Fidelkity Investments
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I am thinking about moving our account to Fidelity Investments. Can those of you that use them weigh in with pros, cons, problems? I appreciate it, thanks, Carole. From all I hear, Fidelity is a very good company. But there are less spendy alternatives, like Vanguard or Schwab. Did you look at the alternatives, and if so, what made you choose Fidelity?
Lynn Ostrem
We moved our club to Fidelity back in October 2009.
Fidelity is a great company, with many locations, an excellent website, easy as
pie for online trade orders, and recently they lowered their commission to $7.95 - that is lower than most of
the competitors. I didn't see Vanguard on the AccountSync list. I'm looking for an AccountSync broker that does online stock trades, online transfers to and from our bank account, automatic dividend reinvestment, no annual or monthly maintenance fee and a relatively low trade fee. I'm open to suggestions, with specifics about price, etc. please. We haven't made a final decision, but Fidelity seemed to fit all of those criteria. Thanks, Carole. From: Lynn Ostrem <garbagecop@gmail.com> To: The Club Cafe <club_cafe@bivio.com> Sent: Sun, February 28, 2010 6:07:41 PM Subject: Re: club_cafe: Fidelkity Investments From all I hear, Fidelity is a very good company. But there are less spendy alternatives, like Vanguard or Schwab. Did you look at the alternatives, and if so, what made you choose Fidelity?
Lynn Ostrem
Hi Carole,
I’m using TDAmeritrade and FolioInvesting in two different clubs. I’m not sure about automatic dividend reinvestment, but otherwise I believe they would satisfy your criteria. TDAmeritrade has $9.99 commissions. FolioInvesting is offering free commissions to BetterInvesting clubs if you make your trades during twice daily trading “windows”.
In addition, they both offer free checking and will accept deposits either by check or electronically directly from your members. You could eliminate having to have a bank account which simplifies your club record keeping.
I have used Schwab personally for many years and have had a good experience with them. They recently lowered their trading commissions to $8.95. They do offer automatic dividend reinvestment. I don’t think they have maintenance fees but that may be only if you have a certain amount of assets with them. You’d have to check that.
I know many clubs use Scottrade. They have a low trading commission but they do not provide free checking.
I’ve used Etrade in the past and believe they might also satisfy your requirements. You’d have to check with them to see what they currently offer.
Laurie Frederiksen www.bivio.com
From: club_cafe@bivio.com
[mailto:club_cafe@bivio.com] On Behalf Of Carole Jansen I
didn't see Vanguard on the AccountSync list. I'm looking for an
AccountSync broker that does online stock trades, online transfers to and from
our bank account, automatic dividend reinvestment, no annual or monthly
maintenance fee and a relatively low trade fee. I'm open to suggestions,
with specifics about price, etc. please. We haven't made a final
decision, but Fidelity seemed to fit all of those criteria.
From: Lynn Ostrem <garbagecop@gmail.com> From all I hear, Fidelity is a very good company. But there are less spendy alternatives, like Vanguard or Schwab. Did you look at the alternatives, and if so, what made you choose Fidelity?
Lynn Ostrem garbagecop@gmail.com Thank you Laurie. I use BuyandHold for my club that makes monthly investments (they charge $6.99/month for which you get two "window" transactions); however, the other club doesn't make new investments very frequently, so I'm looking for a change for that club. I had checked out Scottrade in the past but they wouldn't let me do online transfers from our bank to our broker account, so they wouldn't work for us. I appreciate they info., and will do some more checking. I have a personal account at Fidelity, and have been satisfied with them for that, and their $7.95 commission seems to be among the lowest (except for Better Investing/FolioInvesting, but we are not a BI member).
Thanks again. From: Laurie Frederiksen <laurie@bivio.biz> To: The Club Cafe <club_cafe@bivio.com> Sent: Sun, February 28, 2010 9:31:05 PM Subject: RE: club_cafe: Fidelkity Investments Hi Carole,
I'm using TDAmeritrade and FolioInvesting in two different clubs. I'm not sure about automatic dividend reinvestment, but otherwise I believe they would satisfy your criteria. TDAmeritrade has $9.99 commissions. FolioInvesting is offering free commissions to BetterInvesting clubs if you make your trades during twice daily trading "windows".
In addition, they both offer free checking and will accept deposits either by check or electronically directly from your members. You could eliminate having to have a bank account which simplifies your club record keeping.
I have used Schwab personally for many years and have had a good experience with them. They recently lowered their trading commissions to $8.95. They do offer automatic dividend reinvestment. I don't think they have maintenance fees but that may be only if you have a certain amount of assets with them. You'd have to check that.
I know many clubs use Scottrade. They have a low trading commission but they do not provide free checking.
I've used Etrade in the past and believe they might also satisfy your requirements. You'd have to check with them to see what they currently offer.
Laurie Frederiksen
From: club_cafe@bivio.com
[mailto:club_cafe@bivio.com] On Behalf Of Carole Jansen
I
didn't see Vanguard on the AccountSync list. I'm looking for an
AccountSync broker that does online stock trades, online transfers to and from
our bank account, automatic dividend reinvestment, no annual or monthly
maintenance fee and a relatively low trade fee. I'm open to suggestions,
with specifics about price, etc. please. We haven't made a final
decision, but Fidelity seemed to fit all of those criteria.
From: Lynn Ostrem <garbagecop@gmail.com> From all I hear, Fidelity is a very good company. But there are less spendy alternatives, like Vanguard or Schwab. Did you look at the alternatives, and if so, what made you choose Fidelity?
Lynn Ostrem garbagecop@gmail.com Gotcha. In your original message, you didn't state it was for the club. I read your response to Laurie, and you may want to check Scottrade again. I thought I heard they started doing ACH transfers. But don't hold me to that. our club uses Firstrade.com but it doesn't use AccountSync.
Good luck to you,
Lynn O.
We've been happily using ScotTrade since 2006. I've always had to go to the local office and do a written request for a withdrawal. When I asked in June of 2009 about alternatives, I was told that the checking writing feature was not available for Investment Clubs. We also have an account with Edward Jones which doesn't allow investment clubs ACH transfers, check writing or a credit card. I'm glad to hear about other brokerages that do offer check writing. It would be great not to have a separate bank account to balance when Accountsync would do it all. We'll discuss switching from ScotTrade to another brokerage firm soon Ron Pautz Karlsson and Pautz Investment Club Lynn Ostrem wrote: > Gotcha. In your original message, you didn't state it was for the club. I read your response to Laurie, and you may want to check Scottrade again. I thought I heard they started doing ACH transfers. But don't hold me to that. our club uses Firstrade.com but it doesn't use AccountSync. > > > Good luck to you, > > Lynn O. > > I am sure there are many fine brokerage alternatives, but for our Club the Treasurer's job entered a new and much more effective era when we switched to AccountSynch and then Fidelity. Fidelity is fully compatible with AccountSynch and allows check writing, to boot. While a separate bank account could cover the check writing, the ability to have AccountSynch automatically download account activity from Fidelity every night is a real plus. After each download, AccountSynch sends the Treasurer an email with the transaction details and a balance statement. This automatic capability provides a real advantage in accuracy and a substantial time and labor savings for the Treasurer. Our Club prospered for the last twenty-five years of its fifty year plus history thanks to the efforts of an immortal Treasurer. Phil kept our world afloat with a #2 pencil and extraordinary ability, dedication and effort. I am merely mortal, but AccountSych and Fidelity will allow us to move forward, prosper, and when appropriate find a replacement for this Treasurer, as well. The only way to fly! Best Regards, Leo -----Original Message----- From: club_cafe@bivio.com [mailto:club_cafe@bivio.com] On Behalf Of Ronald Pautz Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 4:33 AM To: club_cafe@bivio.com Subject: club_cafe: Re: Fidelkity Investments We've been happily using ScotTrade since 2006. I've always had to go to the local office and do a written request for a withdrawal. When I asked in June of 2009 about alternatives, I was told that the checking writing feature was not available for Investment Clubs. We also have an account with Edward Jones which doesn't allow investment clubs ACH transfers, check writing or a credit card. I'm glad to hear about other brokerages that do offer check writing. It would be great not to have a separate bank account to balance when Accountsync would do it all. We'll discuss switching from ScotTrade to another brokerage firm soon Ron Pautz Karlsson and Pautz Investment Club Lynn Ostrem wrote: > Gotcha. In your original message, you didn't state it was for the > club. I read your response to Laurie, and you may want to check Scottrade again. I thought I heard they started doing ACH transfers. But don't hold me to that. our club uses Firstrade.com but it doesn't use AccountSync. > > > Good luck to you, > . > Lynn O. > > Ron, you mentioned that it would be nice NOT to have two accounts. Allow me to play devil's advocate.
Club A uses a broker with check writing privileges. At Tuesday evening's meeting, the treasurer collects checks, fills out the deposit slip, stuffs it all into an envelope and drops it in the mail on Wednesday. It takes up to 2 days to get there, and up to two days to get posted. Oops! Now it's Friday. It's possible that, by the time it's posted, the market has closed. So the stock you voted to buy on Tuesday may not take place for 6 days - the following Monday. Hopefully the envelope won't get lost in the mail.
My Club has both a bank and a broker account signed up for ACH transfer (our is www.firstrade.com). Our treasurer collects the checks, fills out the deposit slip, stuffs it all into a deposit envelope, and she drops it into the night drop on the way home. Our bank processes all night deposits by 9 a,m. She verifies that it was processed (online), then she makes the ACH transfer on the broker website. The transaction is completed by the next day and we can buy our stock within 24 hours of the vote.
Some say that maintaining two accounts is a hassle. I say, "what!? are you kidding!?" We make one deposit per month, up to 6 ACH transfers per year, seldom do we write a check, and we try to buy 1 or 2 stocks per month. Maintaining two accounts in bivio might take me 2 minutes per month - probably less. The secret is to log transactions when you do them, rather than waiting until the day before the meeting when you have to reconstruct what all you did since the last meeting.
I'm all for convenience and fewer statements, but not if I have to wait a week to buy a stock. Now there are ways around that, like having everyone mail their checks to the broker by a certain date, or automatic withdrawals from their bank accounts. These are certainly viable options, but we prefer to write checks at the meetings.
Just another way of looking at it.
--
Lynn Ostrem Crow River Investment Club
www.bivio.com/crowriver Join me at InvestEd 2010 August 6-8, Baltimore, MD www.investor-education2010.org Hi Lynn,
I will play devils advocate from the other perspective.
For my clubs, member payments are deposited directly to the broker before our meeting. We used to have everyone mail in checks to the broker, now they do it using their banks automatic bill pay service. A nice feature of online bill pay from your bank is that you can tell them the day you want the payment to arrive at the payee. We have a date we have agreed on in our operating agreements. We picked a monthly date which is before our regular meeting date.
This means I don’t have to chase down or wait for payments and we have the money to invest already available when we have our meeting. If someone is not making their monthly contribution, whether they are serious about being in the club or not can be addressed at the meeting.
It’s not just less entries to use one account. Less transactions means less work to reconcile each month and to audit at the end of the year.
It’s not that it’s an insurmountable chore to use a bank account also if clubs want to do that. We prefer to keep things simple and I prefer to spend the time I have available on investing activities.
Laurie Frederiksen
While we're on the subject... A quick reminder that Ira's example last week implies a club doesn't really need checks. Members can make extra payments into the club by paying for club expenses which are reimbursed with units in the club. For example: 1. A club member pays for the bivio subscription with their credit card. 2. The treasurer records a payment from that member in the amount of $99 which increased their units in the club accordingly. 3. The treasurer records the bivio subscription as a deductible expense in the amount of $99. No checks are necessary either for the expense itself nor to reimburse the member. All club expenses could be treated similarly. Eric Dobbs bivio Inc. Hi Laurie,
Your points are valid (as previously echoed). Options are good. However, you wrote:
It's not just less entries to use one account. Less transactions means less work to reconcile each month and to audit at the end of the year.
I respectfully disagree. Every direct deposit "is" a transaction. So is every MMA interest payment and every dividend paid through the brokerage account. I will not dispute the ease of having AccountSync put those figures into the club's books. But anyone who relies solely on AccountSync without auditing the books is asking for trouble. And waiting until the end of the year is asking for DOUBLE trouble. We balance to the penny every month. That makes year-end auditing virtually nil.
Every treasurer needs to ensure that everyone did, in fact, pay their dues, and that each member's payments are properly posted, and that the shares and share prices of each buy and sell transaction is also corrected posted. So there are no less transactions. And the time it takes to review the entries each month is equal to, and sometimes longer, than the time to enter then by hand, especially if there are discrepancies in shares or prices.
Thanks for all you do, Laurie. We appreciate your knowledge and input.
Lynn O. My two cents (no pun intended): At Lauries suggestion, I'm actually working to get rid of our bank and have only a brokerage account. For me, its not really the extra work, as Lynn points out, adding in the bank deposits by hand is not very time consuming, its that the fewer variables a system has, the fewer chances there are that there will be mistakes, whether you are looking for mistakes in an account sync, or a manual entry. Simply put, having two institutions deal with your money will double the chances that something goes wrong. Having one institution halves it. Second, I did not join an investment club to learn accounting. I joined an investment club to learn about investing. With this in mind, why should I spent the extra time, even if its ten minutes, dealing with an additional account? I can spend that ten minutes reading money magazine, or looking at stock prices, or adding to my investing knowledge in other ways. Those are my thoughts :) Ellen On Mar 1, 2010, at 11:03 AM, Lynn Ostrem wrote:
Hi Lynn,
I guess what I was saying wasn’t clear.
I certainly wasn’t saying not to reconcile each month. This is probably one of the most important jobs the treasurer has. It applies whether or not you use AccountSync.
What I was trying to say was that it will be that much easier to do this if you have one account. You have less transactions to go through and less statements to compare.
You will not have any transfer transactions from one account to the other to track.
And, if you use AccountSync, the number of typos will be greatly reduced if not eliminated.
The other problem that we run into with clubs that have two accounts is that they somehow think the money in one account is kept “separate” from the money in the other.
In reality, the accounting considers all assets part of a single pool, no matter where they actually “live”.
Laurie
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