Vanguard Flagship Tier still active?

[jebmke]

I just noticed (because I just looked) that in the upper left corner where it used to say "flagship" it now says "Personal investors."

I guess the party's over.

You didn’t noticed when they stopped serving drinks a few years ago?

[stan1]

I just noticed (because I just looked) that in the upper left corner where it used to say "flagship" it now says "Personal investors."

I guess the party's over.

Same, $5M is fully the new $1M it appears.

[AlwaysLearningMore]

Regarding Flagship benefits, Vanguard's website seems long on platitudes and short on specifics:

"You're a Flagship client at Vanguard, which means you get personalized services reserved for our high-net-worth investors.

Helping you look at your wealth holistically is important to us. As a Flagship client, you'll have exclusive resources available to you, including Vanguard professionals who can help you meet your investment and wealth management needs.

Offered through Vanguard Personal Advisor for a low fee, advisors are also available to help you navigate the complexities of wealth management in areas like trust services, tax strategies, financial advice, and philanthropy.

When you call, you'll speak with an experienced representative who will act as your guide to all the services we offer our high-net-worth clients. Whenever you're facing a complex situation or change in circumstances, a representative will coordinate personalized, expert help that's tailored to your needs."
https://investor.vanguard.com/client-benefits/flagship

[Tubes]

There used to be specifics. Not anymore, it is all gone. $5M is the new number.

If you are under this and still have a personal representative or special phone number, don't be smug. Your day will come and you will join the rank and file.

[beyou]

Couldn't we once get a single free consult as part of Flagship Tier?

Does that still exist at Vanguard anywhere? My wife would love for "a professional" to go over our portfolio and reassure her that we are doing as well I tell her we are doing.

But she doesn't want to pay for it...

Do you really think some unpaid service was going to do a better job in one free session compared to having the Bogleheads review your portfolio ?

There are people who will give a free review as a sales pitch to hire them for AUM management. So you eventually pay.
And frankly that free review will be designed so that they see you "need" them for the AUM management ongoing, not intended to tell a DIY to keep doing DIY. Only a paid review can do that, or free advice from friends and strangers like on Bogleheads.

[beyou]

Couldn't we once get a single free consult as part of Flagship Tier?

Does that still exist at Vanguard anywhere? My wife would love for "a professional" to go over our portfolio and reassure her that we are doing as well I tell her we are doing.

But she doesn't want to pay for it...

Do you really think some unpaid service was going to do a better job in one free session compared to having the Bogleheads review your portfolio ?

There are people who will give a free review as a sales pitch to hire them for AUM management. So you eventually pay.
And frankly that free review will be designed so that they see you "need" them for the AUM management ongoing, not intended to tell a DIY to keep doing DIY. Only a paid review can do that, or free advice from friends and strangers like on Bogleheads.

Back when Vanguard offered this CFA review I didn't even give it another thought and never asked for it.
Didn't need a one time free opinion. If I wanted a 2nd opinion I would pay a respected fee-only planner for the unbiased advice.
Might have this done when older for my spouse's benefit, to have her sit in the review and understand herself, not really for me.
But as long as I am competent and healthy to do myself, no need.

[beyou]

The last time I checked, flagship status allowed access to some closed funds.

Which are all actively managed... I think I have 50 free trades are year, not very useful when ETFs are commission free, I guess useful if I wanted to buy transaction fee mutual funds.

I do have one Dodge & Cox fund held in the Vanguard brokerage account. Commission is $0 for the first 25 trades per year, which is about 23 more than I need, vs. $20 per trade if I weren't Flagship.

Yeah this seems to be the only remaining $1m+ client benefit.
But since I now only own ETFs wont likely every use this again.
Also my use of ETFs has gotten me to reduce my total that count for Flagship, moving from Vanguard open end funds to some non-Vanguard ETFs,
all commission free. They really made it too easy to move your $ away from Vanguard when they forced the transition to brokerage.
Dumb move IMO, but I am glad since I now own even lower ER funds that I can trade anytime I need to.

[vnatale]

"Maybe you get free paper statements."

I used to get an annual statement on paper. Vanguard stopped providing it.

My understanding was that you had to actively make the decision to switch from paper to paperless, i.e., it was not automatically done on Vanguard's part.

They hit me with the nag screen for paperless everytime I login. Last ~3 months or so, across MANY logins. Permanent nonsense? Maybe. For a couple months they were also nagging me, less obtrusively, about their ~4% bank-like account, which seems pretty "meh" to me. I think that nagging has stopped.

We're Flagship Select, I think, and theoretically have an assigned advisor. Had one for ~10+ years who was great. Got a new one a year or two back - have had few issues needing interaction, but stumbled into two tax issues last month. Sent message to rep, unanswered. Sent another message a week later ("hey did you get the first?") - unanswered. Again 2 weeks after the original, finally got a "working on it" type response. Not great.

Hall of Fame Horrendous service??!!!

[anon_investor]

There used to be specifics. Not anymore, it is all gone. $5M is the new number.

If you are under this and still have a personal representative or special phone number, don't be smug. Your day will come and you will join the rank and file.

Or just move to Fidelity or Schwab and pocket a bonus for transferring assets.

[beyou]

If anyone is aware of any benefit to "Flagship" status, please post it; all advantages seem to me to have disappeared.

Free wire transfers.

Don't count on it! Early one month they did one for me; later that month they rejected one to the same bank and person.
Ed

Well it was still free wasn't it ? Things can go wrong, wires are not as automated as ACH, which is one of the reasons there is a fee for wires at most banks and brokers. More work and more things can fail.

PS I managed tech and ops for a small broker and fund manager for a few years. We had people whose only job it was to manually handle wire transfers for our fund and brokerage customers. Most everything else was fully automated.

[Grasshopper]

What no more free coffee cups.

[zlandar]

I had someone from VG email me a few weeks ago introducing herself. Under her name her title is "relationship manager Vanguard Wealth management". She is listed at the bottom of my VG account as a Flagship representative. Her phone number is different from VG's customer service number.

I've called in once. It rings her phone and you can leave a voicemail. Also option to be connected to an available VG rep.

[Florida Orange]

I had someone from VG email me a few weeks ago introducing herself. Under her name her title is "relationship manager Vanguard Wealth management". She is listed at the bottom of my VG account as a Flagship representative. Her phone number is different from VG's customer service number.

I've called in once. It rings her phone and you can leave a voicemail. Also option to be connected to an available VG rep.

The same thing happened to me but I've never tried to call the person. I read somewhere that each relationship manager has a huge number of clients because people hardly ever call.

[exodusing]

Relationship manager is generally for what used to be labelled Flagship Select. Interesting that they're still using the Flagship branding. If you're that tier, the phone system usually routes you to your rep and if they're not available to the team, which often answers on very few rings saying "ultra high net worth", although that's not consistent.

[fetch5482]

What no more free coffee cups.

I never received one anyway!

[anagram]

If anyone is aware of any benefit to "Flagship" status, please post it; all advantages seem to me to have disappeared.

Free wire transfers.

Don't count on it! Early one month they did one for me; later that month they rejected one to the same bank and person.
Ed

Well it was still free wasn't it ? Things can go wrong, wires are not as automated as ACH, which is one of the reasons there is a fee for wires at most banks and brokers. More work and more things can fail.

PS I managed tech and ops for a small broker and fund manager for a few years. We had people whose only job it was to manually handle wire transfers for our fund and brokerage customers. Most everything else was fully automated.

What can fail? How difficult can it be to send funds to a bank account?

[beyou]

If anyone is aware of any benefit to "Flagship" status, please post it; all advantages seem to me to have disappeared.

Free wire transfers.

Don't count on it! Early one month they did one for me; later that month they rejected one to the same bank and person.
Ed

Well it was still free wasn't it ? Things can go wrong, wires are not as automated as ACH, which is one of the reasons there is a fee for wires at most banks and brokers. More work and more things can fail.

PS I managed tech and ops for a small broker and fund manager for a few years. We had people whose only job it was to manually handle wire transfers for our fund and brokerage customers. Most everything else was fully automated.

What can fail? How difficult can it be to send funds to a bank account?

Anything done manually can fail more readily than if fully automated. Any transaction with greater risk requires more controls and procedures. ACH can be clawed back and wires cannot. This is a larger risk for banks requiring more controls, sometimes manual in nature to review potential exceptions warning of fraud and such.

https://www.moderntreasury.com/journal/ ... -expensive

“ Banks charge fees because they take on risk to make money accessible quickly by releasing money from their reserve funds.”

[SevenBridgesRoad]

You're all winners in my mind. Everyone gets a trophy! Now go grab that orange juice box from the cooler.

[ram]

Couldn't we once get a single free consult as part of Flagship Tier?

Does that still exist at Vanguard anywhere? My wife would love for "a professional" to go over our portfolio and reassure her that we are doing as well I tell her we are doing.

But she doesn't want to pay for it...

The initial free meeting for PAS may be of interest to you/her.

[tj]

I still get emails about being Voyager class, yet I moved my accounts from Vanguard over a year ago.