This is really just a preference question.

Vanguard and Fidelity are both totally fine places for your IRA. Vanguard does offer a conversion from mutual fund to ETF share class, which is useful in a taxable account to avoid realizing capital gains if you want to switch, it's not as necessary in an IRA, except that the conversion would keep you from being out of the market for any time.

VFIAX and VOO and FXAIX are all equivalent.

Maybe a good opportunity to consider even more diversification than S&P500; How about the three-fund portfolio of total US + total International + Bonds? Consider looking at a target date fund glide path to get a reasonable starting point for an asset allocation that makes sense for your age.

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Who holds it doesn't matter. Pick your favorite color

Makes literally 0 difference at all

I think what you’re saying is you have a Roth IRA at Vanguard with VFIAX and you prefer to have all your funds parked at one institution which is Fidelity.

You can do a transfer of your Roth IRA from Vanguard to Fidelity. You would need to sell VFIAX in your Roth IRA in order to move from vanguard to Fidelity because VFIAX is a vanguard admiral shares S&P 500 mutual fund and Fidelity has their own version (FXAIX) There’s no tax implication if it’s a Roth IRA for just selling VFIAX.

Just make sure the transfer is Roth IRA to Roth IRA. The sale at vanguard can happen when you complete the transfer.

You can then buy VOO or VFAIX once the account transfers to Fidelity. You can do it either way. However, you just need to make sure you do NOT withdraw any funds from your Roth IRA since a withdrawal is what triggers a taxable event and a penalty.

The end result is that you’ll have all of your accounts at 1 institution which is a good thing for simplicity and easy account management but your investments don’t change since they all track the S&P 500 (VFIAX, VOO, FXAIX).

Nothing wrong with leaving it at Vanguard but this would be more of a personal preference.

There is a slight difference in fees in these 3 funds so over time there may be a difference in what you pay. I believe VFIAX .04 is a little higher than VOO .03 expense ratio. I think FXAIX is .015. It’s a small difference but overtime it adds up.

This is if your account at vanguard is a Roth IRA. If it’s a taxable account then that’s a different story.

If you want to consolidate to Fidelity, which is perfectly fine by the way, yes you should probably convert VFIAX to VOO. Or you could liquidate and use FXAIX.

Personally, I had a really bad experience with Vanguard as my brokerage. So moving things to Fidelity makes sense to me.

If this is a taxable account, have Vanguard first convert to the ETF equivalent as it's a non-taxable event. Then move the ETF to Fidelity.

VOO and VFIAX are just the mutual fund/ETF twin of each other. And Fidelity will hold VFIAX, there just might be fees for additional purchases of shares. I always prefer ETF's in taxable accounts. Much cleaner and easier to move anywhere.

Thanks everyone! Sounds like I might be overthinking this. So adding max contributions to my current Roth IRA in Vanguard (VFIAX) wouldn’t be harmful even though it’s a mutual fund? I’ve watched a lot of investing videos and the common theme is that mutual funds aren’t beneficial and eat up cost over the long run. I just don’t want to get this wrong because I’m trying to set up my family for future success.