How to Get Help at Vanguard

[harllee]

My husband turned 70.5 in October and did several charitable gifts (QCDs) from his Vanguard IRA. He did this all online and Vanguard sent him the checks made payable to the various charities and DH mailed the checks to the various charities at the end of October. One charity never received the check ($2000) in the mail. They have searched all over and assure us the check was never received. We assume the check was lost by the USPS (it was sent regular mail and unfortunately we did not get a tracking number, lesson learned). DH contacted Vanguard by secure email through his account and they told us the check had not been cashed and that a stop payment should be issued for the check and a new check issued and mailed to us. However, to accomplish this the email told my husband he would have to call Vanguard to authorize. Which he has tried to do. He finally got through to someone at Vanguard and they said he would have to talk to someone in the disbursements department and they would transfer him. DH has now been on hold over an hour and no one has answered in the disbursements department.

Any suggestions regarding how to get through to Vanguard and get this charitable check reissued?

One lesson learned is to never send anything important though USPS.

 

[MRG]

I'd call 15 minutes before business hours before the queue has time to build. This is tax season and everyone's volumes are at ~250% of normal.

 

[braumeister]

I do those QCDs through Fidelity and I have them send the checks directly to the charities -- no need for me to get involved.

Also, the checks are normally void after 90 days, so they should be able to just issue new ones.

 

[harllee]

I'd call 15 minutes before business hours before the queue has time to build. This is tax season and everyone's volumes are at ~250% of normal.

According to the website the phone hours are 8am to 8 pm. But I wonder if the disbursement department would be open those hours?

 

[harllee]

I do those QCDs through Fidelity and I have them send the checks directly to the charities -- no need for me to get involved.

Also, the checks are normally void after 90 days, so they should be able to just issue new ones.

But even if the checks are sent directly to the charity I assume they are sent USPS and could still get lost in the mail. In that case wouldn't you still be having to call to get a new check issued?

 

[braumeister]

But even if the checks are sent directly to the charity I assume they are sent USPS and could still get lost in the mail. In that case wouldn't you still be having to call to get a new check issued?

They notified me that the check had been cancelled after it expired. Then they issued a new one. Some charities have poorly organized offices, and they do lose things through no fault of the USPS. This has happened both with QCDs and with grants from my DAF. Very efficient. I'm surprised Vanguard doesn't behave similarly.

 

[harllee]

They notified me that the check had been cancelled after it expired. Then they issued a new one. Some charities have poorly organized offices, and they do lose things through no fault of the USPS. This has happened both with QCDs and with grants from my DAF. Very efficient. I'm surprised Vanguard doesn't behave similarly.

Ho long did it take for the check to expire? It has been about 4 months for the missing check in our case.

 

[stephenson]

One lesson learned is to never send anything important though USPS.

I've had pretty darn good service from USPS my entire life - I would be far more likely to believe the receiving organization can't account for it.

 

[harllee]

I've had pretty darn good service from USPS my entire life - I would be far more likely to believe the receiving organization can't account for it.

Maybe your USPS is better than mine. I can account for 3 pieces of mail I have not received in the last few months. In this case I trust the receiving charity much more than the USPS.

 

[bizlady]

Will this impact your RMD for 2021?

 

[harllee]

Will this impact your RMD for 2021?

Fortunately at age 70.5 DH is not required to take RMD yet but I guess it would have if he were over age 72. What it might impact is the tax we owe--he had an IRA distribution and reduced it for the charitable contributions but now we have no receipt from the one charity. Fortunately it was only $2000. He had some larger charitable contributions from his IRA and fortunately he hand delivered those, which is what we will do in the future if possible or send by Fed Ex.

 

[donheff]

Fortunately at age 70.5 DH is not required to take RMD yet but I guess it would have if he were over age 72. What it might impact is the tax we owe--he had an IRA distribution and reduced it for the charitable contributions but now we have no receipt from the one charity. Fortunately it was only $2000. He had some larger charitable contributions from his IRA and fortunately he hand delivered those, which is what we will do in the future if possible or send by Fed Ex.

I send my QCD checks at the beginning of the year to be sure everything clears by the end of the year for just this reason.

 

[teej1985]

They notified me that the check had been cancelled after it expired. Then they issued a new one. Some charities have poorly organized offices, and they do lose things through no fault of the USPS. This has happened both with QCDs and with grants from my DAF. Very efficient. I'm surprised Vanguard doesn't behave similarly.

That's interesting. Fidelity Charitable doesn't notify me if a DAF check doesn't get deposited, they just credit the funds back to my DAF.

 

[harllee]

I send my QCD checks at the beginning of the year to be sure everything clears by the end of the year for just this reason.

DH only turned 70.5 the middle of October and he ordered the QCD checks the day after he turned 70.5. He will do his QCD checks earlier this year but either hand deliver them or Fed Ex. No more sending checks in the mail for us.

 

[harllee]

Update--Finally got to talk to the correct person at Vanguard. Turns out the check to the charity had been cashed--looks like it was stolen from the mail and cashed by some thief. So now DH has to file a police report and work with the Vanguard fraud department to get the money back into DH's IRA account and a new check issued to the charity. I will start a new thread on this topic. What a mess--lesson learned-- never mail a check.

 

[braumeister]

lesson learned-- never mail a check.

I still don't understand why you don't have Vanguard mail the check directly to the charity. I've always done it that way with Fidelity.

 

[harllee]

I still don't understand why you don't have Vanguard mail the check directly to the charity. I've always done it that way with Fidelity.

Vanguard will not do that. They mail the check to the IRA holder and the IRA holder is responsible to get it to the charity. But even if Vanguard or Fidelity mails the check to the charity it can still be stolen and cashed by a thief.