direct fund purchase vs brokerage account

[Phil Schuman]

I have a Schwab account for my stocks,
along with accounts at TRowe, Fidelity, & Vanguard for my funds.
I have one other fund - Janus Twenty - in my Scwab account.

Any comments on going direct with the fund companies,
vs acquiring (when you can) thru a brokerage account
and just keeping it all in a single account ?

[Elle]

"Phil Schuman" <pschuman_NO_SPAM_ME@interserv.com> wrote
>I have a Schwab account for my stocks,
> along with accounts at TRowe, Fidelity, & Vanguard for my
> funds.
> I have one other fund - Janus Twenty - in my Scwab
> account.
>
> Any comments on going direct with the fund companies,
> vs acquiring (when you can) thru a brokerage account
> and just keeping it all in a single account ?

I think you'd have to list all the funds you hold to get
truly meaningful answers. Also, how much trading of stocks
and mutual funds do you do? Fidelity's stock brokerage costs
are competitive IF one has a lot of assets with Fidelity.
Otherwise, you might be better off with someone else.

Vanguard will likely charge something to trade in at least
some of Fidelity's funds, and vice versa.

I don't like dealing with all the paperwork of several
fund/brokerage companies, and I think I get competitive
stock commissions from my companies, so I limit my financial
institutions to three (though two of those fall under one
larger corporate umbrella).

[Ed]

"Phil Schuman" <pschuman_NO_SPAM_ME@interserv.com> wrote

>I have a Schwab account for my stocks,
> along with accounts at TRowe, Fidelity, & Vanguard for my funds.
> I have one other fund - Janus Twenty - in my Scwab account.

I have no interest in a fund supermarket so I have accounts with the fund
companies.
I use a broker for stocks, ETF's, and CEF's. Works for me.

[Mark Freeland]

"Phil Schuman" <pschuman_NO_SPAM_ME@interserv.com> wrote in message
news:nXAUf.49800$F_3.37257@newssvr29.news.prodigy. net...
> I have a Schwab account for my stocks,
> along with accounts at TRowe, Fidelity, & Vanguard for my funds.
> I have one other fund - Janus Twenty - in my Scwab account.
>
> Any comments on going direct with the fund companies,
> vs acquiring (when you can) thru a brokerage account
> and just keeping it all in a single account ?

Some quick thoughts, others will have more.

For going direct:

1. Access to many fund families without paying the broker transaction fees
(notably the fund families you mentioned - Fidelity, Vanguard, Price; though
Janus is usually available with no transaction fee). Schwab charges
particularly high transaction fees for the funds not offered in OneSource
(NTF).

2. Faster reporting of tax information (the brokers have to process the
info and then pass it through to you; I've had various problems with broker
reporting).

3. Access to cheaper fund share classes - e.g. SLADX (a cheaper version of
Selected American Shares - SLASX) available only direct. Or Vanguard's
Admiral shares - if you can pony up $100K, you can buy them through a
broker, but if you buy the investor class shares through Vanguard, and have
a "mere" $50K in the fund, and have had the account for ten years (and you
ask), Vanguard will convert these to the cheaper Admiral shares. A broker
can't.

For going through broker:

1. Consolidation - having a single statement, a single place to deal with.
Makes it easy to switch money from one fund family to another.

2. Tax consolidation - for distributions you get a single aggregate number;
if you invest in a couple of funds even with the same fund family, you'll
have multiple figures to report (you get figures for each fund).

3. Access to some institutional class funds at reasonable minimums that you
couldn't get by going directly to the fund.

4. Occassionally, a broker will offer a load fund without a load or
transaction fee. Schwab seems particularly good in this respect.

--
Mark Freeland
nNeEwTs@sonic.net