Favorite Financial Institution

[scrub-jay]

We have various accounts at various institutions and frankly, I am sick of the "clutter" in my financial life. What institutions do you like, why? Mostly for investments, retirements, savings, college savings, etc. Fidelity, SmithBarney, Vanguard, ING... there are so many, with so many different features... Love ANY input (except trolls or spammers, I will delete your posts).

[SuzySunshine]

You know what our financial guy is moving all of our stuff to TD Ameritrade which kind of caught me off guard at first but after actually looking into it they have the best rates, easy to control, etc. so I'm intrigued to see it all functioning the way they say it will.

[MissCrabette]

While I love Vanguard for their low-cost funds, my favorite is Fidelity. I love their website and how easy it is to move things around. They even have a free "money line" to external accounts. And did I mention that their reps are super fast, knowledgeable, and courteous?

[spotty_dog]

Another Fidelity vote here. I like that it's privately owned -- so although it still has to mind the bottom line, at least it doesn't answer to stockholders. I like that it offers the low-cost Spartan funds and the free iShares ETF trades. I like the website interface.

I'm pretty tempted by Vanguard though. You just can't beat the industry standard for low cost, nor the index fund selections with relatively low minimums, nor the corporate structure: owned by their mutual fund holders, they answer to their mutual fund holders and function wholly to improve YOUR bottom line as an investor. Pretty sweet deal.

[SuzySunshine]

Right now we have accounts on Vanguard and Fidelity - I like the interface/user on the fidelity better. I've never thought Vanguard was very user friendly, it seems to be geared more toward plan administrators then individuals but thats just me.

[BonBon]

We use USAA for banking, and for investing we use Fidelity and Vanguard. I can't tell you the why, because DH chose them. I think he did so because of the no load/low cost...er, whatever. Easy to use and cheaper. (Clearly I'm not the financial person in the house!)

[JaneDoe]

We are Vanguard for everything long term except for our kids college savings accounts, which I think is TIAA Cref. We didn't have a choice with the 521 plans.