The value of Vanguard Flagship status has diminished
For many years, Vanguard’s Flagship status has been a target which I have strived to reach. Vanguard’s Flagship is supposed to reward investors who keep a seven-figure portfolio with Vanguard with “personal assistance, significant cost savings, and expert advice”.
For Vanguard investors who already have Voyager status (at least $250k invested with Vanguard), the benefits of Flagship status over Voyager status are
- 12 free trades per year, then each subsequent stock trade is $8.
- Subsidized TurboTax online for tax filing.
- Personalized flagship CSR.
- Free banking and online billpay services linked to brokerage account.
Recently with the strong stock market, the Flagship status is almost within reach if I consolidate my assets. However, on closer examination, I find that its value has diminished significantly. I see very little benefit which I couldn’t get elsewhere (in fact I can probably get more services elsewhere). Let’s look at the list again:
- Free trades : you can now easily get free trades from Zecco, Bank of America or Wells Fargo. I opted to get the free trades from Wells Fargo with their Portfolio Management Account and this requires a minimum of only $25,000 in equity. I will get 100 free trades per account type every year, and then $5.95 for every trade beyond the 100th trade. The 12 free trades from Flagship is insufficient if I want to DCA into ETFs.
- Subsidized TurboTax filing : I have never been a fan of filing taxes online. Sure, online filing sites can have all sorts of promises of protecting your information online, but I feel better if I can control the information locally with a desktop version of the software.
- Personalized flagship CSR : I seldom need to call in; and among the experiences of those with Flagship, they frequently were not able to talk to their assigned CSR anyway. So much for a personalized CSR.
- Free banking and online billpay : Well, you can now get these almost everywhere. Wells Fargo’s PMA provides these too.
In addition, with the recent discussion on brokerage fraud guarantees, it might actually be prudent to spread the assets around. Of course I am not suggesting to spread the assets in say 10 brokerages, but if I spread them in two or three brokerages, it will be very managable, even during tax time. Personally, the three brokerages would be Vanguard, Fidelity and Wells Fargo’s PMA.
Stumble it!
