There isn't a large cost to switching brokerages and keeping the same funds (although it's a pain and some places do claw back $50 or so on the way out the door), but there could be a major cost to switching funds within your brokerage, eg. switching from SCHB to VTI. If you're not in a tax-deferred account, that switch will cause you to realize capital gains and pay a 15% tax at the moment of sale.
That's why I prefer to stick with Vanguard: like you explained, fund holders are their corporate owners and they're supremely unincentivized to perform a bait and switch. Schwab, on the other hand, could decide to raise admin fees 10 basis points tomorrow if they decided the revenue justified the increased churn.
That's why I prefer to stick with Vanguard: like you explained, fund holders are their corporate owners and they're supremely unincentivized to perform a bait and switch. Schwab, on the other hand, could decide to raise admin fees 10 basis points tomorrow if they decided the revenue justified the increased churn.