I just did this. You need to call Fidelity, not Vanguard. Fidelity probably has some forms that you need to fill out, and you should pick "direct rollover" and then just put in the info that Vanguard provided when you set up your account (I got a note in my messaging center that had the address to send a check to, account number, etc). In my case the forms from my institution had an option for them to send me the check, or for them to just send directly to Vanguard (which is the better option). If you choose for them to send you the check you need to get it to Vanguard within 60 days to avoid tax penalties.

I’ve done this a couple times and never got the direct xfer to work. Taking the check and depositing it quickly is no trouble. One other note: if you’re planning to do backdoor Roths at some point, you don’t want to have other IRAs lying around.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You want the money moved directly. Don't let anyone send you a check directly. Just call Vanguard and they'll walk you through it.

If you are liquidating and then purchasing like investments, timing doesn't really matter, except for a couple of days of market movement, since you will be buying in at about the same level as you are selling. That would be true no matter when you did it, although a case could be made that the present volatility puts you at a little more risk that normal.

Hmmm ok, I followed the online steps on Vanguard to set up an IRA and the instructions said something about getting a check (from Fidelity in this case). Fidelity also told me they couldnt do a direct transfer. I’ll try calling Vanguard next, seems like this is more difficult than it needs to be.

Fidelity is a pain when it comes to this—at least they were a few years ago. I think they only give checks, not electronic transfers. It’s a pretty big hassle, but worth it to have everything consolidated.

Watch out for fees! Check to see if you need to wait to avoid any transfer fees. My old 403b forced me to wait 5 years to avoid a 5% fee.

Anonymous wrote:You want the money moved directly. Don't let anyone send you a check directly. Just call Vanguard and they'll walk you through it.

If you are liquidating and then purchasing like investments, timing doesn't really matter, except for a couple of days of market movement, since you will be buying in at about the same level as you are selling. That would be true no matter when you did it, although a case could be made that the present volatility puts you at a little more risk that normal.

Hmmm ok, I followed the online steps on Vanguard to set up an IRA and the instructions said something about getting a check (from Fidelity in this case). Fidelity also told me they couldnt do a direct transfer. I’ll try calling Vanguard next, seems like this is more difficult than it needs to be.

You want the money moved directly. Don't let anyone send you a check directly. Just call Vanguard and they'll walk you through it.

If you are liquidating and then purchasing like investments, timing doesn't really matter, except for a couple of days of market movement, since you will be buying in at about the same level as you are selling. That would be true no matter when you did it, although a case could be made that the present volatility puts you at a little more risk that normal.

Maybe this doesn't matter, but I recently switched jobs and want to rollover my 401k into a Vanguard IRA account. With the market all up and down I don't know if I should attempt to time this a certain way? Or does it not matter so much? It's unclear to me whether I can transfer electronically or if they will send a check first for me to pass along to Vanguard.