<p>BTW, depending on the amount you have under management at any one company, you can get additional services. Obviously, the more money, the more services. Some help you with asset allocation, stock and bond picks, other financial counseling, etc.</p>
<p>Vanguard is excellent, they have everything you need online. They are quite inexpensive, and if you ever want to talk to someone they are available.</p>
<p>Surprisingly enough, they are also a non-profit company.</p>
<p>I’ve been very happy with Vanguard. They have low fees, and as busdriver says they are an investor owned company rather than publicly traded - that is the investors in their mutual funds own the company.
If you have significant $ with Vanguard they give you additional services. I have always gotten good service over the phone.</p>
<p>My wife’s Mom had a bunch of her assets with Vanguard when she died. DW was executor of the estate and as I recall there were no particular problems in transferring assets to the heirs.</p>
<p>My 403b at work is with Vanguard. It has the vast majority of my retirement money.</p>
<p>But DH and I also each have a Fidelity IRA opened years ago with $2K per.
It was some year we ‘needed’ to sock some money in IRA according to our accountant at the time. Haven’t contributed a dime to either since and it IS amazing to see how they morphed into $42K plus over time. Certainly not enough to retire on but lovely nonetheless. </p>
<p>We also used Fidelity for DS’s 529 college plan and it was easy to navigate when funds needed for college.</p>