T. Rowe Price - T. Rowe Price’s terrible Rollover process
I want to rollover my Fidelity Traditional IRA to my current 401k plan at TRP. TRP requires that incoming rollovers be done via a letter & and check made out to and mailed to me, that I must then mail to TRP. When I called Fidelity to request the check and letter, the rep I spoke to was frankly, shocked, and highly discouraged doing rollover via check and recommended I ask TRP to do a direct rollover instead. (I did, and they said no.) I am so frustrated that TRP is so outdated, and to be honest, the Fidelity rep’s reaction has made me nervous that something will go wrong. She sounded like they never do it this way anymore, and had to transfer me several times to get to someone who could confirm that they could even write a check & letter according to the specifications from TRP, and said that the request was very unusual. These people handle rollovers every day- is TRP the only one that does it this way?
I much prefer Fidelity, and the only reason I want to do this is to open up the option to make backdoor Roth contributions in the future. (The traditional IRA only exists because I rolled over my prior employer plan to it years ago before I knew what I was doing). That being said, I currently am not yet at the income limit for Roth IRA contributions, but I expect (hope) to be there in 5-10 years. I wanted to roll over now to get it over with & because I know not all plans allow an IRA to 401k (reverse) rollover, and I don’t know if I’ll be with the same company when it comes time for me to begin backdoor Roth.
Am I overthinking it in either direction? Should I just suck it up and do the indirect rollover (and not sleep for weeks until I see the funds cleared)? Or am I thinking way too far ahead about backdoor Roth and should just leave things as they are?
(Or just complain in solidarity with me that TRP is super annoying and out of date with their rollover process - has anyone else experienced this?)
Edit: I have been informed in the comments that if the check is made out to “TRP FBO my name” it is considered a direct rollover, which is great.
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