Topic: rollover (401k, 403b, 457) to an existing Fidelity Traditional IRA account.
>>>This text is from the Fidelity site, for an online transfer form, which is then processed through Fido to the account vendor from where the money is being transferred from.....
Transfer an Account to Fidelity
Move your account from another firm quickly and efficiently. We'll help you every step of the way.
What you'll need
A statement from your current firm. You'll need your account number, type of account, and holdings.
A matching account. If you don't already have a matching Fidelity account, you can open one as part of the transfer.
Transfer Assets
The transfer will take about five days to process, and you can monitor the status with our Transfer Tracker.
>>>The next pages to begin the process are filled by user, with some drop down menu choices; but all and all, very straight forward. The account (where money is coming from) information may additionally be verified with a photo image of an account statement page. OK, cool, eh?
Called the retirement phone number, verbally indicating questions about the "auto-fill" form that we may use for performing a transfer of monies for a "rollover".
The first 3 folks had to continue to move me to someone else to discuss this situation, although I was supposedly already connected to an IRA specialist.
Persons 4 and 5 were not familiar with the online form in question; as to whether we could merely fill in the form with the required information and that the rollover would process through Fidelity. Ummmm, they're not sure.
The end statement was that we should contact the vendor from where the monies will be moved to understand there requirements. Ah, yes; we are aware of this. BUT, the "Transfer an Account to Fidelity" suggests this "fill in the blanks form" will provide the process method....... End of conversation......Thank you for your time and Good-bye.
Otherwise, since the late 1970's, excellent service, more investment choices than we will ever need, competitive pricing, excellent statements/tax doc's and an all inclusive web site that continues to evolve for the good, for the most part.
Oh, well. End of message.
Catch
Comments
Regards,
Ted
You may have misunderstood that this is not a whine; but an informational post.
The experience was disappointing, not completely bad. Not unlike some investments that do not find their full potential.
You low on coffee or whatever this morning???
Regards,
Ted
@Ted- Truer words never spoken!
Regards- OJ
Since catch mentioned "excellent statements/tax doc's", I'll just note that Fidelity adamantly refused to put official tax docs online before 2012, though their competitors did. Fidelity's online docs read (in tiny red font): This is for informational use only. This does not replace the official tax documents mailed to you.
No provider is perfect.
https://qbochat.com/1099-delivery/
The recipient (you) must be notified that "If the recipient does not consent to receive the statement electronically, a paper copy will be provided."
So no paper copy is required if you consent to electronic delivery. Thankfully. For security, environmental, and nuisance reasons.
The page cites IRS General Instructions for Certain Information Returns (i1099gi.pdf). Here's 2011's version - basically the same as 2018's. Fidelity could have provided official electronic copies then if it wanted to. As I wrote above, others were.
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/i1099gi--2011.pdf (see p. 16)
One was and continues to be ongoing maintenance, or at least a notice about maintenance that hasn't gone away for about a month, day or night.
The other was Fidelity's refusal for many years to provide official tax documents electronically (until 2012). At least these days, they've stopped mailing me paper altogether (at my request). They couldn't do that before they caught up to their competitors in providing official electronic versions.
Minor annoyances to be sure. I agree that Fidelity is one of the better online brokerages.