No. of Recommendations: 1
Nope, turns out all accounts with the same account type MUST have the same beneficiary designation. In other words, the second Roth in my example would inherit the same beneficiary designation as the first, so I would end up right where I started. The only way out is to set up the second Roth account at another institution. Stupid of Vanguard to provide this incentive. Anyway, beware.
That's crazy.
Etrade certainly is not like that. Each account has its own beneficiary designations. You can also check a box that says "also apply these to the following accounts [_] [_] [_]", but that's just an option.
Another reason to have accounts at multiple brokers. This is the time of year when many brokers are paying a bonus to open/move an account. (So far this year I have made $500 & $300 & $300 by judiciously moving assets to new accounts. Silly brokers have breakpoints at $25,000 and $100,000, so move $25K to 2-3 brokers instead of $75K to one.)
It is looking to me like Vanguard had a great business model 30-40 years ago, but the world has passed them by while they did not keep up.
