Vanguard Personal Financial Services UPDATED

[noodleoo]

I know there are a few people on here who are using the financial advisors from Vanguard.  I had my first into meeting with the randomly assigned advisor today and it went ok.  I filled out the investor profile online and I forgot to add my H's accounts, but after submitting it was locked and I couldn't edit it.  So I sent her an email with some more information Sunday night for our meeting today, but it didn't seem like she had read it.  I also filled in a whole list of questions in the comments field and it didn't seem like she had seen those either.  I know this is the first meeting, but I was a bit disappointed because we wasted a lot of time talking about that stuff that I was hoping she would have been more prepared.  I'm also not sure her personality was a great fit for me.  She was really playing up being a mom and a woman who is a "math geek".  I feel like she was trying to bond with me as a woman which I find really off putting.  I want to talk numbers, not about our kids!  I set up the follow up meeting with her in a few weeks and I really want to do this, but I am wondering if it is possible to switch advisors.  But then I feel guilty and like I should give her a chance.  I am very excited to see what she puts together for the "free" plan.

So if you've used their services, did you use the default advisor they assigned you?  Did you feel comfortable with them right away?  She also was using a speakerphone or something and it wasn't very clear and we kept talking over each other which was really frustrating.  If I go ahead with this, I'll be paying around $2K per year for this service.  I'm starting to have second thoughts even though this is by far the best/easiest choice for us.

isabel , boiler717

Update below. 

[boiler717]

This sounds so much like the lady I was assigned! Is she in AZ?
Our first call she asked a lot of questions but I also proactively supplied info she didn’t ask that I thought was relevant.
We were actually supposed to have our follow-up today at 10:30 Eastern. She called me at 4:30 last night to tell me she was accidentally was double booked today and needed to reschedule. She wanted to push it back like 3 more weeks and I said that wouldn’t work because I have tax-related questions we were supposed to discuss. It’s next week now.
She kept saying she “started playing with the numbers” and was “so excited” for us. I asked her if she could send me the plan before the meeting so I could use our time more effectively to ask questions. She said she would but reiterated she just started playing with the numbers — which is kinda annoying since we were supposed to be meeting the next morning!
I’ve been reading a lot on Boglehead and people say that they will recommend a 4-fund portfolio with 30% international allocation and an asset ratio based on risk. I’m guessing ours will be 90/10 or 80/20.
My husband is annoyed because I went ahead and made our own plan and I’m using this as kinda a check on my strategy. I don’t think we will pay for ongoing management since the whole point is to buy into funds and ride them out. As long as you feel comfortable rebalancing once a year and changing your ratio as you age you should be fine.

[isabel]

So I finally figured this out because I was confused when ohgillian was talking about having a dedicated advisor.

Apparently until you have something like $500k with Vanguard you work with a team of advisors and you're just randomly assigned someone for each call.

Our initial call was with a guy in Utah (who talked about being glad Biden won, so I was pleased with him, lol). The second call once we signed up was with him as well. Overall, I liked him, but felt like he wasn't necessarily providing the kind of advice we were looking for. The next call was with this guy named Luke who was excellent! Third call was with another person who was helpful, but we left the call feeling like there was more to discuss. Part of the issue with that one is that the calls are only 30 minutes and that's not always long enough to talk through everything. So far, Luke is the only one who has stayed on longer than 30 minutes (I'm guessing he didn't have an appointment immediately after because he did say he had to go at the top of the hour).

We are in a unique situation right now in that we are trying to determine the best path forward for a windfall we received, so we've been talking to them a lot. We have a call scheduled next month with Luke again. I wanted to talk to him since he's been the most helpful in giving us actual advice, as opposed to just listening to what we want to do and running numbers for us. DH was able to schedule with him by putting the comment in the notes or something like that when he made the appointment.

So our plan going forward is to try to ask for him specifically anytime we feel like we need actual advice. Otherwise, I think the other advisors are fine for just regular check ins to make sure our accounts are performing as expected.

Despite talking to a couple of lackluster people, I'm really happy with the service and we've seen excellent gains in our accounts with them since we started, so we're definitely getting the value we're paying for. I also feel far more confident in meeting our goals knowing that our assets are managed and realizing good gains, so the peace of mind is worth the cost to me.

Let me know if you have other questions though. This is still somewhat new for us.

[noodleoo]

boiler717, OMG yes she is in AZ so I bet it was the same person. That’s crazy. I guess I’ll wait and see how the follow up goes. I’m kind of a set it and forget it investor anyway. I’m starting to have second thoughts about doing it even though I really would like to. I wonder if it’s possible to ask for a different advisor.

isabel, I’m so glad you’ve had such a positive experience!

[isabel]

Feb 23, 2021 22:28:58 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

boiler717, OMG yes she is in AZ so I bet it was the same person. That’s crazy. I guess I’ll wait and see how the follow up goes. I’m kind of a set it and forget it investor anyway. I’m starting to have second thoughts about doing it even though I really would like to. I wonder if it’s possible to ask for a different advisor.

isabel, I’m so glad you’ve had such a positive experience!

Once you’re set up, you will end up with different advisors. This one isn’t the only one you’ll ever talk to unless you have so much in there that you actually do have a dedicated advisor. If that’s the case, I would absolutely ask for someone else.

[dcn]

We had a “team” at first and I felt fine about the first person we talked with. He sent the plan ahead of time for us to review and always seemed on top of things. Our people have all been in PA as far as I know. We only discussed personal stuff as it pertained to our finances - 2 kids, h in the military etc.

We are on our 2nd dedicated advisor now (first guy moved away or something) and I’ve been happy. I don’t know anything about her personal life as we always get right down to business. She’s great about responding to emails or sending us additional info we discuss during calls.

[boiler717]

So I got our plan today and I am not impressed. First, SO MANY inputs our wrong. Our salaries are $40k low. She has our current annual savings at $0. She has a bunch of our assets listed as currently in traditional IRAs which they aren’t. So all of the forecast is way off. The AA was what I expected but annoyed all the modeling is off. I don’t even know if it’s worth the convo now.

[dcn]

Feb 26, 2021 16:39:46 GMT -5 boiler717 said:

So I got our plan today and I am not impressed. First, SO MANY inputs our wrong. Our salaries are $40k low. She has our current annual savings at $0. She has a bunch of our assets listed as currently in traditional IRAs which they aren’t. So all of the forecast is way off. The AA was what I expected but annoyed all the modeling is off. I don’t even know if it’s worth the convo now.

That’s disappointing. I’d email her right away and tell her the inputs are wrong and you’d like them corrected before you talk.

[noodleoo]

Feb 26, 2021 16:39:46 GMT -5 boiler717 said:

So I got our plan today and I am not impressed. First, SO MANY inputs our wrong. Our salaries are $40k low. She has our current annual savings at $0. She has a bunch of our assets listed as currently in traditional IRAs which they aren’t. So all of the forecast is way off. The AA was what I expected but annoyed all the modeling is off. I don’t even know if it’s worth the convo now.

Oh man!!! That’s disappointing. I sent you a PM.

[shaynaatl]

It's interesting to get everyone's feedback on Vanguard Personal Advisory services. I'm comfortable managing our portfolio, but I'm considering directing DH to using this service if I die. It sounds like it could be a crapshoot depending on the advisor.

[boiler717]

I met with the one I was assigned and not impressed. I did like the report I got but it was pretty vague for the amount of detail it pretended to have.
Vanguard is very formulaic in their recommendations — AA depending on age/risk, 40% international.
My advisor was confused on tax brackets (kept insisting we were 32% vs. 24%). I really wanted to chat about importance of a Roth income stream and how to develop it. She kept saying “I love how you’re thinking of that, it’s such a great question. It really depends on your goals.” But we discussed our goals so.....
I honestly felt like the education I’ve done in the past 2 weeks put me ahead of her knowledge so I didn’t really get a lot of out of it. Was good to hear we are on track though.

[Poppy]

I'm really glad that you have shared your experience, boiler. I've considered using them, too. However, I'm pretty happy with DIY especially since I try to educate myself anyway (which is how I slowly learned how bad our old financial advisor's investment recommendations were).

I do think that Vanguard has good reason to be formulaic - it is a CYA thing and also a cost lowering thing.

But at the end of the day, nobody cares as much about your financial success as you do. The fact that you know your situation best means that there is room to fully customize and hopefully do even better than they would. For people who are not comfortable with diy or who don't have the time/interest it seems like a good option.

[noodleoo]

I figured you guys might be interested in an update. I had my follow up meeting with the advisor yesterday. I hadn't received the report by noon on Tuesday, so I emailed her to ask for it. She sent it and it was both more basic than I expected and also confusing. I almost canceled the appointment, but I figured she did the work so I should give her a chance. I'm glad I did because it was helpful to talk to her. She pointed out some things that I hadn't thought about before, which was helpful. I was expecting more specific advice, like "you should do this, you should be saving more here" etc. I was disappointed in that.

Overall I'm kind of mixed on the experience. In anticipation of using this service, I consolidated all of my accounts at Vanguard which I've been meaning to do for years. I made my H give me his account balances as well. This was eye opening because it forced me to look at everything together, which I hadn't really done before. It made me realize we have been saving so aggressively for retirement, we are well on track and may be over-saving (is that possible???). That may be why her advice wasn't as useful, she kept going on an on about how great we are doing. She made me realize that I have more knowledge than the average person, but I'm so inexperienced when it comes to taxes and investing, I still think I need help. But I didn't love her, so I don't want to enroll with her. Vanguard is currently offering a promo on their "Robo Advisor", free for 3 months. I think I might start with that and see how it goes (ongoing fees are 0.15% vs. 0.30% for their managed service). After that, I may try interviewing a different Vanguard advisor because I did find talking things through with her helpful. In the meantime, I will probably be making more posts here since I learn more on these message boards than anywhere else. So, thank you guys for that!  Mainly I'm proud of myself for finally taking a more active approach towards managing our money.

[ellipses84]

It’s great you got to see it all in one place! I’ve felt similar when I’ve met with advisors on a trial basis. Like they can give you the finance 101 course, but if you been hanging out on MM, you already know all of that and need some more advanced advice. If you follow up in the future I think it’s ok to be clear that you are looking for XYZ type of advice and ask if they provide that or can refer you to someone who does.