Bogleheads.org

MBMiner and Dulocracy: Very helpful comments. Thank you.

Penguin wrote (immediately above): "They then found out that it was possible to reverse the irrevocable trust!"

How was this done?
Can an irrevocable trust be reversed in any state?
What is the process?

Whether or not an irrevocable trust should have been set up in the first place I do not know. At this point it seems that all that can be done is to manage the trust as well as possible. The trust is designed so that the trustee can at any time distribute funds to a beneficiary who could then use th...

The trust is irrevocable. Its purpose is Medicaid planning. The five-year qualification period has not yet been met. No distribution to the beneficiaries (ages 50s and 60s) is expected. The trust ends with the death of the grantor (age 90s and still healthy) at which time the assets will be distribu...

Should the asset allocation of an irrevocable trust that ends with the death of the grantor be based on the age of the grantor, the age of the beneficiaries, or neither?

If and when I decide to sell part of a mutual fund, would it be too complicated for me to figure out for myself (without an accountant) which cost basis is most cost effective at that particular time? No, it won't be a problem. If you buy the fund now, Vanguard will keep a record of your cost basis...

But it can save you hundreds of dollars, so it's worthwhile whenever you sell part of a fund. When I needed to sell $5000 of a mutual fund a few years ago, FIFO would have sold shares for which I had paid $3000 ($300 tax), and average basis would have sold shares for which I had paid $4000 ($150), ...

You should use specific identification, so that you can sell shares to minimize your overall tax burden. Usually, you will want to minimize gains, but there are some exceptions. If you are in the 15% tax bracket and not taking Social Security, you will pay no tax on capital gains that leave you in ...

To switch to admiral shares do NOT do an exchange. Do a convert to admiral shares. You can do this on the website or call Vanguard and have them do it. Conversion will not be a taxable event. If your fund drops below the minimum for admiral shares due to market conditions, Vanguard will generally n...

* Is there a tax consequence for switching from Investor to Admiral? * Am I penalized if a Vanguard fund drops below its minimum ($3,000 or $10,000 or whatever) due to market fluctuation? * Should I use FIFO instead of AvCost for my cost basis? Answers to my three questions: * A Vanguard site says ...

If you want a portfolio which requires no management, are in a low tax bracket, and the allocation will be correct for the rest of your life , then the LifeStrategy Moderate Growth is fine for a one-fund taxable portfolio. You won't have to worry about rebalancing because the account will stay bala...

Many thanks to all three of you for un-confusing me. During this process my thinking has evolved. Now I am debating between LifeStrategy Moderate Growth and a 60/40 combination of Total Stock, Total International, and Total Bond. LifeStrategy would be easier, but I think I would enjoy watching the f...

You asked about tax consequences. The consequences are different for short and long. To know the consequences, you need both numbers for selling today, but the distributions from December are irrelevant. Perhaps you could reveal all four numbers: long December, long today, short December, and short...

What happened in the past is irrelevant; only the future will affect your returns. The best time to switch funds is when the new fund will go up more than the old fund; since you are switching to a higher stock allocation, you want to do this before the market goes up. However, I have no ability to...

I am not sure, but I think you might be confusing capital gains paid by the fund and capital gains you would realize if you sold your fund at a gain. VTINX paid a short term capital gain generated by its own sales of stocks and bonds that it holds of $0.021 a share on 12/27/2012. If you bought shar...

If you have no capital gains there should be no tax consequences to selling VTINX and buying whatever you want. You will pay tax on any dividends you have received. In order to have long term capital gains you need to hold the fund for at least a year. During the first year any gains would be short...

Is this in an IRA, or a plain old taxable account? It's just a plain old taxable account. With VTINX I have had no long-term capital gains. Would I have long-term capital gains with VBIAX during the first year? What is the thinking behind your wanting to switch? I am considering the switch in order...

Hello.
I am considering exchanging all of my VTINX (about $10,500) for VBIAX.
What is the cost of such an exchange?
What are the tax implications of such an exchange?
How do I decide if it is wise or foolish to make such an exchange?
How do I decide the timing of making such an exchange?

What I am hearing so far is that it will not hurt to hang on to CitiGroup
but that I could save money by transfering it to Vanguard.

I am a new Vanguard investor but still have investments with another financial organization. Through the other organization I bought about 100 shares of CitiGroup a couple of years before the crisis of 2008. In May 2011 CitiGroup did a Reverse Stock Split, leaving me with about 10 shares at about 10...