Beliavsky wrote:
- quote -

I agree to a point. For taxable accounts, old statements are
helpful/essential for figuring out cost basis. The alternative is
downloading PDFs and printing them out -- ie the cost is passed onto you
in the form of toner & time. I mean really, who wants to archive all
those PDFs and make sure the archive carries over to a new PC?

I wouldn't rely on the site either. TD Ameritrade's envelopes always
have a tag line on them like "simplify your life with electronic
delivery!" Sounds good in theory but....a couple months ago they
included an insert "you may need to save or print your TD Waterhouse
documents dated prior to January 1, 2001." Poof, old cost basis info
would be gone unless you go through the trouble of printing all that
out. I'm thinking of one TDW account with a bunch of stocks that had
dividend reinvestment on them, for years. How could you possibly
reconstruct that without the statements? There oughta be a law about
this -- requirements for providing account statements to customers. Not
everyone sells off all their stocks every 10 months and funds every 2 years.

I can understand cost rationales for that $20 Vanguard fee though, I'll
bet a lot of small accounts increase mailing & printing costs
dramatically, and the prospectuses and annual reports mostly end up in
the trash. Let's face it, $10k isn't what it used to be...it's logical
for the account minimums to creep up over time, for an "at-cost"
provider like Vanguard. It wouldn't help you but I'll bet a lot of
people could avoid fees by consolidating into one of the funds-of-funds
until there's enough there to break it up into over-$10k chunks. That's
not a bad idea anyway.

-Tad

On May 24, 10:45 am, Rich Carreiro <rlc...[at]animato.arlington.ma.us> Vanguard will instead have a $20 per fund fee on all funds
- quote -

Interestingly, while I didn't see (or missed) it mentioned in
the (physical) mailing I got about the change, on a FAQ about
the changes on vanguard.com, it says that the fee will also be
waived if your total mutual fund balance at Vanguard
is $100K or more.

--
Rich Carreiro rlcarr[at]animato.arlington.ma.us

Beliavsky <beliavsky[at]aol.com> writes:

- quote -

I'd probably not make that guess.

- quote -

$10,000 * 0.001 (10 basis points of higher management fees)
== $10.

Unless the management cost differential (depends on your
choice of funds, etc) is pretty small, Vanguard may still
be saving you money even if you pay it out of pocket. It
depends on what investments you have there.

NTF funds all kick back to Fidelity (or whatever brokerage
"supermarket" you are using) to compensate them for the NTF
status and for dealing with all the account statements and
such - and those kick-backs are way higher than 10bps -
more like 35 bps.

You may or may not come out ahead by moving, but there is
no free lunch.

--
Plain Bread alone for e-mail, thanks. The rest gets trashed.
No HTML in E-Mail! -- http://www.expita.com/nomime.html
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http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/2000/06/14/quoting

"Beliavsky" <beliavsky[at]aol.com> wrote in message
news:1180033096.027840.201710[at]u30g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...
- quote -

Electronic statements won't hinder your ability to have paper account
statements. You can download a statement via Adobe and print it out. Also,
old statements are available online should you lose one. I think it's a
great convenience.

Elizabeth Richardson

On May 24, 10:45 am, Rich Carreiro <rlc...[at]animato.arlington.ma.uswrote:
- quote -

As a Vanguard investor I dislike this change. I could do without paper
prospectuses, but I value paper account statements. The marginal cost
of their sending quarterly account statements must be a lot less than
$20 (I'd guess less than $10), so I think they are trying to bully me
in to doing what they think is right. My wife has a traditional IRA
that we are no longer eligible to contribute to on a deductible basis,
and the IRA value is below $10K. I think I'll move it to Fidelity, a
company which has slightly higher overall fees overall but which has a
better attitude towards its investors IMO.

Vanguard ought to "grandfather" current accounts so that their fees do
not rise.

Vanguard is restructuring its account fees. Instead of
the mix of:
$10 custodial fee on IRAs with balance of less than $5000
$10 maint. fee on index funds with balance of less than $10000
$10 cust fee on ESAs with balance of less than $5000
$10 low-balance fee on all non-ret accounts with
balance of less than $2500

Vanguard will instead have a $20 per fund fee on all funds
with balances of less than $10000. The fee can be waived
by registering for acct access on vanguard.com and requesting
electronic delivery of statements, confirmations, reports,
and prospecti.

--
Rich Carreiro rlcarr[at]animato.arlington.ma.us