Vanguard

[Gerbil Wheel]

You can transfer your assets in-kind if you don't want to be out of the market.

 

[growing_older]

Did it all on the phone. The Vanguard guys will call anyone else they need into a 3 way call with you and find out the procedure and forms you need. They made it easy.

 

[jimbohoward69]

Khan,
One of the accounts (I think it was with Domini) required a Medallion guarantee which I was able to obtain from my credit union. My process took several weeks overall and went very smoothly. so far I'm likikng Vanguard and especially having all my Roth in one place. I may move a few non-IRA accounts over there eventually.

I started a Vanguard IRA transfer about 2-3 months ago (received all of the required paperwork) and Scottrade requires a Medallion guarantee. I STILL haven't found a financial institution who's willing to give me a Medallion guarantee (I'm currently with USAA...no local branches). Very frustrating to say the least...I guess I'll need to join a local NORCAL bank/credit union who offers it JUST so I can transfer the funds

 

[Orchidflower]

Khan, I had lots of things printed out from a computer (theirs) at Kinko's. I have used them for faxing, copying documents and printing things out from one of their computers.

 

[Orchidflower]

I did a load of transfers to Vgd a few years ago. If you "belong" to their flagship category (I forget how much ono deposit that takes) you get a personal mid-level manager or executive assistant type assistant to you.

I know their Voyager group is $500,000 and up, and you get the services of any of the Certified Financial Planners that answer the phone any time you want.
Regardless, Vanguard will essentially do it all for you. I just went thru it, and no work really on my part.

 

[Sue J]

I also have the Brother HL-2140. The toner cartridge life can be extended after the light goes on and even after it stops printing because it's "empty".

You take the cartridge out and put a piece of tape over the window where the printer senses how much toner is left. Here's a video that shows how to do it.

This works on many different Brother laser printers.

 

[Emeritus]

How are you transfering this fund? If the ira fund is down and you are transferring to vanguard that is high. You might lose some money. Do you have a strategy? Just curious. My mil is in the same predicament as yours.

We just transferred the whole account. No tax consequence whatever

Some items wont transfer but any that will have no tax effects. there is no sale

 

[Emeritus]

I started a Vanguard IRA transfer about 2-3 months ago (received all of the required paperwork) and Scottrade requires a Medallion guarantee. I STILL haven't found a financial institution who's willing to give me a Medallion guarantee (I'm currently with USAA...no local branches). Very frustrating to say the least...I guess I'll need to join a local NORCAL bank/credit union who offers it JUST so I can transfer the funds

Call vanguard. If you already have accounts there they can also do it.

 

[bbbamI]

Finally called Vanguard today to open an account and move my IRA to them....in psssst...Wellesley...

The concierge service was great. They got some of my info then introduced me to my own 'personal' manager. We discussed my situation; he took information then walked me through registering on the Vanguard site and printing out the forms I need to mail in.

I think Eric and I are going to get along just fine.....

 

[Martha]

One quirk you are likely to run into is the possibility that your current brokerage will require a signature guaranty on the paperwork. Bank trust departments and brokers can do these guarantees, but they are getting harder to get in some areas if you don't have a personal relationship with the bank.

When I transferred my IRA to vanguard I read the holdings to them over the phone and they said all could transfer all of them like kind, so nothing had to be sold when I wasn't necessarily ready to sell.

 

[Leonidas]

For those of us who are not in the elite customer status, and have to deal with whoever picks up the phone, it's a mixed bag on satisfaction.

DW inherited part of her father's 401(K) and opted to roll it over to an inherited IRA and keep it at Vanguard. She's a neophyte to all this, and she's been doing well on her own until she received a check from an account she thought she had closed. An unrequested and unexplained check that claims to be an RMD from the closed 401(K).

Three phone calls later and she still doesn't have an explanation that she can understand. Frustrated, the dear thing walked into my office and put us all on speakerphone with the rep. Clueless on the other end tried to convince me that it was due to IRS regs, but when I disputed that she couldn't cite the reg, told me there was nobody at Vanguard who could cite the reg, nobody above her could explain it any better than that, Vanguard in not in the business of offering tax advice, and suggested that I Google it myself.

Gee Donna, I have a real problem with this. You guys made a distribution that we didn't request, and from what I believe is the wrong account, and now I have to figure out what distributions have to be made from the remaining account. It goes against all the research I did on this at the IRS website and after talking with 6 different CPAs your explanation has me at a loss as to what my next step should be. It would be very helpful if someone could at least point me to an IRS reg or publication that Vanguard claims to be following.

I'm sorry, that's all I can say. Maybe the people at the IRA side of the house can help. Would you like me to transfer you (yet again)?

Lucky for me, the next person to pick up the phone knew that the previous answer was wrong - or at least not in accord with what the IRS required. Rather than transfer me back to the 401(K) shop, he kept us on hold until he got the right answer and then put us all on the line together while we got the explanation and answers we were looking for.

Part of the reason why DW kept this account at Vanguard was so we could give it a test drive. At this point FIDO has a much better customer service record in my accounting of things.

 

[MichaelB]

I have transferred accounts to Vanguard for myself, DW, mom, and fortunate offspring. Not all were flawless, but photocopies of transfer documents made problem solving simple and quick without exception. Even one where I had a [-]total brain fart[/-] made a mistake on the transfer document was resolved politely, correctly and without stress, and they even didn't laugh at me - at least while I was on the phone.

 

[jimbohoward69]

Call vanguard. If you already have accounts there they can also do it.

No accounts with Vanguard yet...are you saying that if I open a taxable brokerage account (which shouldn't require a medallion guarantee), they can/will take care of the medallion signature for the IRA?

 

[bbbamI]

One quirk you are likely to run into is the possibility that your current brokerage will require a signature guaranty on the paperwork. Bank trust departments and brokers can do these guarantees, but they are getting harder to get in some areas if you don't have a personal relationship with the bank.

Yep....while reviewing the forms, the possibility of a signature guarantee was mentioned. Upon investigation, the firm I'm dealing with requires one. I should be able to get this taken care of tomorrow.

Thanks for the extra heads up.

 

[Stevewc]

No accounts with Vanguard yet...are you saying that if I open a taxable brokerage account (which shouldn't require a medallion guarantee), they can/will take care of the medallion signature for the IRA?

I've never gotten involved in the medallion thinky.
You can search bogleheads.org or post a question about it over there.
I do remember some discussions about ways to handle this in the past.
Just trying to help,
Steve

 

[Emeritus]

No accounts with Vanguard yet...are you saying that if I open a taxable brokerage account (which shouldn't require a medallion guarantee), they can/will take care of the medallion signature for the IRA?

Call them