Was told I am still working!

[Clone]

Went to transfer my 403b accounts from TIAA/CREF to Fido today. The person said "No can do, our records say you are still working!" So apparently the university needs to flip a bit in their system before TIAA can proceed. The person went on to promote leaving the money in their guaranteed interest fund. They said "Have you heard what the markets are doing today? I don't know what is going on in the world, but they are way down!" I was going to say something about my YTD being up almost 24%, but decided against it and simply said- "What a catastrophe!" They paused, then went on to collect the address where they need to send the check, if and when they can confirm that I am no longer employed.

I was planning on converting some of this to my ROTH, but may need to pull from a different account. NBD. The TIAA/CREF experience was OK, but their website was sorta clunky. It will be nice to get all of the accounts consolidated at Fido.

 

[njhowie]

We had the exact same situation with DW, employer and Transamerica over the summer. Her last day of work was June 17. She received letter in US mail of termination effective July 1. Submitted forms to Transamerica on July 1. Was calling Transamerica and HR at employer every few weeks until it was finally resolved mid October! Transamerica kept telling us "Our records show she is still employed by them". We were looking at the account on Transamerica's website and after 15 years of bi-weekly hours showing, they stopped...for months - Transamerica still didn't care.

The bit that gets flipped at employer only gets transmitted to TIAA once every pay period. In our case Transamerica kept saying "We can't do anything, IRS regulations say we can't release it". At employer, HR kept assuring us it was taken care of. This is certainly not the way an outgoing employee wants to have to deal with this at such a stressful time.

Be persistent with prior employer, call HR/payroll first thing every Monday morning until it is resolved with TIAA. Take names, each time you call say "I do not want to talk with the same person as last time as he/she did not resolve it". Don't accept if they tell you "It's been done" when TIAA tells you they still can't release it. It's your money and they are holding it hostage.

 

[LOL!]

Same thing happened to my wife. She had to get the place that she had taught one adult-education class at about 15 years ago to fax TIAA a document saying she didn't work there anymore in order to get less than $200 out of an old TIAA account.

I thought it was miraculous that everybody did their jobs and faxed the forms properly filled out, so in the end it only took a few weeks to accomplish the rollover.

 

[Vacation4us]

We had the exact same situation with DW, employer and Transamerica over the summer. Her last day of work was June 17. She received letter in US mail of termination effective July 1. Submitted forms to Transamerica on July 1. Was calling Transamerica and HR at employer every few weeks until it was finally resolved mid October! Transamerica kept telling us "Our records show she is still employed by them". We were looking at the account on Transamerica's website and after 15 years of bi-weekly hours showing, they stopped...for months - Transamerica still didn't care.

The bit that gets flipped at employer only gets transmitted to TIAA once every pay period. In our case Transamerica kept saying "We can't do anything, IRS regulations say we can't release it". At employer, HR kept assuring us it was taken care of. This is certainly not the way an outgoing employee wants to have to deal with this at such a stressful time.



Be persistent with prior employer, call HR/payroll first thing every Monday morning until it is resolved with TIAA. Take names, each time you call say "I do not want to talk with the same person as last time as he/she did not resolve it". Don't accept if they tell you "It's been done" when TIAA tells you they still can't release it. It's your money and they are holding it hostage.

Memories.....

Years ago I had a Transamerica account from a prior employer. Total run around. I finally threatened to get an attorney involved amazingly my money was released the next day.

Recently rolled over an account from Fido after a QDRO no problem, 1 and done. Net, net some companies really want to keep your money no matter how small.