Apr 1st, 2008
A Second Look at the Vanguard Brokerage Option (VBO)
After a few weeks of waiting, a package from the Pennsylvania mutual fund giant showed up in my mailbox. In it was a pamphlet on the brokerage option that I mentioned previously (and which I already had) and a few pieces of paper explaining some of the details.
I don’t say this often about Vanguard, but I was immediately disappointed. While I can invest in both Vanguard funds not currently offered in my plan as well as (through their FundAccess service) thousands of funds from other mutual fund families (apparently 300 of them), I found that I cannot invest in ETFs or REITs. Now, there are a lot of other investment vehicles that are not allowed in the VBO, including futures, precious metals, currencies, CDs… but the two I would be most interested in would be ETFs and REITs. That said, I can live without them.
The paperwork that came with the pamphlet is pretty scarce. Aside from the pamphlet and the paper outlining what investments I cannot make with the VBO, a few other sheets which provided identifying information with my account number, a commission schedule, and a few other things.
However, there’s absolutely no information in the packet about how to use the Vanguard Brokerage Option except by calling or going to Vanguard.com. However, when I go to Vanguard.com, there’s nothing that screams out “brokerage option!”, and the little I can find using Vanguard.com’s help search tells me to call.
Oh well.
This will get worked on in the next off stretch I have.
Did you ever do more with the VBO? I’d like to know more and can this be done for a 401(k) plan?
I think it is very frustrating you can’t invest in a gold index - why not?
Thanks for any help.
Tom,
Not yet! I plan to, but I’ve been a bit occupied with my job, my other job, training for the century ride and the marathon, coding, podcasting, and oh, this blog! Next time I have a few days off that aren’t filled with fumes (you’ll understand in a bit), I will look at this closer.