Soooooo mad at Vanguard!!

[Tortoise]

Good for Vanguard. This sounds like a very reasonable safety precaution for wiring money from a brokerage. See recent thread at Bogleheads about an identity thief cleaning out an elderly man's retirement account, because the brokerage had minimal to no safeguards.

I agree with dualstow: Good point, WiseOne! I didn't think about it that way, but yes, Vanguard's conservatively secure wire process does sound like it's ultimately in the best interest of their clients.

What you need to do is transfer the money from Vanguard to your bank using ACH, then, wire from there. Wires require a setup that takes a bit of time, so it's not instant. You might be better off using "sneakernet" to get your lawyer a cashier's check, which is usually how it's done.

True. I just wish my lender would have told me at the beginning of my house-hunting process that the main fund transfers (earnest money deposit and down payment) would have to be by wire rather than ACH or personal check so that I could have planned accordingly by getting the funds ready in a bank account rather than a Vanguard money market fund. Now I will likely have to do an extra ACH transfer during escrow, thus requiring more "paper trail" paperwork for me to generate and sign for the lender in a couple of weeks. As if escrow didn't involve way too much paperwork already...

[WiseOne]

Your real estate broker and lawyer both should have warned you about that. It's not going to be that much of an extra hassle, but I know it's annoying to get surprises in an already complicated process. Good luck though!!

An alternative might be to write a check to your lawyer, let it clear, then have the lawyer wire the funds. That probably won't take much longer and might be easier for you.

Incidentally, this is why you keep an account at a full service brick and mortar bank. I don't know how people manage with only an online bank or brokerage cash management. I keep my Chase checking account alive and fee-free using paycheck direct deposit and then transfer to my online bank for day to day transactions. I even got Private Client privileges out of stashing my house down payment there temporarily. Free international wires for Perth Mint purchases!

[dualstow]

...
Maybe it's a symptom of the recent investor bloat they are seeing.

Is the investor bloat unique to Vanguard, or have you heard of it happening at other brokerages recently?

Could it have something to do with the historically low interest rates we've had in recent years, pushing people away from regular savings accounts and CDs and into brokerage accounts in search of higher returns?

I do think that has something to do with it, yes, since that channel I'm not supposed to watch (CNBC) said that a lot of people have poured money into stocks just for the dividends. This isn't recent news, more like a year ago or more.

Also, around 2010, there were reports that a significant share of millennials were afraid of the stock market. (I had to tell myself, Sure, I'm putting more money into non-stock asset classes too, but that's different. I'm like a hip pp investor, man, not a millennial ).

At some point between 2010 and now, I stopped hearing about them fearing the market, only individual stocks. They got wise and started pouring money into index funds. It was actually kind of annoying. I wanted them to be traders for some reason, even as I was advising all my friends to get into index funds and stay there. But seriously, good for them. Millennials are smart. Smarter than many give them credit for.

Regarding your first question, I'm sure other brokerages are also seeing influxes (what's the proper plural there?), but Vanguard went from 3 trillion in assets to 4 trillion. They are way ahead, even as other houses match them or even beat them in the cheapness of expense ratios.