Bogleheads.org

Thanks to all who replied!

Just to double-check: for those of you who notified Vanguard of your new (non-US) address, did they forbid ANY purchases, including additional purchases of mutual funds and ETFs in which you already owned shares? Or did they only forbid purchases of funds and ETFs that were "new" to your account?

J

Vanguard seems to allow accounts with a foreign address, if the accounts were opened when the account holder lived in the US.

Sometimes one reads horror stories about Vanguard suddenly closing accounts with a foreign address.

Does anyone have firsthand experience with this? If so, did Vanguard allow time for IRA's to be rolled over to another brokerage?

Thanks!

J

Thanks to all for your quick responses!

J

We have both a Vanguard Brokerage account and Vanguard mutual funds.

According to the Vanguard website, "Vanguard funds not held in a brokerage account are held by The Vanguard Group, Inc., and are not protected by SIPC."

What protections are there if Vanguard gets into financial trouble? If the assets are actually held by a separate "custodian," is the custodian covered by SIPC or private insurance?

Thanks!

J

Thanks, TedSwippet and DJN! Very good points.

J

Thanks. We're aware of the situation with PFIC taxes.

Our accountant has assured us that our Dutch "Box 3" (asset) taxes, including those carried over from past years, will cover our PFIC taxes. And his extra charges for preparing the appropriate tax form are modest (EUR 40 per fund).

J

Thanks, Gaston and ValueThinker!

Our accountant has assured us that our Dutch "Box 3" (asset) taxes, including those carried over from past years, will cover our PFIC taxes. And his extra charges for preparing the appropriate tax form are modest (EUR 40 per fund).

J

We (US citizens, retired, living in Europe) are looking for a non-US bond fund to protect us against a weaker dollar in the future. Our financial planner suggests investment grade rather than government bonds. The most suitable vehicle available through our Dutch bank is iShares Euro Corporate Bond, available either as a mutual fund iShares Euro Investment Grade Corporate Bond Index Fund (IE) (we would choose the Flexible Accumulating EUR version) or as an ETF iShares Core € Corp Bond UCITS ETF via ABN AMRO (bank) IE00B3F81R35 on JustETF.com IEAC on Morningstar EUN5 We have owned mutual funds and ETFs domiciled and traded in the US, but we have no experience with those domiciled and traded in Europe. In the US, closed-end mutual funds are p...

The country percentages are spread through the "Schedule of Investments" at the end of the listing of each country's bonds.

Thanks, SimpleGift!

J

We (US citizens, retired, living in the Netherlands) are looking for a non-US bond fund or ETF, domiciled in Europe to protect us against a weaker dollar in the future. Presently all of our investments are at Vanguard, and we don't want to buy their USD-hedged international bond fund. Our financial planner suggests investment grade corporates rather than government bonds. We also don't want to increase the number of financial institutions with which we deal, so we would strongly prefer a fund or ETF available through our bank (ABN AMRO). We are interested in the iShares Euro Corporate Bond Fund, known variously as IE00B3F81R35 IEAC (on justetf.com) EUN5 (on Morningstar) Unfortunately none of the following sources justetf.com morningstar.co....

Thanks to all who replied. (I did also ask on the non-US section of the forum.)

We still can access US-domiciled funds through our Vanguard (US) accouns. However, for non-US bonds,we didn't find any suitable US-domiciled, unhedged funds or ETF's. The closest were IBND (but tracking error of about 1% per year) and WIP (inflation-protected government bonds, but 30% emerging markets).

Regarding non-US domiciled funds and ETF's, JustETF seemed to have almost exclusively ESG ETF's. We are looking on Morningstar.co.uk, and at ABN AMRO (our bank in the Netherlands). The PFIC issue is not important for us, as we can take Foreign Tax Credit for the substantial asset taxes that we pay in the Netherlands.

J

Thanks again to all who replied.

EddyB, is IBIS2 really Euro hedged (which involves costs to the fund), or simply quoted in Euros?

J

Thanks to all who replied.

Does Vanguard (Europe), or another big ETF provider, also have a "Target Retirement" fund with stock portion being reduced over time?

J

We (US / Dutch citizens living in the Netherlands) are trying to simplify our portfoLio and also protect it against a falling dollar. Presently all of our investments at Vanguard, where there are no good options for NON-USD-hedged bond funds. Two questions: 1 What are good sources (other than morningstar.co.uk) for finding suitable Europe-domiciled mutual funds and ETF's? On Morningstar (UK), the ETF selection tool does not work consistently, sometimes vital info (such as portfolio allocation by country) is missing, and sometimes some info (such as the currency in which an ETF reports) does not match the info on the ETF provider's website. (We are aware of PFIC taxation, but our accountant says that most or all PFIC taxes will be covered by...

We (US citizens, retired, living in Europe) are looking for a non-US bond fund to protect us against a weaker dollar in the future. Our financial planner suggests investment grade rather than government bonds, but the options are limited and we're skeptical that the higher yields justify the higher expense ratios.

Could anyone please suggest a data source about the historical yield spreads of foreign corporate bonds over foreign government bonds?

Thanks!

J

Thanks, I understand that any foreign taxes would not be deductible or creditable in the US. But we also pay taxes in another country, so my question is whether Vanguard even shows the amount of foreign taxes paid on year-end statements.

For those of you who own either the ETF version, VT (Total World Stock ETF), or the mutual fund version, VTWAX (Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund Admiral Shares):

On your year-end 1099 Consolidated form (for the ETF) or 1099-DIV form (for the mutual fund), does Vanguard show the amount of foreign tax paid, even though, in the US, one can't take the foreign tax credit for it? This is relevant for those of us who have the privilege of filing returns and paying taxes in more than one country.

Thanks!

J

For those of you who already own either the ETF version, VT (Total World Stock ETF), or the mutual fund version, VTWAX (Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund Admiral Shares):

On your year-end 1099 Consolidated form (for the ETF) or 1099-DIV form (for the mutual fund), does Vanguard show the amount of foreign tax paid, even though one can't take the foreign tax credit for it? This is relevant for those of us who have the privilege of filing returns and paying taxes in more than one country.

Thanks!

J

Thanks vineviz. Good point about duration.

Question remains...weighing lower European rates and higher ER vs. exchange rate risk, is it more prudent to keep half of our bond allocation in intermediate-term treasury index or in IGOV? (Other half is in intermediate-term TIPS (mostly VAIPX) and iBonds.)

J

Thanks to all who replied. I didn't realize that this was such a controversial topic... I have two questions. 1) Are one or both of these (IGOV and WIP) so thinly traded that liquidity problems, resulting in inability to trade reasonably close to the NAV, would arise frequently? (I'm not talking about "market crises," just "normal" situations.) 2) Let's say that I buy a substantial sum of one of these. For 5 years, each year, I sell about 5% (to help fund our retirement). At the end of the 5 years I sell the entire holding because I am consolidating everything into a one-fund solution. If I want to adjust reported past returns (price, not NAV) to see what they would have been in a situation such as mine, how much (annual...

We (US expats in the Netherlands) are considering buying either iShares International Treasury Bond ETF (IGOV) or SPDR FTSE International Government Inflation-Protected Bond ETF (WIP) as a substantial holding, in order to protect ourselves against a substantial decline of the dollar against the euro.

IGOV has an average volume of
174,802 shares / $6.31M

WIP has an average volume of
82,856 shares / $3.25M

Is WIP, or are both of these, so thinly traded that there's a substantial chance that liquidity (selling at a reasonable price) could be a problem?

Thanks!

J

Thanks Ted! I've sent Vanguard a "secure message" to ask if this is possible with a brokerage account.

J

EddyB,

thanks for your very informative response.

Can you also buy Vanguard mutual funds (not ETF's) through Interactive Brokers?

What fees or commissions do they charge when purchasing and selling the above (if available), and when purchasing and selling US-domiciled and UCITS ETF's? Any AUM-based or other annual account maintenance fees? Do they have a money market fund, and, if so, about how much interest is it currently paying?

Is it easy to link the account to a European bank account?

Thanks again!

J

Thanks Ted, very helpful! We would prefer keeping our investments exclusively with Vanguard (US), rather than having most of them there and a few with IB or another European broker.

Does anyone have recommendations about the ETF's that I mentioned in my original post?

J

Thanks to all who replied.

We are trying to simplify our portfolio.

Would UCITS ETF's be available through Vanguard US, or would we have to roll IRA's over to Vanguard Europe in order to invest in them?

And is it 100% clear that UCITS ETF's are allowed in IRA's, without any PFIC or PRIIP problems, or is this a grey area?

J

Post 3 of 3 For ETF's investing only in government bonds, there are 3 possible options: iShares International Treasury Bond ETF (IGOV), SPDR Bloomberg International Treasury Bond ETF (BWX), and SPDR FTSE International Government Inflation-Protected Bond ETF (WIP). Using the "price returns" ( as opposed to NAV returns), although their returns in USD have been unspectacular, all of them returned more in EUR than inflation from 2012-2021, before crashing this year due to the combination of continued dollar strength and sharply rising real and nominal interest rates. Here's a summary. (* = not taken directly from the websites, but calculated from their data.) IGOV pros small spreads small premiums/discounts from NAV no emerging marke...

Post 2 of 3 Mutual Funds First, I searched on Morningstar for World Bond Funds, unhedged, no load, ER 0.50% or less rated 3, 4 or 5 stars. The only fund available with more than $1 billion in assets, and available via Vanguard, are Dodge & Cox Global Bond I (DODLX, 5 stars), a fund of government and corporate bonds which achieved a decent return in recent years by betting on US bonds and dollar-denominated foreign bonds. With a higher expense ratio, T. Rowe Price International Bond Fund (RPIBX, 2 stars) is available. Both are managed funds, which we would like to avoid. So, I searched for ETF's. For an ETF including corporates as well as government bonds, the only strong candidate is Franklin International Aggregate Bond (FLIA). FLIA p...

Situation We are US citizens (and since 2021 also Dutch citizens), retired, in our late 60's early 70's, living in the Netherlands. Our asset allocation was 70/30 during my working years, but we lowered it to 40/60 a few years before my retirement. The 60% is split evenly between Vanguard Short-Term Treasury Index Fund Admiral (VSBSX) and inflation-protected bonds (a combination of Vanguard Inflation-Protected Securities Fund Admiral (VAIPX) and relatively small amount inf iBonds). Other than the iBonds , all of our investments are with Vanguard, mostly in their mutual funds. We don't want to invest in European-based mutual funds or ETF's because of the PFIC taxes and extra chores for our accountant. Our US assets (except for pre-tax "...

Thanks!

Thanks! And what if I want to go in the other direction: converting total return to annualized return.

For 10 years, use power(total return,0.1)?

If I want to calculate total return of a mutual fund or ETF over a multi-year period, do I simply use the POWER function in Excel with the annualized return (from Vanguard, Morningstar, or etf.com) and the number of years? Or is there some complication about arithmetic and geometric means that I have to take into account, and, if so, how do I do that?

Thanks!

J

I have always avoided using Google as much as possible, and have never signed up for a Google account, due to privacy concerns.

But now my wife and I would very much like to sign up for YouTube Premium (to avoid commercials), which requires a Google account for each user.

Any suggestions on how to give Google (and YouTube) the absolute minimum of information and choose the right settings so as to minimize their snooping?

Thanks!

J

I check our accounts every week. Under "Asset Mix," I was able to see the percentages of stocks, bonds, and "cash," to the nearest 10th of a percentage point.

Logged on today, there seems to be a new interface, and I can't find "Asset Mix." Portfolio Watch only shows percentages to the nearest whole percentage point.

Where is "Asset Mix?"

Thanks!

J

I am organizing a Zoom reunion of former classmates from long ago.

Is there a simple piece of software, or app, for sending a list of options for a meeting time to a group of people, so that they can indicate when they are or are not available? I use Apple products, but I don't know if all the recipients do.

Thanks!

J

I am trying to reach school classmates with whom I have had no contact in over 50 years.

Beyond search engines and LinkedIn, what are the best sources of contact information? (I'm not on FaceBook.)

Any experiences (positive or negative) with whitepages.com or Spoken?

Thanks!

J

What is the minimum balance that has to be maintained, in order to avoid Vanguard closing the account, in

--a Vanguard money market fund that is used as a settlement fund for a brokerage account?
--a Vanguard money market fund that is NOT used as a settlement fund for a brokerage account?

Thanks!

J

Are the new RMD tables for everyone? Or only for those under a certain age?

Thanks!

J

Thanks. No, we cannot sign up for an online account without a US address.

We have not received our SSA-1099s (Social Security Benefit Statements) for 2021.

We live in Europe, so we thought that it might be an issue with delivery time. However, if they were mailed by the end of January, as required by law, they should have arrived by now. As non-U.S. residents, we are not allowed to use the online system.

I suppose that our accountant could make do with the relevant lines from our bank statements (we have direct deposit), but it would be better to have the "real" statements.

Has anyone else received this year's statement(s) significantly later than usual?

Should we call Social Security to request that they send the statements again?

Thanks!

J

Thanks David!

But, since the Dutch tax rate of 49.5% on withdrawals from the Inherited IRA is far higher than the 15% maximum US tax on dividends in the taxable account, don't we want to put assets in the IRA that will have the smallest increase in value (including reinvested distributions in the IRA)?

J

I recently inherited some money, which (for now) is in money market funds in a (previously existing) joint taxable account and in bond funds in an Inherited IRA. We are recent retirees with a life expectancy of 10 to 20 years. We plan to deploy these funds to rebalance to our present AA: 40 / 60, with the 40% divided evenly between Short-Term Treasury Index Fund (VFISX for Investor shares, or VSBSX for Admiral shares) and the Inflation-Protected Securities fund (VIPSX for Investor shares, or VAIPX for Admiral shares). (Please, no discussions here about the choice of the short-term rather than intermediate-term fund, or about a Treasury fund vs. a broader fund.) The Inherited IRA has no RMD's but need to be emptied within 10 years, which we ...

They claim to automatically apply discount coupons to Amazon orders.

Anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks!

J

Neowizer,

My brother and I are having some difficulty getting answers from Fidelity (UC Retirement) regarding the missed RMD in the year of my mother's death (2021), and regarding what the rules are for distributions to us. (She was a beneficiary of my father, so we are beneficiaries of beneficiaries.)

Did you manage to get clear answers about the distribution rules?

Thanks!

J

Thanks for all the advice. The idea of disclaiming the timeshare sounds very good, but that's up to my nephew.

Will suggest to my brother that each heir receives the appropriate share of the total from the 403b and the other investment.

J

My Mom passed from Covid-19 in January. Most of her assets were to be divided, either through beneficiary statements or through the will governing her trust, 40 / 20 / 40, between my brother, his son, and me. Knowing that some of the smaller accounts had not been set up this way, she said something like "I'm counting on you guys to work this out between you after I die, without fighting." Now there is a question about whether and how to make some adjustments, since my brother's son was not a beneficiary of her 403b account, but would have been the sole beneficiary of another account, which however was sold before her death and put into her trust (which is to be divided 40/20/40). My brother wrote: [dollar amount] of the funds in t...

Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, the trust specifies what happens to the assets.

My brother, his son, and I are the beneficiaries of my Mom's trust.

Under the terms of the trust, after she passed, in January, the assets were first transferred to a survivors' trust, of which my brother and I are the trustees.

Now the assets are being transferred, as outlined in her will, from the survivors' trust to the three beneficiaries.

Is our cost basis the fair market value of the assets on the day of her death? Or, does the survivor's trust have to file a return and pay any required capital gains taxes; and is our cost basis thus the fair market value of the assets when they were transferred from the survivor's trust to us?

Thanks!

J

Thanks to all who replied.

Using DuckDuckGo (instead of Google) led me to whitepages.com , which had lots of postal addresses and landline phone numbers.
Don't yet know how accurate or up-to-date they are...

J

For a "save the date," and later a formal invitation, for a memorial service for our mother, my brother and I need to find e-mail or snail mail addresses for some past contacts.

Any recommendations for the best free and paid websites?

Thanks!

J