguard, at least there are fewer restrictions on accounts at Schwab so less maneuvering. Fido is pretty good too but we have less money there.
the account executives at Schwab leave you alone unless you ask for help. When asked they are knowledgeable and professional and it is nice to talk to the same person. Having said that there is a lot of turnover. I have been thru three in ten years.
Statements are better than Vanguard which consolidates all the accounts in one statement, including retirement non retirement etc
The only problem I have ever had with execution ( I mostly use market orders and MFs) was a mutual fund changed the NAV two days later after I sold it. Both Schwab and Vanguard said it was not their responsibility. The Mutual fund refused to answer. I went to the SEC and they were interested but as it was only a few bucks I decided I had better things to do. I posted on this earlier so you can reference it if you want
My major complaint about Vanguard is the limited selection of funds. Schwab and Fido have much better lists, and usually have A shares without a load and lots of funds with huge minimums available for a song. I haven't compared Fido and Schwab but I think they are close.
Schwab wants $75 a mutual fund buy vs $35 at Fido. ( Vanguard Flagship is only $8), but when I asked, in the guise of a "500 free stock trades for two years from Fido" my Schwab rep immediately said they would drop the $75 to $30. If you have a large account I would ask before you move.
The website is a little irritating as you get this drop down menu that hangs there unless you move off of it. I find Fido's clearer and easier to maneuver around. Both beat Vanguard hands down.. There you have to click thru three screens to find the cost basis and can hardly ever find daily return. I guess they want investors who only are in it for the long term, not daily.
All in all I think Fido is a little better ( cheaper, cleaner web) but it is slight.
One thing to keep in mind if you are truly paranoid like I am, Schwab as a public company has to disclose it's quarterly results, so if it were ever to get over leveraged or make an insanely bad acquisition, you would know.
At Fido, you are at the mercy of the Johnsons. While Abigail seems like a nice gal, with her cute bob haircut and horn rims, you are not picking her up in a bar( well if you live in Boston and get a chance, go for it) . You are giving her your hard earned money and it makes me a little nervous you really can't tell and will never be able to tell what is going on behind the scenes.
I have the same general concern about Vanguard with all their propaganda about the "funds" owning the company. Maybe, but try to find out who really makes decisions there and what they get paid. Notice shareholders do not get much say.
Hope this helps. Bottom line... don't put your eggs all in one basket, unless you really do meet Abby in a bar and she seems to like you.. but get it in writing.
But I would make sure they carry all the funds that you like. And their transaction fee for funds that aren't on their no fee list is $76 for buying. So even thought it's $0 for selling, if you're planning to DCA, that's probably a deal killer.
I find Schwab to be very forward thinking in terms of their offerings and service. I have only one complaint...there are a few funds I can't access...Vanguard Tax Managed Balanced or Vanguard Wellington to be precise.
Other than that...I am very pleased.
After I had already transferred assets to Schwab, they came out with their robo-portfolios. This may not be a plus for you, but I did like the idea. I acknowledge I have made plenty of fund buying and portfolio management mistakes. I wanted a side by side, disciplined approach to compare. I put 1/2 my money into the Intelligent Portfolio and it has worked out well.
I would suggest you go to 1 or 2 of the branches in your area just to talk with them. See if there is a connection or not. Yes, their prime goal is for you to move your money to them, but knowing that you can still get a comfort level and gain knowledge to see if they are a good fit. Reading through your criteria, I think Schwab would be a good choice for you.
Good luck with your choice Mark.
Though I don't use Schwab much, I have been with them for many years - I even have an old "No annual fee - free for life" IRA there. (When's the last time you saw an IRA account with an annual fee?)
As others have said, they've got good execution, don't bother you (maybe that's because I don't have enough invested with them), a good selection of NTF funds. They seem pretty fast in making newly load-waived funds available NTF.
For me, the biggest plus, outside of the high quality service, is the rebate ATM card that expatsp mentioned. What wasn't mentioned was that not only does Schwab rebate the ATM fees, but it also eats the 1% foreign exchange fee imposed by the network (VISA/MC) when you use the card abroad.
A small plus is that Schwab bank is a real bank. That matters in a few situations where other financial institutions only allow EFT linking to a real bank. (Sometimes you can't link a third party to a Fidelity account, since Fidelity doesn't run a bank.) Be aware though that virtually no Schwab branches are Schwab bank branches. I don't know if this list is accurate, but it shows just 11 bank branches:
https://www.branchspot.com/charles-schwab-bank/
The biggest minus for me is that Schwab doesn't seem to have a backdoor like Fidelity where you can buy shares of a TF without paying a large fee (here, $76) per purchase.
Finally, since Vanguard Brokerage Services was mentioned - it's true that they offer fewer funds, but they seem to sometimes offer institutional class shares with lower mins than Schwab or Fidelity. Notably PIMCo ($25K vs. $100K at Schwab/Fidelity.)
I'm a longtime legacy ThinkorSwim (now TDA) customer and been quite pleased w/their offerings, fees, and customer service. Not had any problems that I can think of ... and yes, they have a good selection of NTF funds and offer lower-level access into advisor-class shares, too. So they get my endorsement still.
TDA was BAD BAD BAD. Now I have no choice with Scottrade takeover. I will hope for the best.
TIAA-CREF has limited NTF funds and minimal website, but it works if you are not doing too much trading.
Regarding TDA - we have an HSA account that lets us invest through TDA. No complaints, good selection of NTF ETFs. For retail investors TF fees are a bit high ($49.99 each way) and it has a 180 day short term trading fee on NTF funds (not of concern to me). Our fee schedule is different since it's through the HSA.
1. Awesome customer service
2. An extensive list of NTF/load-waived funds, including T. Rowe funds now.
3. Minimum fund investments as low as $100
4. Cheap equity trades: $4.95
5. Seamless transfers between banking/brokerage
6. Intuitive website
I also have (and like) Vanguard, but Schwab is still my favorite.
Bonds
Schwab people on the phone are probably the most polite people you will ever talk to. In the 20 years I've been with them, the only time I've been to one of their offices was last fall. I was encouraged by the local rep to come in so I did, but aside from a good conversation it was a waste of time. Everything I need to do is available on the website, or is a quick phone call away with a very nice person (who speaks English).
Their website and its portfolio tools are pretty good. They have a huge selection of NL funds (they don't have everything, nor does anyone else). ETFs are now $4.95 per trade (not really relevant to me, I'm not a trader).
Its affiliation with Schwab was dropped. Instead of dealing with FIA Card Services (a subsidiary of BofA), you now deal with BofA. Instead of it being a straight 2% rebate, it's a BofA Cash Rewards card (1%, 2% on supermarkets and warehouse clubs, and 3% on gas). The higher rebates only apply to the first $2500 per quarter.
While all that may sound worse than the Fidelity card (or Citibank's Double Cash), it added one benefit and retained one legacy benefit from the Schwab card. If you've got various combined balances with BofA/Merrill (including Merrill Edge), the rebates will be multiplied by 1.25, 1.5, or 1.75.
For foreign travel, the card retains the Schwab VISA 0% foreign transaction fee. ("Real" BofA Cash Rewards cards carry a 3% fee.)
The last thing anyone should strive for is maintaining various account balances with "Bof34" as a strategy to multiply credit card rewards.
I have a lot of respect for most of what @msf shares here..."Bof34" is not one of them.
So Merrill, and its parent BofA are stuck servicing an account that they can't make a dime from, that costs them money to maintain, where I won't be trading (so they'll have to send me periodic inactivity notices costing them more money), and servicing a credit card where they're paying me over 2% on everything I charge on their cards (including Costco).
The only way I can see that I'm helping BofA is that they're able to count me as an account holder when they present to shareholders the number of accounts that are held with them. I think I can live with that.
I wouldn't dream of actually banking with them.
Regards,
Ted
Best Full-Service Investment Firms Ranked by Investors: J.D. Power — 2017:
http://www.thinkadvisor.com/2017/04/06/best-full-service-investment-firms-ranked-by-inves?page_all=1
Best Discount Brokers 2017:
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/investing/the-best-discount-brokers/
Best Credit Cards:
https://www.creditkarma.com/creditcards/explore?pubKey=RFSVDJ8NOUC11YT1&categoryID=1007&pgsz=0&adposition=1t4
Pretty happy with Jennifer Garner and Capital One, 1.5% reward in $50 increments. I'm too dumb to figure out cards with airline miles; or maybe I just don't trust the b€|£¥s.
We could not do without your knowledge, msf. Back in the days when "Car Talk" was live, Tom and Ray used to say that Ray Suarez (PBS) knew everything. They didn't know our guru.
To protect against problems abroad, I try to always carry cards from two different issuers. Capital One is an excellent card for that, with 1.5% and no foreign transaction fee.
Rather surprisingly, Discover Card is also becoming a reasonable alternative (1% and no foreign transaction fee), since it's been working hard at expanding its overseas presence in the last couple of years.. The current Fidelity VISA card's also reasonable (2% rewards reduced by a 1% foreign transaction fee).
https://www.tiaa.org/public/pdf/MF_families.pdf
The reason I forgot about it was that it listed fund companies, not funds. And second, the list was not accurate. The NTF list is quite small. I just didn't have much of an option. I needed to open another brokerage account and TDA I'm not going to be able to avoid with Scottrade move, and E*Trade I am fed up with.
That's a rather curious observation in a thread ostensibly addressing retail customers, and discussing nonTIAA funds that one might invest in through them. If I invested in, say, TWEIX through a TIAA DIY brokerage account, how would they treat my client dollars as their own?
When I look at their retail after tax VA (Intelligent Life), I see a product that Kitces praised as being clear and flexible when it came out a decade ago. As far as putting up roadblocks to getting dollars out is concerned, I see TIAA doing just the opposite. With most annuities, at death (if not annuitized), it's possible to keep the money there for years. With this annuity, if it doesn't go to the spouse, the entire annuity must be cashed out immediately.
It is true that the annuity discourages people from leaving (while alive) by dropping the annuity fees to a mere 10 basis points after a decade. If that's the kind of roadblock you were talking about, give me more roadblocks