Recently I changed financial planners and decided to move my IRAs out of Fidelity. I had no problem transferring my traditional IRA, my husband's accounts and our joint accounts. However, I have been trying for almost 3 months to transfer my Roth out of Fidelity. I've been told that I hadn't sent in the correct paperwork or (after I sent everything they requested, again) that Fidelity had not received my faxes. I spent a jolly half-hour on hold to NFS yesterday. Has anyone else had this problem?

Fidelity is very difficult to deal with. Avoid if at all possible.

Recently I changed financial planners and decided to move my IRAs out of Fidelity. I had no problem transferring my traditional IRA, my husband's accounts and our joint accounts. However, I have been trying for almost 3 months to transfer my Roth out of Fidelity. I've been told that I hadn't sent in the correct paperwork or (after I sent everything they requested, again) that Fidelity had not received my faxes. I spent a jolly half-hour on hold to NFS yesterday. Has anyone else had this problem?

I think you are attacking this problem at the wrong end. You should be enlisting the help of your new IRA provider to get the transfer completed. When I transferred my Roth IRA from TDWaterhouse to Scottrade, I initiated all the paperwork at Scottrade. I never contacted TDWaterhouse.

IF

I was in a similar situation once.

You should contact the SEC and NASD and file an investor complaint. This was what finally worked for me.

http://www.sec.gov/complaint.shtml
[n.b. click on the "problem with a broker" link, not the "401k retirement plan" link]

https://apps.nasd.com/Investor_Information/complaints/complaintCenter.asp

Of course you should be documenting every contact you have with Fidelity, using a traceable mailing method, etc.

For more information about getting things to happen check out this board:
http://boards.fool.com/Messages.asp?bid=112920

joelxwil wrote "Fidelity is very difficult to deal with. Avoid if at all possible."


I couldn't disagree more. I've had accounts with Fidelity since 1980 - both taxable and IRA. They have been excellent to work with. If I had questions, the reps were always able to answer them. If I explained what I wanted to do, they always found a way to do it. And things that I thought might be complicated, they handled with ease.

My experiences with Vanguard, OTOH, have not always been so good. They've made some mistakes. Some serious, like the $200K that disappeared for a few days. Some potentially serious, like the exchange which the rep promised would execute on the day I specified but was actually executed several days early. His boss later informed me that he should never have told me I could specify the date of execution. Fortunately the price movement worked in my favor on that one.

Still have accounts with both firms, but if I had to choose it would be Fidelity by a wide margin.

I too have been with Fidelity for years. Generally they do very well. But its not the same as having a personal broker.

They are a large organization. They are honest. They train their people quite well, but some are a bit better than others. Sometimes it takes a bit of patience, but usually they are very helpful.

One time when I was trying to transfer my old 401k money to a new Fidelity IRA, the check got "lost" at Fidelity. Turns out it was sent to the Fidelity 401k (or institutional retirement) department, rather than the individual investors department. Maybe something to ask about, as your paperwork could have gone to the wrong department?