<prompt> Human: Ok pardon my noobness on this matter. Ive been investing steadily for the past few years and have my brokerage account with USAA. I keep it fairly diversified in different institutional funds that USAA offers but I am considering moving some money into Vanguard funds because of their attractive low costs. So heres my question: Should I open a vanguard account and move some money over to it? or should I just invest directly into the fund from my existing brokerage account? My gut says opening an actual vanguard account would help avoid transaction fees but I dont know for sure since I dont have much experience with Vanguard.  <response>: The advantage is that Vanguard does not charge fees or commissions to invest in its own funds. USAA would likely charge you a pretty high commission. USAA probably has their own relationship with a different fund provider that they provide to you for no commission. If they dont you should 100 drop themSimilarly, Fidelity doesnt charge you to invest in their own funds or iShares ETFs, everything else costs between 8 and like 40 for am mutual fund, per trade.No one should ever pay a fee or commission of any kind besides ongoing fund operating expenses to invest in a mutual fund. or an ETF 