Investment Firms

[004Gunner]

OK somebody should be able to help me out here. AG Edwards got taken over by Wachovia Securities and I'm not putting up with Wachovia's horrible service anymore. Who do you guys use for investments and any particular reason why?

Thanks for any advice and I would be moving a roth IRA, stocks, and a mutual fund if that matters.

 

[Jeff Kleb]

I think rather highly of Vanguard ( http://www.vanguard.com ). Another place worth considering is USAA ( http://www.usaa.com ), which is owned by its members.

Despite the market being so crappy right now, this could still be an investment opportunity for people who are able to wait it out.

Good luck to you whatever you decide, sir!


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"No, honey. Our checkbook is fine, but the bank bounced!"

 

[snhrph]

I second Jeff on Vangard. The only disadvantage is that many of their funds are closed to new members.

I also use Merrill and Scottrade. Merrill is for long-term holdings. Scottrade for more frequent trading.

 

[d_clark]

I'll second Vanguard

I'll second Vanguard. I've had my personal $$ there since 2004, and my employer is moving our 401k to them in January.

If you plan on using mutual funds only, is a great place. If you are looking at stocks, I don't have any experience to help.

However , unless you have more then 1 million at Vanguard, the brokerage service (for stocks, etfs) isn't the greatest. The annual fee varies on your account balance.

I can only find 4 Vanguard funds that are closed to new investors, 8 that require more then 25k per fund, 12 require more then 10k and too many to count with only a 3k minimum.

 

[TheBlueWave]

I like Vanguard as well.
If you use an advisor, check out American Funds, very good performance in the 2+ years I've invested with them. The drawback is that they are advsior funds so you pay a fee, but the fee rates are reasonable IMO.

 

[004Gunner]

Thanks for the responses everybody. Vanguard it is! I finally got around to checking them out and found they were well rated by customers and "experts" alike. I saw that consumer reports rated them lower because of costs associated with stock trading but I'm not worried about that.