After hearing repeatedly Vanguard being mentioned with Black Rock and other DEI Investors, I called Vanguard. It was not pretty!
After getting by a very restrictive phone tree, I got to the Philippines and finally to a low level US based Rep.
I asked what funds were infected by DEI.
Are the Index funds still index funds or is the index now skewed.
Has Vanguard increased or decreased its holdings on AB?
I got no Answers just that my concerns would be recorded.
I see why folks are complaining about Vanguard Customer service. For me it is too late to change but I will not be adding to Vanguard holdings.
Vanguard does offer a few funds that are ESG in nature. But to say that ESG is their focus or their offerings as a whole are ESG in nature I don’t think is accurate.
We have to understand why large companies in almost every industry are striving to at least appear to be woke or ESG minded. They are trying to lay low and stay off the radar in the hopes of being left alone by government agencies at the federal level and in blue states. These agencies were transformed and politicized to be an enforcement arm of the left’s ideology under Obama and continue to be under Biden or whoever it is running the executive branch behind the scenes.
If you’re on the correct side of ideology you’ll largely be left alone. If not watch out.
I agree with this and own a few Vanguard ETFs. But I will agree with PP that their customer service had severely declined. My wife had been with Vanguard for years, but moved her IRA to Fidelity 5-6 years ago because she had become do dissatisfied with their service.
I mostly look at fund performance and overall returns over time, not at the individual holdings in funds. But, I have never owned target date funds because I think their foreign holdings are too large, which has constrained their returns.
I have both Vg and Fidelity. My son is big on Fidelity.
Maybe I should move my IRAs especially the Rollover from 401K to Fidelity… might make it easier on him.
I cannot move the Taxable Account (step up basis) so I am only halving the problem.
Yeah their entry level customer service reps are bad, had one give me exactly wrong info on a question, and I knew it at the time. Once you get above entry level, their service has been pretty good.
I haven’t experienced what I would call poor service from VG but a decline in personal service. We don’t use their “Personal Advisor” service so I can’t comment on that. It could be they are more focused on those that do so the self managed people receive less attention.
One of the things I haven’t cared for is that we have held a JTWROS account for many years and were “hounded” to transfer it or “upgrade” as they put it to a brokerage account. They would not let us re-title the JTWROS to a trust unless it was in a brokerage account. Really? They will also not allow you to gift shares to a 501c3 from a JTWROS… it has to be from a brokerage account. Really? I understand it is apparently more costly for them to hold accounts other than brokerage but they should continue full service until we are phased out.
There is likely a fee for transfer, usually $40-50 per holding, charged by the old broker (Vanguard in this case). May or may not be a fee for IRA transfer.
Thanks for posting this. I was contemplating leaving Vanguard. I have quite a lot in their funds.
My plan was to send them a statement of my holdings and demand to know if the discriminate against petro companies, and support programs that discriminate against white males. If the answer is yes, I leave. If no answer, I leave. Only if they disavow evenironmental extremism and racial discrimination will I not leave.
So far today I have spent more than an hour trying to get my 20+ year old vanguard account changed to a brokerage account to avoid the $20 annual fee.
Waited a long time for an Indian chick, could not make the online thing work. Said I had to receive a phone call with a security code, and no calls ever came. She said it might take another day, manager never called me back. So much wasted time.
I am done with Vanguard. It is a crappy politicized corporation now. I am selling all my Vanguard funds and closing my account with them.
