Advice please for rollover from 403b to IRA

[Tailgate]

My DW is taking ER at 58 and I plan to rollover her Hartford 403b variable annuity to a traditional IRA, avoiding a tax event and knowing we can't access it for a couple of years. Plan is to be self directed in Vanguard funds for low fees. I've been reading about Scott Burns' Couch Potato plan for 5-/50 allocation.

Any input or advice into this plan for this non-financial soul would be appreciated. I'm not sure how the process works, but Vanguard says they would assign a rep to me and help get the rollover done easily. She has about 186k in this particular account. My biggest concern is the costs involved of getting this done.

I'm going to ER at the end of the year at 62 and will rollover my 4o1k into a similar traditional IRA and begin SWD in January.

Thanks in advance...

[yakers]

Vanguard or other company will help you. DW retired 7 years ago, rolled her 403b into a VG IRA, Wellesley & Star funds. Works so much better than her rip off 403b. Retiring was one event that permitted the move, the deferred fees in her 403b caused us to leave some funds in the 403b for another 1 1/2 years before finally transferring the last bit. Hate, hate, hate most 403bs. VG has been good. When I retired 5 years ago I rolled a part of my 401k into a Wells Fargo IRA, have not done much with it, converted small amounts of it to a Roth IRA. Our Roths are in VG Balanced Index fund, which is a 60/40 fund, have been happy with it overall but thinking a 70/30 AA may be better going forward with the likelyhood of poor bond performance in the future.

[pb4uski]

My rollover was a 401k but I believe the process is the same. The key thing is to make sure the money is going from the 403b trustee to Vanguard as the IRA trustee.

In my case, my 401k plan sent me a check made payable to "Vanguard FBO pb4uski" and I then took a photocopy of the check and sent it to Vanguard along with a completed form to have it deposited to my existing IRA. Vanguard reps will help you through the process.

In my case, cost was zero.

If you're looking for a 50/50 AA then equal parts of Wellington and Wellesley would give you a ~ 50/50 AA and would be easy. Wellington is ~60/40 and Wellesley is ~40/60. I'm ~ your age and am 60/40 but there is nothing wrong with 50/50.

If you have substantial taxable and tax-deferred monies, you may want to consider tax efficiency - carrying bonds in your tax deferred account and equities in your taxable accounts. Vanguard can elaborate or you can read more about it here.

[nun]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski In my case, my 401k plan sent me a check made payable to "Vanguard FBO pb4uski" and I then took a photocopy of the check and sent it to Vanguard along with a completed form to have it deposited to my existing IRA. Vanguard reps will help you through the process.

Same thing happened when I rolled over a company 401k to Vanguard, except the check went directly to Vanguard. Just call up Vanguard and they will walk you through everything, even set up a conference call with your 403b administrator. It will cost you nothing.

[Alan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nun Same thing happened when I rolled over a company 401k to Vanguard, except the check went directly to Vanguard. Just call up Vanguard and they will walk you through everything, even set up a conference call with your 403b administrator. It will cost you nothing.

+1

Although my 401k provider would not send a check directly to VG, they insisted on sending it to me, payable to my VG account just like pb4 described.

Vanguard were very helpful and walked me through the process.