Chosing company for rollover IRA

[bikeknit]

December 24th was my last work day - Yeah!

The business manager at our relatively small non-profit spent a little time with me and told me that I have a 180 day window to roll my 403B money into an IRA or it will be stuck in the emplyer's plans. That seems odd to me but I was going to roll it over anyway. I essentially have two questions related to doing this.

1. I'm trying to chose between T. Rowe Price and Vanguard for the company to roll into. The bulk of the ~ $170,000 that I'll be rolling over is int T. Rowe Price (my employer changed companies a few years ago and I left my Price money there as their funds had better returns and lower expenses). I've been very happy with the help I get from Price when I have questions. Though their funds are actively managed, I've been able to match or better indexes with modest expenses. Both companies have brokerages so I could potentially buy funds from other families though with brokerage fees. TR Price has higher brokerage fees though I don't do much moving of money except an occasional rebalancing or in the even less often situation where I don't like a fund. Vanguard's advantage is that they are simply cheaper. Their funds have lower expenses and their brokerage fees are lower. I will most likely stay in mutual funds for this money. I understand them and see no reason to change into individual stocks or anything more complicated. Any thoughts on making this choice?

2. I might like to use a brokerage for mutual funds outside of either company's own funds. If I chose TR Price, to pick up additional index fund choices. For either of the companies to perhaps buy a socially responsible fund. How does that work exactly? If most of my money is in the companies funds are those exempt from brokerage fees? When does one incur a brokerage fee?

Thanks for any thoughts on this.

[easysurfer]

Congrats! I bet this Christmas felt better than the past being FIRE'd and all

When I rolled over my 401K to an IRA, the company that I w*rked for used Fidelity. I already had my individual IRA and other investments with Vanguard so I rolled over to Vanguard.

I even called Vanguard beforehand to tell them my intentions and they were helpful with the process.

[MRG]

In response to #2, most brokerage fee's are due to trading individual equities. For funds there's the fund fee(Google 'mutual fund fees'). Depending on where you put your money check out the No Transaction Fee (NTF) network. Those are free to get into another fund family.
I'll let more experienced folks tell you about TRP vs. Vanguard. T. Rowes' Lucky sure was a well equipped ram.
Best wishes,
MRG

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