= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
RichardKennaway comments on Open thread, Nov. 23 - Nov. 29, 2015 - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (257)
So, it seems like lots of people advise buying index funds, but how do I figure out which specific ones I should choose?
I have a secondary question to that. These things seem to all operate online only, without bricks and mortar. How do I assure myself that a website that I have never seen before is trustworthy enough to invest, say, 6-figure sums of money in? Are there official ratings or registers, for probity rather than performance?
That's easy to answer for Vanguard, which has been around since 1975 and has $3T under management. It's not going anywhere. Both Wealthfront and Betterment were founded in 2008, in Palo Alto and NYC respectively, and have about $2B and $3B under management. I don't think there are any official ratings of probity out there; I'm not sure there's a good source besides trawling through the business press looking for red flags.
You may want to check if the brokerage firm/custodian is a member of SIPC, which provides a level of insurance against misappropriation. I think all the big names are members (Vanguard, Schwab, TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, etc.)
http://www.sipc.org/for-investors/what-sipc-protects