After retirement I transferred my IRAs from Fidelity to Ameritrade because it was easier for my CFP to use Ameritrade’s system. For three days my overall balance was less by several hundred thousands dollars. I knew why but it was unnerving.
That…is disconcerting. You would think that this sort of funds transfer happens routinely, both outgoing from the 401k company and incoming to Schwab. Certainly the Schwab folks should have known that Chase is their ‘retail’ bank.
A similar thing happened to me a year ago. I needed to wire my sister’s inheritance money to her, and she wanted it in her Ameritrade account. But the routing number was Wells Fargo and the account number didn’t belong to her. My banker had to get confirmation via the phone with somebody from Fargo before she would actually transmit the money.
I just went to Schwab’s live chat function and gave them an earful about this. They made soothing noises and promised to educate their people, but whatever.
That image works really well with your avatar. I hope you referred to them as a bunch of dribbling pukes 
.
Hell no. I told them to “Jam a bastard in it, you crap!”
BTDT. Chewed my nails.
With brokerage-brokerage asset (not cash) transfers, your stuff leaves, enters limbo (or is that a subspace wormhole?), then reappears at the destination a couple business days later.
Even if you know to expect it, it’s scary stuff. However many zeros you personally think is “a lot”, it’s that many. And it’s evaporated, maybe to reappear. It’s better if you can avoid putting a weekend in the middle. Or a holiday.
Cash is even worse. As you’ve learned.
Brokerage to brokerage transfers of stocks, bonds, etc., move through a system called ACAT. Pretty slow, but also pretty reliable. Bank-to-bank moves via “wire” or ACH. Quicker, bordering on instant, but which do not interface well to brokerages. Not at all.
In effect your 401K transfer of cash went from your employer’s 401K provider’s account to Schwab’s general fund bank account. As in their money, not yours. Which “their money” they keep at JPM. Meanwhile there’s a little sticky note attached to each transfer that says: “This $123456 really belongs to teela, not Mr. Schwab, so don’t forget to move it into her IRA number 987654”. Which works great as long as the receiving computer can read the sticky note correctly. And as long as the sticky note doesn’t fall off somehow. Both of which requirements the bank-to-bank transfer system cannot guarantee.
It’s 1950s automation and it shows.
In the last 2 years I’ve “lost” two large transfers this way: my late first wife’s life insurance payout and my recent condo sale proceeds. They both left the source bank (different banks), got to the big brand name target bank used by my brokerage, but the target bank couldn’t figure out the sticky note to stick the cash in my personal account at the brokerage. So they just kept it. Lotta zeros there. Twice.
Suitable language ensued. All’s (kinda) well that ends well, but I’m unimpressed. This stuff ought to have 10E-6 error rates. Not 0-for-2.
Well, today is 14 weeks 0 days = 98 days left for me. And several other work-related items are down to last 2 or 3 to go. I’ve already had a bunch of identifiable “lasts”. Plus the things we do routinely but randomly where I now find myself asking “Was this just now the last time I’ll do this task, stay at this hotel, talk to that person, worry about that problem?” An odd feeling to be sure. Expectant, wistful, nostalgic, and unsettling all at once.
Since retirement coincides with turning 65, the Medicare sales-a$$holes have been ringing my phone, text, and email off the now-proverbial non-existent hook. Sucks to be them.
The early returns are the summer will be insanely hectic. Which translates into vast amounts of overtime available if I want to go out in a blaze of hard-earned income. Pat of me relishes the challenge and part of me wants to laze into the sunset. Over a 34+ year career the incremental last-minute bucks don’t really matter except as a matter of principal.
My friend’s wife turned 65 a few years ago. They had people show up at their door.
My wife turned 65 last month. Nobody at the door yet. Given the layers of (IMO silly) security between the outside world and our individual front door, any SS salesman that appears here deserves a medal. I’m pretty sure when I’m done it’ll be a posthumous Purple Heart. But it will be a medal.
Thanks for the warning. I await le déluge as Louis XV had it.
We see what you did there.
Unintentional I assure you. And a spelling error! Arrgh!! 
I plead the Cabernet Sauvignon defense. It’s not quite as robust as a Chewbacca defense, but it still works.
Plead all you want. I’m giving you credit for clever.
Sorta like your “color me” in the other thread. You’re a dear. {{{Smooches.}} 
Definitely some very strong emotions there, with the risk that one can get swept up in the nostalgia and not fully appreciate all the positives: good health, financial security, and Her Ladyship at your side. So not so much the conclusion of a work life well lived as the beginning of a well-deserved life of leisure! 
As for the possibility of pulling in major $$$ during a hectic summer, I say go for it – you’ll appreciate both the comparative peace of retirement afterwards and the extra shekels!
Personally I’ve been greatly enjoying retirement, except I could have used a few more shekels in the bank!
Ha ha, I am going through that right now. It’s as if I teleported a very large sum of money and I’m waiting to see if it arrives intact at the other end.
I won’t breathe easy until Thursday at the earliest.
mmm
Me too, MMM, as you see from my saga above. The confirmation from the sending entity (my company’s 401(k)) noted it would take ten business days. That’d be this Friday that I should see it in my Schwab IRAs, but I’m biting my fingernails until then.
As LSLGuy observes, the receiving entity considers it their money until it shows up in your account, so I assume they’re farming it out for a couple of days and making interest on it.
There’s an even more terrifying part of this. Just how easy it is for Broker A to accept transfer requests from Broker B. I moved my entire retirement portfolio to a new investment group last year. The old investment company sent me one email and a single letter to my house. Then happily sent every dime to another company with no other contact. No phone calls, and no response or approvals from me. I shudder to think what could have happened with a good scammer while we were on a long vacation.
I’ve made arrangements with my “new” investment house to insure there is positive contact and explicit permission before any large transfers, or money moved outside the normal monthly distribution.
The fucking 401(k) company emailed me to say that the receiving bank rejected my rollover request. And that might be a good thing, because the email’s content seemed to say that they thought I wanted checks sent to me. This despite my specifying that it was a rollover. A long frustrating phone call later only established that a supervisor is to call me tomorrow to try to straighten this out. What a shitty place.
Ugh. Hopefully this is something as simple as the registration details between the 401k account and the IRA account not matching precisely. Or perhaps your 401k ended up with a mix of qualified and non-qualified funds that is causing issues (I have a traditional IRA that has that issue, and I am not looking forward to dealing with that eventually). Whatever the issue is, remind yourself that the time to get that shit straightened out is now. You don’t want to find out 20 years from now that you have an issue that should have been addressed today.
My mini-rant for today is that the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), the federal version of the 401k, has new web interface designed by brain dead baboons (AKA a contractor). I submitted a withdrawal request for periodic payments online, and after hitting the ‘submit’ button, well, nothing. No confirmation of my request by email, not record of my request online at the website, just… Nothing. So I got online today, and a chat agent (either a live person or a bot, I really don’t know) did confirm my withdrawal request. When I suggested that a confirmation be given, the chat agent (pretty sure it’s a bot now) sent a link to the suggestion page, which was of course a dead link.
On the other hand, OPM sent an email today that said my retirement package was finalized yesterday. That’s 37 days after OPM received it, which is extremely fast compared to what other coworkers who recently retire have experienced (6 or more months).
Just waiting for my retirement income to stabilize. With estimated taxes in April, insurance payments, upcoming estimated taxes due in two weeks, and a couple of other irregular large bills paid, I have spent a lot lately and can see why having a bit of a cash stockpile at retirement helps. I know it’s temporary, but seeing the balances drop a large amount is a bit unsettling.
Hmm. Carrying the damn check is starting to look like the less scary option. I’m sure I could have gotten the transfer done electronically, just didn’t think of it.
I’m not sure they are allowed to do that. Not saying they don’t. Mail is allowed. Email is allowed, especially if you are related to them. But door to door?
It doesn’t stop, by the way. Every year, during the sign up period, we get flooded with Medicare Advantage come ons. All go into the recycling.