Curious don't see much mention of Merrill Lynch or Morgan Stanley here. Why?

[jerseyguy]

Do these two firms charge higher fees or are there other reasons I/we should know about to avoid them in handling our funds. I have an old IRA with Lynch and have the feeling I should roll it over to Vanguard or Fidelity from all your other previous wonderful comments found in other threads. Again, I am new to this.

[Ima saver]

I am sure those firms charge commission. I started out doing my own "thing" and discovered that vanguard charged no load (commission) and had about the lowest fees in the industry, so I stuck with Vanguard since 1988. Vanguard can handle the roll over for you if you wish, just give them a call.

[jerseyguy]

Thanks Saver. Do you think I will be hit with heavy fees/fines from M. Lynch when I pull it from them

[Ima saver]

I have never dealt with M. Lynch. I guess you need to call them and ask. Vanguard won't charge anything to do the rollover.

[kristinecfp]

Jerseyguy - whether ML charges you anything to move your IRA elsewhere depends on what you are invested in. If you are invested in a B-share mutual fund, then that means that fund is subject to a back-end commission. When you sell a B-share fund, you pay the commission at the time of sale.

If you are new to investing, you may not know what a B-share is, so see the attached article on mutual fund class shares. http://www.nasd.com/web/idcplg?IdcSe...NASDW_0060 22

Good luck!

[CRFSaver]

Actually Merrill Lynch has 4 classes of their broker sold funds. If you feel the financial advice is worthwhile then it is worthwhile but it will cost you a pretty penny. Broker sold funds tend to be less competative, hence Merrill Lynch spinning its fund unit off to combine with Blackrock. If you are not using any of the services at Merrill Lynch and being charged you would be better off moving it. If you are not being charged and you are happy with the performance let it sit is my advice.

[sweeps]

I agree with CRF. Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS... all those companies make their money by making you feel like they've "got your back". If you've got a couple million in assets and you're a busy person, they might be worth it. But for the average investor, they're a waste, IMO.

[Tree0164]

MS and ML do charge fees-heavy ones. I used to deal with them when I worked in financial services. They are not going to look at you if you are just doing a small deposit here or there. You are better off going with a Vanguard, Fidelity and save money on the fees.