Last night I found out Vanguard supports converting mutual fund shares -> ETF shares online instead of having to call in, so I made a post about it.

I also noticed that their mutual fund shares pay out dividends a couple days before their ETF shares (2 days for the ones I looked at), so I wondered what would happen if I did a conversion between those two dates. For example, for VTSAX:

• record date - 12/19/2023
• reinvest date - 12/20/2023
• payable date - 12/21/2023

And VTI:

• ex-dividend date - 12/21/2023
• record date - 12/22/2023
• payable date - 12/27/2023

So my thought process is, if I converted on 12/20/2023 or 12/21/2023, I could hit the dividend twice. I'm pretty sure it would end up in a wash overall since the share price drops by the amount of the dividend on the ex-dividend date, so I'm more curious what would end up happening.

Anyone have an idea on how that works? Do you think Vanguard puts a hold on conversions when the dividend posts?