Vanguard New Year-end Statement Format POLL

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Do you prefer the new or old 2009 year-end statement formats

I prefer the OLD statement format
50
48%
I did not receive the new format. I received the old.
27
26%
I did not receive the new format. I received the old.
27
26%
 
Total votes: 104

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Sheepdog
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Vanguard New Year-end Statement Format POLL

Post by Sheepdog »

http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtop ... 1263484923 There are complaints on the new hardcopy year-end statements from Vanguard. If you would take this poll on whether you like or dislike it, I will forward to Vanguard after votes have stopped coming in.
If you have not received your 2009 statement yet, hold your vote until you do.
Jim
Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered you will never grow. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
chaz
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Post by chaz »

I prefer the NEW statement format. It is easy to read and has all the usual info.
Chaz | | “Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons." Woody Allen | | http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
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Doc
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Post by Doc »

I didn't vote. I never look at my statements. I download transaction data weekly into Quicken and check that balances are consistent with the on line balances. (The method Vanguard uses to report TIPS "price" is inconsistent with both Quicken and MS Money and requires a manual calculation to obtain, hence the weekly check of account balances.) I download the year end statements and store on a CD just in case but I have never had to refer back to one.

The financial software lets me look at the data any way I want, by account, by investment, historic data, lots, transactions etc. all at a touch of a tab. Why should I care what Vanguard's paper statement looks like?
A scientist looks for THE answer to a problem, an engineer looks for AN answer and lawyers ONLY have opinions. Investing is not a science.
eurowizard
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Post by eurowizard »

I shred my year end paper statements as soon as I get them. PDF files are so much better.
Faith20879
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Post by Faith20879 »

I don't really have a problem with the format. New things always take me a while to adjust to.

My issue is [with] the paper. I don't like to receive pre-shredded statements regardless if I keep them or not. My statements arrived with each page split into 3 sections.

Faith
Last edited by Faith20879 on Fri Jan 15, 2010 8:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
AlwaysaQ
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Post by AlwaysaQ »

I have only a money market account and did not add to it or subtract from it over the year. I had to subtract year-end balance from beginning-year balance to find the total income dividends. You would think that Vanguard could at least do that much on the new statements.
EyeDee
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Statements

Post by EyeDee »

.
I like neither.

The new is harder to read, missing informative items, and wastes paper to print deposit slips for people who do most of their processing with Vanguard through ACH.

The old was wasteful of paper because it failed to use the back sides, wasted space by repeating holder information in the headings on the individual fund pages, and included deposit slips. It also could have run the fund reports together where multiple funds were on the same page as far as I am concerned, although that would have been a problem for those who like to file by fund.
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EyeDee
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Post by EyeDee »

eurowizard wrote:I shred my year end paper statements as soon as I get them. PDF files are so much better.
.
Eurowizard,

If you are shredding the paper and getting your reports online, why not just change your Vanguard settings to not send the report.
Randy | SCA - Build Savings early by living below one's means, minimize Costs including taxes, and maintain a diverse Allocation.
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tetractys
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Post by tetractys »

The year end statement I received (even though I'm signed up for all e-documents) was still in the older format. It comes with several pages of mail in account stubs, which I don't need and immediately shred. As far as I know the new format will be phased in gradually. I'm sure it will be fine, and use less paper. -- Tet
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Post by nisiprius »

There's no choice "I dislike both." For different reasons.

Why O why O why is it so important to provide me with "Invest-By-Mail" slips that I never use? And exactly what about them can't be photocopied... or downloaded and printed?
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
retcaveman
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Post by retcaveman »

I was a little put off when they first arrived. I guess I am a little like Faith.

"I don't really have a problem with the format. New things always take me a while to adjust to. "
"The wants of mortals are containers that can never be filled." (Socrates)
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Sheepdog
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Post by Sheepdog »

bump
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Karl
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Post by Karl »

I have not seen the new format yet. The e-mail I got on this issue said that this change would not be implemented until after the year-end statements as I recall, so I'm surprised to hear that it's already happened to some of you at least.

That e-mail said I could call my Flagship rep to customize certain items to my liking and I did so. One of the changes was to be no more check images. I rarely write a check, but when I do I want an image of it for my records so I know what it was for and don't have to guess years later.

The new layout was only going to include info since last statement. No way. I want YTD info so I can see everything on my most recent statment. I'm not going to play "let's hunt for old statments so I can see what happened before that."

As for double sided printing, I said NO to that as well. While I understand that some people, perhaps most, would like this I personally hate it. Yeah, it costs Vanguard a tad more, but I have a big balance so I think they can afford it.

The only changes that I should get are the ones that can't be customized away. And they'd be landscape printing & pretty colors, neither of which really matter to me.
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HueyLD
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Post by HueyLD »

The “super skinny” font they put on the new statement is not easy to read for the 50+ eyes. It is even harder to read the lines in the shaded area. I tried to copy a couple of pages, but the copies are extremely hard to read, especially in the shaded area.

My state requires taxpayers to attach certain info from the statement in order to claim certain tax credits. With very light font printed on shaded background, the copies are not satisfactory because:

(1) A lighter copier setting results in very light fonts that are not legible, or
(2) A darker copier setting results in a dark background that obscures the light fonts.

I can live with double-sided pages as well as no new page break for each fund. But it is not acceptable to have printouts that are too light to read or copy.
Norris
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Post by Norris »

I have no problem with utilizing both sides, so long as redundant info and deposit slips that most investors seldom use don't take up space. I don't like the landscape printing. I've always put my statements in a three ring binder where I can read them like a book. I guess it's not a big deal, we get our statements only at year end, are online constantly, and seldom look at old paper statements.
gd
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Post by gd »

I finally printed 12-month transaction history for every fund from 1/1/09 - 12/31/09, annotating missing fund names, start and end shares and prices by hand with a pen for consistency with 30 years of records. It took 1 hour, font was 3x thicker. Paper quality of my discount printer paper seems comparable. Final tally:

2008- 27 sheets of paper total.
2009- 21 sheets of paper total, incompatible with existing records.
Hand-annotated replica of 2008 format using 2009 account/fund data (thus no boilerplate): 20 sheets.
ohiost90
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Post by ohiost90 »

where is the "I don't give a rats arse about the format" option? I have way more pressing things to worry and/or complain about....
gd
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Post by gd »

ohiost90 wrote:where is the "I don't give a rats arse about the format" option? I have way more pressing things to worry and/or complain about....
Hopefully not in the ongoing "Losing Trust in Vanguard" thread or the one a while back about losing an account. I agree it's not important-- until it's really important.
ohiost90
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Post by ohiost90 »

gd wrote:
ohiost90 wrote:where is the "I don't give a rats arse about the format" option? I have way more pressing things to worry and/or complain about....
Hopefully not in the ongoing "Losing Trust in Vanguard" thread or the one a while back about losing an account. I agree it's not important-- until it's really important.
And either format would suffice. Agreed?
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ram
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Post by ram »

the deposit by mail slips are a waste
Ram
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DaveTH
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Post by DaveTH »

I don't like the perforated paper they are using. Each time I handle the statement, the pages begin to separate. I've had to tape sections of individual pages twice already to prevent the perforated sections from separating. This was not well thought out.
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Sheepdog
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Post by Sheepdog »

Are there any more add-ons to the poll before I send to Vanguard?
Jim
Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered you will never grow. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
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