401 Rollover

[CaliforniaVA]

Hi Folks,

I'm new here, but my company's rules are I have to take out my 401 by the age of 69, and I'm turning 68 this year. Any advice for a no brainer safe place to go, thinking of Fidelity or Vanguard. Right now my 401 is in Stable Value. Thanks for any adivce!

 

[Animorph]

Either one should be good. Look at the investments each offers and use that to decide. Stable value funds are only available within 401k's I think, so you'll have a hard time replacing that wherever you go.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

I guess it goes without saying, but be careful when messing with 401k money. As you are probably aware, it's best to keep your hands off this money and let investment officers do the transfer. You can do it yourself but there are rules for doing this and it's best left to the professionals least you get tabbed for taxes and penalties.

 

[rodi]

I think what Johnnie is saying is to make sure it's a trustee-to-trustee transfer.

I've got funds at Fidelity, Schwab, and Vanguard. They are all decent, and have pros/cons.

If you're a DIYer who's focused primarily on low expense funds - Vanguard can't be beat. But the Customer Service can be less than wonderful. We had a heck of a time when my dad passed away... Schwab had much better customer service and managed to *NOT* lose the death certificate (multiple times). I think Vanguard could wallpaper their walls with copies of my dad's death certificate... we had to send so many copies.

Fidelity has some cool tools for their customers like the RIP tool. (Retirement income planner). Their customer service is good - although they did lose my marriage certificate the first time I sent it, when I was changing my name. (And certified copies get expensive if you have to send out a lot.)

 

[JOHNNIE36]

I think what Johnnie is saying is to make sure it's a trustee-to-trustee transfer.

Exactly. When I was ready to move my entire 401k from Fidelity into CD's, Fidelity was very upfront with me about the perils you can face by "doing it yourself". I have to give kudos to Fidelity for the warning. They were losing me as a customer but still watched over the entire transfer. Maybe it's because they handle all of GM's 401k money and it ended up they controlled the process because I asked them. If I ever get back into an investment where I could utilize services such as Fidelity provides, I will only use them. They have been so good to me and I feel they are this way in general.

 

[pb4uski]

Strangely, when I retired and rolled over my 401k to my tIRA, megacorp's 401k administrator insisted on sending a check to me. However, the check was made out to "Vanguard Fiduciary Trust Company FBO (my name)". FBO = for the benefit of. I just turned around and sent the check to Vanguard with the appropriate form. No problem.

 

[mickeyd]

I rolled over my 401(k) as well as my IRAs to Vanguard many years ago. Probably one of the better financial decisions that I have ever made.

 

[Alan]

Strangely, when I retired and rolled over my 401k to my tIRA, megacorp's 401k administrator insisted on sending a check to me. However, the check was made out to "Vanguard Fiduciary Trust Company FBO (my name)". FBO = for the benefit of. I just turned around and sent the check to Vanguard with the appropriate form. No problem.

Same here. The plan did not support electronic transfers or them sending a paper check to Vanguard, it had to come to me first. The chack also included the VG account number into which it was to be paid.