Where to roll over my wife's IRA (funds, pay, taxes)

[Chemistry_Guy]

My wife has retirement savings from three different former employers and one of them (John Hancock) is ending her plan so she needs to roll it over. We want to roll over all three accounts to start an IRA with a new institution. The total amount is about 40K, so she should meet most minimum balance requirements. Right now she is doing freelance consulting work so she does not have an employer sponsored plan. 2019 has been a very lucrative year for us so we do not want to cash out and pay taxes at the 32%+ rate.

We are looking for something that is minimal hassle, as we have very young kids and our time is very valuable right now. Anyone have experience with a Charles Schwab or Fidelity rollover IRA? Those are the ones that were recommended to me by a friend.

[athena53]

I've rolled them over to Fidelity with no issues. Very happy with Fidelity but Schwab is respectable, too. Do you have a local office of either nearby? The reason I ask is that some plans will send you a check- made out to the new brokerage, not to you, so it's not taxable- but then you need to get it to the new brokerage. (It lets the old plan hold onto your money a little longer.) Depositing it locally would be more convenient than putting it into the mail and hoping it gets there.

In general, most brokerages are VERY helpful when you ask them to get your money from another brokerage! So, you should start with a contact to Fidelity or Schwab and they'll take it from there.

[recycled]

I have rolled over two 401Ks from two different employers in the past to my own IRA accounts, and had no problems with the process or triggering any tax consequences.

After I left my first long term job of 20 years, I moved the entire 401K to a rollover IRA at my brokerage firm. I set up a new rollover IRA just for the funds from employer #1 401K. I made sure that the 401K funds were wired direct to the rollover IRA account. The funds never came to me as a check, to completely remove the risk of triggering a taxable event.

After I retired from my second long term job that also had my 401K #2, I set up rollover IRA account #2 at my brokerage firm. I had the funds wired direct from 401K #2 to rollover IRA #2 to avoid the chance of tax issues. If any tax agency ever asks where the funds in my two tax sheltered rollover IRA accounts came from, it will be very easy and clear to prove, because the funds of each IRA came from just one 401K balance.

Note, I have used Schwab, and they are excellent with local offices in many larger cities in the US.

[DonaldJTrump]

i like fidelity . the reason being it automatically parks your cash in money market in between your trades while still have instant access to use it to trade (SPAXX - right now about 1.8% APY a year, yes i know its falling, better than nothing). Whereas other brokerages i used, Etrade and Ally, the cash in investment account is not earning interest at all; so i have to actively buy into a fund, or move it into a savings account to gather interest in between my trades - and that can mean a day to transfer between accounts, which is bad if i need to trade right away. Fidelity stock trades are $5 (plus extra for ETFs). Theres a bunch of no fee ETF's Mutual funds to select from.

[rjm1cc]

Fidelity or Schwab should be easy. You can call them and I think they will do the rest. The money should not go to you but directly to your IRA broker.

Also asked about self-employment options if you think you will exceed the IRA annual max's. I think they are called self employed 401k's.

Also consider using a ROTH for future contributions

[davebarnes]

Fidelity or Vanguard or Schwab.
Low cost index fund.

Pick the one you feel most comfortable with:
telephone communications
website
local office (if they have one)

[Moonwalkr]

Call Fidelity and they will take care of it for you.