T Rowe Price?

[PhillyBird]

Skimming through Schwab’s quarterly issue of OnInvesting Spring 2018 edition, I came across a full page T Rowe Price ad that states: “Life isn’t a passive activity. Investing shouldn’t be either.”

I respectfully disagree

Having said that, do members here use T Rowe Price as a broker or invest in their products? I think Paul Merriman, who likes index funds, has some of their funds in his model portfolios.

[amitb00]

I do use T Roweprice although bulk of my money is with Vanguard and in Fidelity index funds. Majority of my 529 funds is at T Roweprice. Their active finds are generally low ER funds. They do offer index funds as well but they are more expensive than Vanguard.

[22twain]

When I had to invest in a taxable account for the first time several years ago, after using only my 403(b) plan for many years, I had no experience with independent investing. I went with TRP mainly because my father had used them once upon a time. After I found out about Bogleheads, I first switched to a 3-fund portfolio using TRP's index (or index-like) funds as listed in the wiki, with ERs in the 0.25-0.35% ballpark IIRC. Then I switched to Vanguard ETFs in a TRP brokerage account. It was simpler for me to do it that way than to move all the money over to Vanguard. I also have my Roth IRA there, also a brokerage account which holds only Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF.

I have to pay a whopping $9.95 commission on each trade, but I've never been in "accumulation mode" in that account so I make trades only to rebalance and withdraw some money once a year. Last year I made a grand total of four trades. The additional "ER" is minuscule.

[Sunrise]

We have about 40% of our Roth IRA money in the TRP Retirement 2040 fund, the rest in Vanguard Target Retirement 2040. Nothing wrong with a little competition from the active managers at TRP! TRP Retirement 2040 has had good performance, I think it's a good fund.

[aristotelian]

I sold my last TRP managed fund this year. I got started investing with them 20 years ago because somebody put my mom in them, then stuck with them out of inertia and not wanting to realize capital gains. I still have a couple of their index funds with Schwab now as the custodian. Their ER's have come down enough that I will probably not rush to get rid of them any more (their S&P Index, PREIX, is 0.21% now).

[tuningfork]

I have a chunk of money in some active T Rowe Price mutual funds in a taxable account, invested long before I knew about expense ratios or index funds. I'm generally satisfied with the performance of my TRP funds over the years, and their expense ratios are not outrageous. But my goals now are to simplify my investments to the 3-fund index portfolio. I have been slowly converting my TRP funds to index funds at Vanguard and Fidelity, but the gains are large enough that I don't want to do it all at once due to the tax bill it would incur.

[tibbitts]

I used to have an account at TRP but gave up on it at just the wrong time back around 2000. They had underperformed significantly for years and years, plus they charged me for each fund I held in my retirement plan. After I moved my money out of TRP they began to perform better, of course.

Now I have a TRP fund held through my employer plan. There are three or four TRP funds to choose from and I'm using the High Yield fund, .5% expense ratio (institutional class.)

[PhillyBird]

We have about 40% of our Roth IRA money in the TRP Retirement 2040 fund, the rest in Vanguard Target Retirement 2040. Nothing wrong with a little competition from the active managers at TRP! TRP Retirement 2040 has had good performance, I think it's a good fund.

Yes, actually their Target Date funds are close to Vanguard in composition, except for a 3-4% cash holding which seems wasteful for a 2045 fund. ERs hovering around 0.70-0.75%.

[BolderBoy]

I used to have an account at TRP but gave up on it at just the wrong time back around 2000. They had underperformed significantly for years and years, plus they charged me for each fund I held in my retirement plan.

My experience precisely. I was with them from 1978-2002. Switching to VG was like unleashing my portfolio's potential.

[ThePrince]

I own four T. Rowe Price funds and have been quite happy with their (out)performance.

[beardsworth]

For a while I've been following, but not buying, some T. Rowe Price funds. The main reason for my initial interest in Price was the availability of an "IRA Asset Rebalancing" feature in which an account holder with at least $10,000 (total) in an IRA can specify a particular allocation, by percentage per fund, and Price will automatically rebalance it once each calendar quarter. That seemed like the ultimate in "hands-off," "don't-compulsively-check-your-portfolio" account maintenance.

But I don't think a relationship between TRP and me is destined to be. Their large-cap funds don't offer much that I can't find at Vanguard. Among their mid-cap and small-cap domestic funds, Mid-Cap Growth and Mid-Cap Value have been closed to new accounts since 2010, and (growth-oriented) Small-Cap Stock has been closed since the end of 2013. Closing funds when the manager believes that asset growth should be limited is, of course, a responsible thing to do, but among those types of TRP funds, it means that only Small-Cap Value remains open.

Price's fine small/mid growth International Discovery also remains open, has had the same manager since the late 1990s, and most of the time has outperformed Vanguard International Explorer.

If I had an IRA at Price, I'd want to balance stocks with some bonds, and there I've been completely "spoiled" by Vanguard. Simply can't get accustomed to the idea of a GNMA fund with an expense ratio of 0.59% (almost triple the Investor Class of its Vanguard equivalent: 0.21); or an Intermediate Treasury Fund that would be 0.52 without a temporary waiver (Vanguard: 0.20); or a Treasury Money Market fund at 0.42 (Vanguard 0.09). And Price doesn't offer a domestic Total Bond Index like Vanguard's. Instead, they offer an "Enhanced" bond index, which in PriceLand seems to mean a dose of junkier high-yield stuff that I wouldn't want.

Bottom line: a good company compared to most, and seems to do a very good job of transitioning when a fund changes managers. But for me: still Vanguard.

[Bacardi]

I own four T. Rowe Price funds and have been quite happy with their (out)performance.

+1
I’ve held TRP Capital Appreciation Fund (now closed) in a ROTH for a number of years.
Go to Portfolio Visualizer, enter PRWCX and run it against VWELX (Vanguard Wellington) or several other combinations of like Vanguard funds and Cap. Appreciation holds up well.

[Viking65]

Yes. I have my entire portfolio with them: Taxable, Roth, 529, domestic, international, actively managed, index, and bond funds. I've been a customer for 40 years, and have absolutely no complaints. Yes, their ER's are higher than Vanguard, but their customer service is absolutely top notch. If I ever have an issue that I can't solve through their website, I just pick up the phone. Their representatives are extremely well trained and knowledgeable and simply make sure that everything is right. I have reached their highest recognition level, Enhanced Personal Services Client, so that provides a few extra perks as well, some that I use (free turbotax, WSJ and Forbes subscriptions) and some that I don't (a personal relationship manger). I am very happy with TRP.

[craimund]

I have over half of my assets with TRP (well over $1M). Been investing with then since the mid-late 1990s. They have some top performing actively managed funds as well as some very good sector funds (particularly tech and healthcare). ERs are reasonable for active management (0.6-0.9 for most domestic funds). I also hold index ETFs and have investments with Fido and Vanguard. Performance has exceeded the relevant indices net expenses.
Good to mix it up in my view.

Many of their better funds are currently closed to new investors. Exceptions are Blue Chip Growth (large cap growth) (TRBCX), Media and Telecomm (PRMTX) and Health Sciences (PRHSX). Global Technology (PRGTX) just recently closed but has exceptional performance since inception in 2000.

[craimund]

I own four T. Rowe Price funds and have been quite happy with their (out)performance.

+1
I’ve held TRP Capital Appreciation Fund (now closed) in a ROTH for a number of years.
Go to Portfolio Visualizer, enter PRWCX and run it against VWELX (Vanguard Wellington) or several other combinations of like Vanguard funds and Cap. Appreciation holds up well.

I own Capital Appreciation as well. 50-70% equity balanced fund. Has done well during current bull market. Also held up well during the financial crisis (lost "only" 28% in 2008). Unfortunately, this fund is closed to new investors.

[nisiprius]

The various magazine-like things brokerages send out, and their online articles, are always self-serving. The usual idea is to get you interested in taking action. Doing stuff. Six ideas for cool mutual funds we have that you might not have thought about buying. It's just the way it is. Vanguard's are self-serving, too although to their credit, theirs are more often along the lines of "Don't worry, be happy."

I don't want to dig through the history, but Vanguard has fairly often expressed some very weird ideas about the optimum strategy being to divide your investments about equally between index funds and active funds. Yes, seriously. I would love to be a fly on the wall in the galley at the end of the forenoon watch, and overhear what people in Vanguard's active funds talk about. They must get awfully tired of hearing about index funds.

[cegibbs]

My taxable account is in the Fidelity S&P 500 Index fund at Fidelity. However, my signicantly larger Rollover and Roth accounts are at T. Rowe Price in actively managed funds. Approximately 75% of my investable assets are in the Institutional Class Shares of the T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation Fund. I also have an investment in the T. Rowe Price Mid Cap Growth Fund. Both of the aforementioned TRP funds are closed to most new investors. TRP is an outstanding actively managed fund firm. Maybe the best along with Primecap. They have several excellent funds that are still open to new investors, e.g., TRP Blue Chip Growth.

[gailwinters]

Most of my IRA is in T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation. I have been happy with the fund’s performance during both the ups and downs of the market.

I agree with a prior post about T. Rowe’s customer service. I have done several IRA transfers and have used the same contact at T. Rowe each time. The level of personal attention has been outstanding.

[nedsaid]

I have a very high regard for T Rowe Price as a company and as a place to invest. Admired them for years but never invested there. I watched Brian Rogers as a panelist on Wall $treet Week for years. Larry Swedroe and Paul Merriman have said nice things about them. They have excellent active funds but so does Vanguard and Vanguard active funds are cheaper. But if you are invested there, you are in a good place.

[HomeStretch]

I had a retirement account at TRP invested in several funds like Capital Appreciation for many years. Agree with other posters that TRP’s customer service was excellent and I was happy with fund performance. I didn’t love the high fees. So when we began simplifying our financial holdings and reducing our investments into fewer, mostly passive funds, I moved the TRP account to join our other accounts at another low-cost broker rather than vice versa.

[Digital Dave]

I've invested with TRP for almost 25 years. I've held Mid Cap growth for 21 years and have 3 other funds (3/4 are closed). I currently have 15% of my investments with them. I've had no problems, but I am pretty much a hassle-free kind of guy anyway. I haven't added much money over the years, and I take my distributions in cash, so I haven't been increasing my stake. It grows on it's own. I've been with Vanguard for just as long.

[Tony-S]

I also have TRP for most of my retirement, principally spread between New Horizons (closed) and Blue-Chip growth. Both funds were in the positive last year and have outperformed S&P 500 by 2% and 1.4% over the last 20+ years, even accounting for the fees (~0.70%).

TRP's customer service and their web experience is much better than Fidelity, Vanguard, TIAA and Nationwide. I suspect when I retire all of my accounts will be consolidated with TRP for these reasons.

[FBN2014]

My daughter worked for T Rowe Price for 4 years. Their customer service is excellent and they train their employees very well in all aspects of qualified and non qualified investments.

[hushpuppy]

delete

[Tony-S]

A nice article on Larry Puglia, who runs TRP's Blue-Chip fund. It's outperformed the S&P 500 index for 20+ years.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/proof ... 2019-02-11

[FrankLUSMC]

My old 401K from the 1990's was T. Rowe. Company changed to Fidelity in 2002 after the DotCom bubble. So because I was familiar wuth them, I set my daughters Roth in T.Rowe and bought the T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation Fund (PRWCX) in 2002 and contributed a match of her earnings until she got a job with 401K. PRWCX has since closed, but she can continue to contribute if she wants to. It has done nicely for her.

[CoAndy]

My entire 401(k) is in a Vanguard Target Retirement Fund. 457 has money in both Fidelity Total Market and T. Rowe Price Growth Stock.

[renue74]

The 1st fund I ever bought when I was 23 was the T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Fund. Held it for many years and even when I went over to using an FA in 2012, she held it.

Thats about all we have with T. Rowe. I do have some small Roth IRAs I started for my kids there and it has averaged 6.75% return over the last 6 or 7 years.

The ONE thing that I do use it for....with a T. Rowe Price account, you get access to Morningstar X-ray asset analysis for free.

[fly fisher]

I echo the positive comments regarding TR Price. The far majority of our retirement is with TRP, mostly in Capital Appreciation. I've been very pleased with the performance and their customer service. They appear to have a strong, positive corporate culture. Many of their fund managers were developed internally and have a long tenure with TRP. For the record, I also own several index funds with Vanguard.

[Pizza_and_Beer]

My workplace 401(k) is with them. Customer service, website, and communications seem okay to me; I haven't had any problems. I'm not invested in any T Rowe Price funds though. The 401(k) offered a bunch of Vanguard index funds which I used exclusively to build my portfolio.