May 12th, 2010
Vanguard Brokerage Option: One Serious Flaw, but Otherwise Very Servicable
As I’ve been discussing for awhile, I finally got my asset allocation done for 2010. It took me a long time to do this, partly due to the dynamic nature of the accounts (stocks trade every business day as we all know, and prices fluctuate possibly substantially) and also due to the number of accounts I have.
The majority of my invested money is in my 403(b) which is with Vanguard. I am fortunate that my employer has instituted the Vanguard Brokerage Option (VBO) which I’ve blogged about several times. Trading online in the account is simple and apparently just like a regular Vanguard brokerage account (I don’t have one so I can’t verify this). I exchanged some dollars in one fund for some dollars in another fund–simple. Finally, to get my asset allocation where I wanted, I had to add money from my 403(b) into my VBO and buy more of a fund I was already holding.
I could not figure out a way to do it online.
I called the next day and made the transfer and asked if it was possible to move money from my 403(b) to the VBO online and was told it wasn’t and there were no plans to do so as far as the representative knew; he explained there are so many restrictions on moving money this way for various 401(k) and equivalent plans they weren’t likely to make this part of the online service anytime soon.
In my view, that’s a serious flaw, but otherwise, I’m pretty thrilled with my Vanguard Brokerage Option.
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