Your Survival Guy sees this latest move as a push to a higher fee advisor service, or else. According to Think Advisor’s Dinah Wisenberg Brin, Vanguard is warning clients that if they use phone support too much, their accounts will be canceled. Wisenberg Brin writes:
Vanguard Group’s aim to steer brokerage customers toward online engagement rather than phone contact became clearer recently when the firm warned that, come Monday, too many calls could lead to account termination.
This change, taken with recently announced fee additions at Vanguard Brokerage Services, has raised questions from some critics who wonder if the giant asset manager is straying from its foundational low-cost, customer-centric orientation.
Cost savings for Vanguard do factor into the changes, according to two experts.
Vanguard’s new brokerage account agreement says the company expects clients to primarily use digital channels for interactions and communications regarding their accounts, including e-delivery, the Vanguard website and mobile app, instant chat and a secure message center.
Action Line: This feels a lot like getting pushed into the self-checkout line at the grocery store. Read more about Vanguard’s new leadership and what that means for customers in Your Survival Guy’s SPECIAL REPORT: The Trouble with BlackRo… er… ummm, Vanguard.
