The laws vary by state, so you should do some more research if what you read wasn’t specific to FL. I think you’ll find that the laws here protect both types of accounts in most situations.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
 

[QUOTE=manaboutown;2255821]Recently I picked up a book by Charles Schwab, 'Invested'.

To say it was an eye opener is an understatement. It starts with why and how he got into discount brokerage as one of its pioneers. It then goes on to report the ups, downs and very scary times his company went through. I had no idea!

I know many people, particularly those who trade a lot, use Schwab. Although I have kept a small account at Schwab for years I rarely used it. Then last year and earlier this year I sold a couple commercial real estate properties and deposited the proceeds into Schwab, primarily because I wanted to put it into T-bills. Schwab allows a retail investor to buy and sell them whereas the other two brokerages where I have historically kept most of my securities do not.

Then, surprise, surprise, I started getting phone calls from a Schwab 'Advisor' which I ignored for a time. Eventually I returned a call just to let him know I existed. When he discovered I was not a newbie and had other accounts he urged, just short of insisted, I transfer them to Schwab. I declined and told him I had a pretty good memory and remember Lehman Bros. and others which he seemed to grasp. I thereafter discovered Schwab at that time held some long term treasuries which were destined to go down as interest were rising so I still feel a little skittish about it all.

Anyway after reading this book to sleep at night I feel I need to continue to keep my securities distributed among several wirehouses and wonder if others feel the same.[/QUOTE

Given all the big corporate hacks, and the risk of getting locked out of a single company, I decided to pull 20 percent of my savings at Vanguard and move them to Schwab. Not that I love Schwab. Both companies are fine. I just want to make sure I can get money out when I need it.

People don’t realize and a lot of posters here are confused thinking you have sign up to vanguard to purchase vanguard funds, same for fidelity. This is not true. There might be unique funds at vanguard, fidelity, Schwab, and other brokerage houses that you might not be able to buy if you don’t have an account with that broker. I’m sure you can buy a like fund with the brokerage house you belong too.

Instead of worrying about if your funds are safe, read how each broker handles each fund for ownership. In my Schwab money market fund, Schwab doesn’t actually own it, a 3rd party does so if Schwab would go under, my funds would still be accessible by me

You are correct that it could more difficult for a creditor to seize 401K assets than IRA assets, depending on which state you live in.
But that wouldn't be the determining factor for me. Being able to manage my own assets in an IRA is more important.

there is a feature in most 401s that allow you to pull money out after age 55 if you meet certain criteria (leave company after turning 55, 401k supports a 55+ withdrawal).We do have friends in TV that left and are at age 56 and are using their 401k $$$ to live off of.

https://money.usnews.com/money/retir...1k-withdrawals

Also, if you have Roth 401k and have not opened up and contributed to a Roth IRA, the growth of the money in the Roth IRA will not be able to withdrawn for 5 years without penalty.

My 401K was the Federal Government's Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). Congress has been borrowing money from that fund. I transferred my entire balance into an IRA within a few days after my retirement. I don't know what the rules are for a private employer to tap into a 401K fund, but I like having control of my own money.

Depending on what life brings, I could end up in a "colder" state.

As of now. I have numerous low-cost options plus access to Fidelity BrokerageLink(which I have not explored yet).

Also, according to the NetBenefits website, I have the option to make partial rollovers to an IRA.

I find to fully understand the options, I need to call them a few times and take an "average" of their responses.;)

I never use a tax-deferred account to invest in stocks, only bonds. That is because any stock market gains will eventually be taxed as ordinary income with no captial gains benefits.

Just curious why no one Mentions Using TROWE PRICE?

Dow high 36,799 on 1/4/22
 

Dow high of 36,799 on 1/4/22

I used them long, long ago but they dropped off my radar. Thank you, I'll check them out!

I moved some money from Vanguard to Fidelity just because of the SIPC limits.

Fidelity considers one of my Vanguard funds a Transaction Fee (TF) fund. In this case, the usual online TF purchase fee of $49.95 has been raised to $75.00.

Fidelity considers another "not available for retail trading."

No confusion here. With the money that was moved to Fidelity, I chose to go with a something similar.

Just as a Personal courtesy and not to be a smart a__, I would humbly suggest the spelling of lose (as in to lose) as l-o-s-e and NOT any other way.

As a general statement, I would say that return depends on risk. The more the risk, the more one should be compensated with reward. So, an investor should determine how much risk their personality can take. With the long-ago advent of ETFs, an investor can easily get an average return with an average (or even less) risk. Just buy the ETF for the S and P, which is (SPY). Pretty simple........you get an average (good) return with average to low risk due to high amounts of diversification. Thank me very much (and please send me 1/4 of 1% of all your gains each year....for good advice)!

I would NOT blame Schwab for "long-term investments that are now suffering". I assume it is like many banks that lent out money at say 3 or 4 % (when inflation was like 1%) and then the FED (which was late to react) pushed up interest (to prevent out-of-control inflation) to about 9%. I guess that you could say that things are stabilizing now.
........note: Russia and Saudi Arabia have done the US no favors by driving oil (therefore gas) upwards.

They COULD get hacked. But, do they carry insurance against that?

From Fidelity's website:
What is SIPC?
The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) is a nonprofit organization that protects stocks, bonds, and other securities in case a brokerage firm goes bankrupt and assets are missing.

The SIPC will cover up to $500,000 in securities, including a $250,000 limit for cash held in a brokerage account.

What Fidelity accounts are covered?
All Fidelity brokerage accounts are covered by SIPC. This includes money market funds held in a brokerage account since they are considered securities. Learn more about SIPC coverage at www.sipc.orgOpens in a new window.

Excess of SIPC
In addition to SIPC protection, Fidelity provides its brokerage customers with additional "excess of SIPC" coverage through Lloyd's of London. The excess coverage would only be used when SIPC coverage is exhausted. Like SIPC, excess protection does not cover investment losses in customer accounts, including losses due to market fluctuation. For example, fraud claims would not be covered if the brokerage firm was still in operation. Total aggregate excess of SIPC coverage available through Fidelity's excess of SIPC policy is $1 billion. Within Fidelity's excess of SIPC coverage, there is no per customer dollar limit on coverage of securities, but there is a per customer limit of $1.9 million on coverage of cash awaiting investment. This is the maximum excess of SIPC protection currently available in the brokerage industry.

Both SIPC and excess of SIPC coverage is limited to securities held in brokerage positions, including mutual funds if held in your brokerage account and securities held in book entry form.

Investment assets not covered by SIPC
Certain assets are not eligible for SIPC protection. Among the assets typically not eligible for SIPC protection are commodity futures contracts, precious metals, as well as investment contracts (such as limited partnerships), and fixed annuity contracts that are not registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the Securities Act of 1933.

Yeah. I don't think that Vanguard provides any excess of SIPC coverage.

"Yes, in addition to SIPC, Schwab clients receive an extra level of coverage through "excess SIPC" insurance protection for securities and cash. This helps ensure claims will be covered in the event of a brokerage firm failure and funds covered by SIPC protections are exhausted. Schwab's Excess SIPC program has a $600 million aggregate (meaning the most the program will pay for the Excess SIPC portion of the losses). Commodity interests, futures contracts and cash in futures accounts are not protected by SIPC."

"Protected up to US$600 million
The combined total of our SIPC coverage and our "excess SIPC" coverage means Schwab provides protection up to an aggregate of US$600 million, limited to a combined return of US$150 million per customer, up to US$1.15 million of which may be in cash."

Access Denied.

I've not bought T bills in years. As much as all the brokerages love us they are a business and so are in business to make money. It is simple to set up an account with the treasury and save those fees.

As far as accounts with several brokerages. Competition is good for the consumer. Vanguard has Admiralty shares and for years Fidelity said they do not exist. T Rowe has similar offerings. For us, I like Fidelity. You can call 24 hours a day seven days a week and find a HUMAN to talk too. There people are good. They will, if they don't know tell you so and tell you who you need to speak with and time they are reachable. Also a big plus with forms etc we can drive to their office and find a HUMAN to talk to.

Banking System Is On “Knife’s Edge” As Fed “May Destroy The World” | Chris Whalen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhV0WtE8jDo&t=1864s

Highly renowned expert on TBTF banks, regional banks, investment bankers and brokers has a great discussion on the financial industry. Has a lot to say about Schwab and just about every other major financial institution. There is no one better.

Have always used only two, Fidelity and Vanguard, lately "thinking" of adding another, possibly Schwab. I do NOT like the "pushy" tendency they are ALL developing in the last few years, to "advise me". I have always explained, in a pleasant manner, not angry or insulting, but when they tell me they can "assist me" in making good decisions for my money, that they are fiduciaries only interested in doing the best for me, I just explain that might be true, but in my opinion, NO BODY, NO ONE at any brokerage, cares quite as much about ME and my money as I DO. I don't doubt at all they care about doing "right" for me, but they have a lot of customers and they simply CAN NOT care as much a about my portfolio as I do ! So, I always make that clear as they get more and more "intrusive", the word I use for how they have changed in the last few years... btw, ever read the biography of Jessie Livermore by Richard Smitten ?

Still have a fair amount of asserts at Vanguard, but lately, say last 8-10 years have not been as enthusiastic about them as I once was. Now have more with Fidelity, and thinking of diversifying to one more (I mentioned thinking of Schwab in a previous post) as a third. All my life when the major indexes fell in any significant manner, and most all of my friends are taking their money out of the market as fast as they could before it went even lower, that's when I have always done my serious buying ! It's worked well for me, that's all I can say, but I don't urge friends to do the same. To me when things really tank, that's my opportunity to do some serious buying compared to the dollar cost averaging in I'd normally do. To me a really BIG fire sale (crash as some call it) is an opportunity; I just jump in fast and buy as much as I can possibly afford. It's not the norm for most people, but it's worked very well for me. I don't "day trade", but again, I know many, including our own adult children, believe that is the way to build generational wealth, we all have our methods of investing is all I can say.

My experience exactly, but it doesn't really bother me very much. I am immune to pushy salespeople. I like both Vanguard and Fidelity. Great investment companies.

The title is a little misleading. Probably the host was trying to maximize the clicks. Not much scare mongering. Primarily it was frank and detailed analysis.

Yes, Vanguard has changed over the last several years and not for the better IMHO.

Last I read Schwab's unrealized bond losses now amount to $19.4B.

In my old home city where I still keep my Schwab account the company recently moved its office from a very high end building in the middle of the financial district to a budget building at its edge. This happened after Schwab absorbed TD Ameritrade but still...