StarTribune.com

Where’s your Roth?

Posted on May 4th, 2007 – 6:36 AM
By Kara McGuire

Like all financial endeavors these days, finding the best place to open a Roth when nearly any money-related institution sells one

21 Responses to "Where’s your Roth?"

mike d says:

May 4th, 2007 at 9:10 am

My wife’s (”our”) Roth is with Vanguard. I like the idea of a mutual fund company dedicated to low fees and index funds. I finally started doing automatic withdrawals to fund that account this year, to complement my 457 from work. We have just one fund in the account, a targeted retirement fund, which is probably a bit too conservative overall, but it’s an easy one-stop until we get enough money in there to play around with.

David says:

May 4th, 2007 at 9:20 am

Our Roth IRA’s are at Vanguard…as are all other accounts possible. Wife’s employer plans not at Vanguard are “linked in” so that we have one view of all investments that is automatically updated daily.

Vanguard is my employer’s 401K/Pension provider, so I have been a customer almost 10 years. Service + website + access to Financial Engines led to me consolidate everything in one place. You can, of course, invest outside of Vanguard Funds with your Roth.

Elizabeth says:

May 4th, 2007 at 10:15 am

Vanguard. Primarily for the low fees.

Anna says:

May 4th, 2007 at 1:18 pm

Vanguard also, as I have a while until retirement I choose Vanguard’s small cap to be diversified. My Company’s 401k recordkeeper is through Merrill Lynch, where I have mostly international funds. I like Vanguard because of their smaller expense ratio and overall good experience I’ve had with them…

Colleen says:

May 4th, 2007 at 3:37 pm

I started a Roth for my son at Wells Fargo, where many of our retirement accounts are held since the demise of Strong Funds. At the time, he was 16. Note that a Roth must be in the owner’s name ONLY; no custodial or joint relationship named. Therefore, a brokerage account is not available until the minor/owner is 18. The Roth we hold is a bank product CD, as he is permitted to have a BANK account in his name only, but only under the Federal requirements that come with a retirement savings account. His regular checking account must still be a JOINT account with a non-minor. The Bank has offered seductive short term CD rates in the Roth. On his 18th birthday, he will be opening a Brokerage and rolling the Roth.

tlange says:

May 4th, 2007 at 4:48 pm

At Scottrade because the trades are only $7 and I can buy stocks and mutual funds to add to the Roth and there are no fees!

Tim says:

May 4th, 2007 at 4:55 pm

At Vanguard, on our financial planner’s recommendation. We’ve been pleased so far, though we hardly ever touch the Roths, except to contribute to them. We transferred one Roth account to Vanguard from Wells Fargo, because we found WF fees to be excessive.

Now, my employer is offering a Roth 401K option (through US Bank). Haven’t taken advantage of that yet, and can’t decide if I should. Is my employer on the cutting edge in this way, or are others offering Roth 401ks now?

Jake says:

May 4th, 2007 at 8:15 pm

Ours are at Diversified Investments- not because of fees or investment options, but because of the personalised financial advice that they offer. My wife and I have what we consider to be a somewhat unusual financial situation. We are both physicians- which means that we are now earning fairly good salaries, but that earning starts late in life (our earnings exceeded our debt payments for the forst time inour early thirties). Our debt load is also fairly high- over $200K combined. Although the fees may be higher, Diversified has financial advisors who offer advice which pertains specifically to our situation. Maybe the cost is not worth it, but with the limited time we have to devote to such matters, it feels worth it to us.

Jim says:

May 5th, 2007 at 10:24 am

Right now my IRA and Roth IRA are with Oppenheimer Funds. I was sold these funds when I was young and naive’ and out of sheer business / laziness / ignorance, I have yet to find something else.

This week I took the first step to reevaluating my Oppenheimer funds…I tried to read the prospectus. That was painful.

I really would like to move into Socially Responsible Investing, but that adds yet another layer of complexity onto this already too complex topic.

Jim

Elizabeth says:

May 7th, 2007 at 9:03 am

My employer also started offering the Roth-401k this year. I believe 2006 was the first year it could be offered.

It was a bit sad–at the presentation introducing it, I seemed to know more about it than the reps from HR and our 401k provider.

anon says:

May 7th, 2007 at 11:37 am

T Rowe Price because I like their target-retirement fund and there’s no minimum if you do an automatic monthly contribution. Someday I think I will switch to Vanguard though (low fees).

Tom K says:

May 8th, 2007 at 8:13 am

Vanguard has my Roth, and it’s there to stay.

In the past, I’ve had a Roth with American Express (high fees, trading cost a fortune), and Pershing (American Funds only, 5.75% load). All have been moved over to Vanguard and I am happy as ever.

Scott says:

May 20th, 2007 at 10:33 pm

I need a tax break. Why do I need to dump what little I have in a ROTH?

Dan says:

May 22nd, 2007 at 3:18 pm

I have regular IRAs with Fidelity–great company. I also have a Roth with Pax World. It’s a great place to get started on a Roth, and you can get in with as little as $250.

Linkin Park says:

September 19th, 2007 at 2:14 am

Combien il coûte, pour to développer drapeau South ton blog?