Surprise! My Schwab total bond fund just liquidated

[MichaelB]

To my surprise, I logged on to my Schwab account today and the SWLBX has been liquidated and closed, and all of my bond money is now in cash. Apparently they just closed the fund. So, check your Schwab accounts. Maybe I got an email about this, but I sure don't remember it. I just happened to check my account today or I wouldn't have known.

Now, I need a new total bond fund. It looks like the closest thing is SWAGX? There are numerous non-Schwab bond index funds as well, but with higher expense ratios. SWAGX is 0.04%, next lowest is VBMFX at 0.15%. Any suggestions? Did anyone else have this happen to them?

 

[DMFA]

Do you not have $10,000 in it? If you do, then VBTLX and FXNAX are 0.05%.

SWAGX has only been around for a couple months, since the day after they announced that SWLBX was closed to new investors and would liquidate on 8/16.

http://www.schwab.com/public/file/P-10309327

http://www.barrons.com/articles/cue-the-tiny-violins-for-these-two-schwab-funds-1492634379

[Lithium]

I have my HSA in this one.  It's even cheaper than Vanguard, by a whopping .005%

https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/fees-and-prices/316146372?type=sq-NavBar

If you don't have $10,000, I would buy an ETF like SCHZ.

[MichaelB]

I do have a fairly large amount in there, so both of those would work. They must not have shown up on the fund screener because they have a transaction fee of $50. Not a big deal on the initial buy, but I'm assuming I'll get charged that every time I buy more, correct? If so, I guess I'll go with SWAGX, even though it's a new fund. It looks like this is the one that is supposed to take the place of SWLBX.

[DMFA]

MichaelB wrote:

I do have a fairly large amount in there, so both of those would work. They must not have shown up on the fund screener because they have a transaction fee of $50. Not a big deal on the initial buy, but I’m assuming I’ll get charged that every time I buy more, correct? If so, I guess I’ll go with SWAGX, even though it’s a new fund. It looks like this is the one that is supposed to take the place of SWLBX.

Click to expand...

That is what Schwab intended for SWLBX holders to do. Do you have an account with Schwab or just hold their funds? They seem to indicate that this wasn't supposed to be a surprise...did you check the "news" portion of your account's site?

[MichaelB]

DMFA wrote:

MichaelB wrote:

I do have a fairly large amount in there, so both of those would work. They must not have shown up on the fund screener because they have a transaction fee of $50. Not a big deal on the initial buy, but I’m assuming I’ll get charged that every time I buy more, correct? If so, I guess I’ll go with SWAGX, even though it’s a new fund. It looks like this is the one that is supposed to take the place of SWLBX.

Click to expand…

That is what Schwab intended for SWLBX holders to do. Do you have an account with Schwab or just hold their funds? They seem to indicate that this wasn’t supposed to be a surprise…did you check the “news” portion of your account’s site?

Click to expand...

It's a Schwab account. I know now they put out notices, but I never saw them. Granted, I don't check my account too often. I just assumed I would have gotten an email alert or something, but I never did. When I called Schwab to find out what was going on they said they were getting a ton of calls about it. I've been very happy with them, but it's still shocking when you log into your account and see a huge transaction you didn't know about! I'm glad bonds didn't have a huge run up in the past week!

Luckily this isn't a taxable account, so no tax implications.

[Bracedoc]

I received a letter in the mail stating it would be liquidated.  I exchanged to SWAGX.